Hotsie Totsie

Wilted squash and bolting basil - wow - what a difference a couple of days make. It's 90 degrees at 1pm and the forecast says we'll hit 98 before the day is done. Hello Sac summer heat! Knowing we were in for a warm-up, I watered the garden thoroughly yesterday before leaving for work. I'm always careful about over-watering since I found mushrooms sprouting up under some of these butternut squash leaves.....and I know the zucchini isn't fond of too much water. The problem may simply be the temperature rather than the water level as butternut squash is more of a cool weather crop (hence the nick-name "winter squash"). For some reason I felt compelled to plant it in this summer plot and am determined to make it work.

As for the basil, I must be more diligent about snipping those bolting ends before flowers set. The plant is filling out nicely otherwise, but now I realize a daily survey is in order. I feel the need to whirl up a batch of pesto as the aroma still lingers on my fingers.

Today's bounty: more green beans (some bush beans, mostly pole beans) and the cucumber I should have picked yesterday. It grew at least 25% larger overnight! I sliced it up for lunch and though the seeds were large, they were soft and it tasted delicious on my sandwich.

This photo is of a fix-it job I performed a few days ago and am keeping my fingers crossed it works. As I was moving the branch on the right of the grape tomato plant to the inside of the cage for more support, I heard a snap. UGH! There are several flowers and fruit already setting above the break and this is my daughter's plant - she LOVES grape tomatoes. The first thing I thought of was tape - just tape it back together and it will be good as new, right? Fortunately, it's only a partial break and so far the scotch tape seems to be working. I figure as long as there are a few veins that can still carry water and nutrients up to the top, those guys have a chance.

Time will tell.