The Garden vs The Arizona Heat

This time last year, I about gave up on my garden. The heat was just too much and my plants were starting to wilt. This year I’m not giving up so easily. I’m fighting for my garden, even in this 110 degree weather.

Of course, we have had some casualties along the way…

For every tomato that survives, I’m finding more and more that are cracking. Even the shade system isn’t working well anymore (of course it didn’t help that while we were on vacation that it fell over!) But I’m continue to water to keep the plants moist by increasing the number of watering each day (at 3 watering intervals now). And the good news is that new tomatoes are still growing.

My cherry tomatoes are still producing and except for an occasional bird- we haven’t lost too many of them. I honestly think that the new puppy has helped keep the birds away this year!

Many of my plants are starting to burn, like the zucchini pictured here. And even though I haven’t picked any new zucchini this week, there are several new buds growing so the plant isn’t giving up in this heat either.

I did lose my cilantro- it just didn’t seem to handle the heat as well. Or maybe I just never figured out exactly what it needed. I thought I was about to loose my basil (pictured above) – but it has started to perk back up.  It is burning in places, but there is plenty of green surviving plant underneath.

And my biggest surprise? The eggplant is still doing well! I really didn’t know what to expect with this one since it is my first time growing it…but you can see that I have 2 good sized eggplants still growing.

Now, it’s your turn, what surprises are you finding in your garden? What is growing and starting to produce? What are your challenges? Pests? Heat? If you have a blog, link up your blog post with Mr.Linky. If not, leave a comment- I’d love to hear how your garden is growing!

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Tagged as: Gardening