Garden Update: Middle of July

It has been a hot, dry summer so far in Virginia.  We had record breaking heat for the first part of July with 10+ days over 95 degrees.  Add in the humidity, and the kids and I have been staying inside more than usual.  Our garden is fading a little without great rainfall.  We do water, but it doesn’t compare to a good drenching rain.

Here are how things stand.

The tomatoes are all green still, but are going gangbusters:

We haven’t had the heart to tell our four year-old that the single corn plant he grew from seed at school won’t yield anything because it has nothing to pollinate it.

The okra has turned into an amazing purple and green forest, and is just beginning to yield.  Okra gets a bad rap, but is absolutely amazing roasted with olive oil and salt.

The potatoes have all just about died, and it turns out animals have been eating them underground.  They produced a good crop, I think, though we’ve only dug a few of them up so far.  If you want half-eaten potatoes, come to our house!

The flowers in the garden are beautiful and the sunflowers are getting to be enormous.

The squash is really sad and dying.

The sweet potatoes are doing alright:

The pepper plants haven’t done much of anything (somehow peppers never work in our garden!):

And the beans are still going strong.