Gardening in summer heat

From previous seasons, I know that my enthusiasm for gardening decreases as the summer heat and humidity increases. The exciting days of planting are gone until the fall,and the routine tasks of weeding and disease prevention multiply with the rising heat index. Time to get out the sketch book, and try to capture those little pieces of beauty in the garden like the blossoms, the tendrils.This encourages me to keep the garden relatively neat in the heat. That, and a small glass of wine!

What do vacations do to a garden?

Taking a summer vacation can be a risky business for gardeners. Ours was last week, and the before-travel preparations seemed to have worked  fairly well. I placed layers of newspaper around all the tomato plants to keep weeds out: a complete success. I should have done between the rows too! The automatic sprinkler kept the garden happy through a weather hot spell. I was glad to see that the tomatoes, peppers,cucumbers, and melons all have blossoms & I can't wait for the fruit. The insecticidal soap I used seems to have worked for the most part; some of the tomatoes have damage on their lower branches which I will have to look at more closely and try to treat. The herb garden is completely overtaken with weeds,the result I fear of neglecting to mulch as I should have. And my front yards flower beds look (as my daughter eagerly pointed out) like a suburban jungle. But at least everything is GROWING. Hurray!