This gardening season has proven to be the most challenging yet! We are in a severe drought here and several days of record setting heat. Lets not forget the wind, I have heard from several locals that this is the worst they have seen the weather here in a long time. Mother nature is "schooling" me on not having a perfect growing season, which in all honesty has brought me to tears. Our tomato plants suffered 2 weeks of transplant shock, very little rain, lots of intense wind and heat. The leaves are curled up, some plants look stunted in growth, and the tomato production is slow. We suspect some herbicide damage has occured, but what can you do when you live in an area where farming is the way of life. Our 13 yr old son, Jacob, planted sweetcorn this year and it close to being chopped down...but he is WAY too much like his mama and is holding out hope for a few ears of delicious corn. Jayden planted sunflowers, he has one that has survived the weather extreme's and grasshoppers ( I hate those things!!!). Damion has two grape-tomato plants, one is definitely doing better then the other; they are loaded with tomatoes though! My greenbeans are a bust, but I can't bring myself to giving up on them just yet. Yesterday the boys were peeking around the garden and discovered we finally have several cucumbers, and I discovered we have 20 plants. So if they produce well we will be making freezer pickles to enjoy. We have sat in our backyard several nights praying for rain, watching storms build in the evening sky only to have them move right around us. I have discovered that city water just doesn't give the garden all its nutrients, makes you wonder why humans drink the stuff!!! I have also added in some butterfly gardens, butterfly bushes and a waterlily in my rockgarden pond, they are struggling too. I have found that 'agastache' grows fairly well in my yard, it is also known as hummingbird mint. If you gently touch it you get a "minty" smell, so maybe next Spring I will add in some more varieties of it.
