106°, 107°, 108°- These are three contributing factors to garden production this July at the Community Garden. Although the first few days of the month were tolerable (mid to upper 90°s), things changed dramatically in a hurry. When it comes to weather conditions, there is a definite cause and effect in the garden -too much or too little rain, too hot, too cold, etc. The excessive and persistent heat over the last several weeks has worn out its welcome, and the plants are ready for this heat to make its way out of town.
Production in July has either slowed down, or in some cases even come to a screeching halt. Pepper plants are still hanging in there, although the peppers are fewer and much smaller in size than earlier in the year. The tomatoes on the plants that set fruit in the spring are now mostly gone. Zucchini and lemon squash are finished and have been removed. We do have a couple heroes in the garden though. No matter how relentless the heat is, the Armenian cucumbers keep right on rewarding us with long, crunchy cucumbers. The two fig trees are just starting to produce, and they don’t seem to be fazed by the extreme heat either. But we are keeping our fingers crossed that the birds and squirrels will not notice they’re ripening like is happening with the pears which we find scattered here and there in the garden. Okra is finally starting to bloom, and we should be harvesting soon. Fortunately it loves heat, because as July comes to a close, the extreme heat appears to be sticking around for awhile.
It’s been said that adversity which you have no control over may strike, but you DO have control over how you react and how you take action. So the plans we made in February and March were thrown out the window. Fortunately for us, Texas has two main growing seasons-spring and fall. So we get to dream and plan again like in the spring. This time we’re choosing plants like beans, squash, and cucumbers with the fewest days to harvest and then hoping and praying we don’t have an early frost. While we’re waiting to plant those, hopefully mid to latter August, we are solarizing many of the garden beds to help control the nematodes we found earlier. Indeterminate tomatoes are being pruned in hopes of getting another round of tomatoes in the fall like we did last year. So to sum it up, July found us prepping for a fall harvest. Out with the old and in with the new-hopefully soon if the weather cooperates.
Work continued on the awning which is now finished, except for the painting. Tools are neatly hung under our new awning for protection, ready to be used by our gardeners and volunteers. Minor repairs around the sink area are on the “to do” list, and several other projects are under consideration for now.
Finally, as we look forward to cooler temperatures and the possibility of production picking up in the fall, I want to thank our faithful volunteers who have stuck with us through these brutal days of excessive heat. We couldn’t do it without them.