Weather: Currently sunny and 95 degrees; forecast 75 low 100 high.
It is getting too hot for me to spend more than a few minutes at a time in the garden, I try to accomplish whatever needs to be done before 8 am, with short forays out to move the hose around in spots that need additional watering. This morning I picked (and ate) a couple of handfuls of blackberries, along with cherry and yellow pear tomatoes and purple bush beans.
Santa Rosa plums are close to ripening. There are only a handful on each tree, and I tied small netting bags around each in the hopes that we get to eat them instead of the birds. The birds have been especially problematic this year, even attacking tomatoes, which they have never done in the past. Red Flame grapes are turning color and getting sweet, although as usual they are pretty small.
The tomatoes are disappointing this year, although we pick enough to enjoy fresh. I doubt I'll be freezing any for sauce this year. There are more cherry (Sweet 100) and yellow pear tomatoes than anything else, and I'm experimenting with slow-roasting them in the oven. (instructions here)
We're also harvesting a few zucchini and yellow squash each week, along with quite a few bush beans. I used a high dense-planting technique with the beans which helps them survive the heat, but makes for some interesting bodily contortions while harvesting. I did a fair imitation of downward-facing dog pose while trying to pick the ones in the middle of the patch this morning.
I'm working on taking out the petunia borders around our raised beds, which have gotten pretty leggy although they are still blooming, and replacing them with marigolds.
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