more watering, more picking

Noah and I watered today, trying to beat the heat, as we start another heat wave with 4 days predicted to be above 90 degrees.  The water we had last week was great, but we're back to drought again, with no serious rain in the 10-day forecast.  Lucky thing we have a couple weekend team people still on board, plus our Monday team, plus our Wednesday workdays.

We did pick a bunch of green beans, two lovely lemon-apple cucumbers, two stunted lemon cucumbers (which I ate anyway, on the spot, and were just the snack I needed), and a lovely pickling cucumber.  Oh, and an actual red tomatoes.  A small brandywine tomato had escaped detection from all passersby, as well as all the folks who keep picking the tomatoes green (please, please, please let some turn red).

We were out there for a while, but people weren't very chatty today.  Usually, people stop to comment or ask questions, but today people were trying to beat the heat, I guess, or thinking about the start of school.

The eggplants are looking good.  The fruit actually is starting to look like eggplant now, which is exciting.  And the snow peas that I planted have sprouted.  I'm considering planting more, but I'm waiting for the cucumbers to definitely quit, and they don't quite seem ready to give up the ghost yet.

Rain, Rain, Rain

We had a quiet work day last Wednesday, with just me and Noah there.  We've been watering a lot lately, to try to keep the plants alive despite the drought we've been having.

I did finally come to understand why we aren't seeing many ripe tomatoes--people are picking them green to fry them.  I bumped into a woman picking some, and got reports of other people doing so, too.  Which is fine.  But I wish they'd leave some to ripen all the way, just so we could have a little bright red on the wall of green.

The eggplants are starting to develop nicely.  And the cucumbers are struggling along, despite being decimated by powdery mildew.  We've picked off a lot of crispy, powdery leaves, but really got started too late.

The good news is that the drought has given way to some serious rain.  It's rained a lot over the past two days and is likely to rain more tomorrow.  It'd be nice if it'd get spaced out a little, instead of all at once, but I think it's likely to help the plants get through the next few weeks a lot better.  Plus, the peas that I planted on Saturday should sprout a lot easier now.

Perfect Lemon-Apple Cucumber

We had a lovely night at the 200 Foot Garden tonight.  Noah and I went to work and water and were joined by Leslie and Tova, and Elizabeth and David and their two sons, Sebastian and Isaiah.  The watering went fast with so many hands, though it's clear that the plants just aren't able to produce as much as we'd like because of the drought and heat.  I wish that we were able to water more often, and am thinking about trying to make sure we can get over there every day for a week or two and see if the productivity will rise.

As we were leaving, I checked along the back of the fence and found two lemon-apple cucumbers.  This one in particular is just perfect--orange and yellow, dense but with delicate skin.  I think it'll be my lunch tomorrow.

Word Day today

We have a work day this evening at 6:30 pm at the garden (99 Kent Street).  Last week, we had a great turnout with about a dozen people (half of them children).  All those extra hands made the watering go fast.  The weather has been tough--so hot and dry--but the plants are still growing strong.  Like a lot of vegetable gardens, we're fighting powdery mildew and had to take out some of the cucumber plants.  With any luck, it won't get too bad.

We'll be picking cucumbers, green beans, and maybe some tomatoes (though tomatoes don't last long).