Spring 2014 Garden Diary, Post 25

A few things still growing out there, despite the heat (or maybe because of it!)  These Porter tomatoes are still going strong.  The large cherry tomato and the Better Boy are still looking good, but the San Marzano and the Mortgage Lifter are looking stressed.  I'm keeping them watered and the rain the other day really helped.

 I'm starting to see some of the bottle gourds, seeds that I saved from some I grew several years ago. This one is about the size of a softball.....

 ...and there are several little ones coming on here, too!

And those Guarijio Frijol Gamuza black-eyed peas have finally started to bloom!

 Here's a cucumber, finally.  This is the second batch of cucumber seeds that I planted after the first one's were dug up by the armadillo.  So late, but I'm happy to get whatever I can.  They are in the same bed as the peppers, so luckily I can water them all together.  Most of the beds are completely empty and everything in them has been pulled up.

These are the Big Jim peppers, one of these plants has just been a big producer, the other three not so much.  Supposedly they are fairly mild, and we're planning some poppers with these soon.  So far we've harvested about 1-1/2 pounds of peppers, not a great year.  I'll cut these back in August sometime and re-mulch and fertilize them for fall and hope they do better then.

 All of the Castor Bean trees have drying seed pods on them.  The plants still look great, very tropical.

That Litchi Tomato plant has reawakened! It seems to LOVE the heat, and it is growing again, lots of little tomatoes on it.  It's a real conversation piece.  I wish I had planted this one in the ground, though, I think the pot is keeping it from realizing its full potential.

And the morning glories are just beautiful every morning.  I really love looking out the porch and seeing them at the edge of the lawn.