Garden in July

July is classically when my vegetable gardening goes to hell, at least since I've been living in the south. Drought, vacations, thunderstorms toppling tomato cages, rabbits - I've seen it all, and almost always in July.

We came back from our week-long trip on July 4 to find things dry but not dead, except for the 4 cucumber plants in the front garden. Since then I've had a small but steady bean crop, and a trickle of cherry tomatoes. It hasn't rained much, and has been hot and low-humidity, and I've watered some but not as much as I probably should have (we are under some watering restrictions because of recent drought, but they allow any watering at all from midnight to 10am on Tuesdays and Thursdays for our address, and hand-watering on the weekend, I forget which day.)

It wasn't drought that killed this tomato (one of my heirlooms, either a Cherokee Purple or a Brandywine, I can't remember which.) No, somebody has chewed the stem in half at the base. I think a squirrel.



The same somebody has also picked and 1/4 eaten one of my very green tomatoes:


In positive news, we have vigorous watermelons and cantaloupes, the former maybe starting to flower; beans, as mentioned, though they want more water than they're getting; the remaining cucumbers doing another round of flowering; and basil, of course. I do hope we'll get SOME more tomatoes.