We're Havin' a Heatwave

The hot days just keep coming and coming and coming.  It was 102 degrees in the afternoon today.  The grass is gone and many of our plants are dry, limp and confused.  The daisies are surging through their lifespan and some plants have just given up and gone dormant.  The Stokes asters are history for this year, the snap dragons are all but gone, the hydrangeas look dreadful and the inpatients are struggling.  Surprisingly, all the containers are doing well, maybe because it is easier to keep them hydrated.
The tomatoes are the other big exception.  The plants are covered with fruit and they are about to ripen.  Several are beginning to blush.  We will have a Cherokee Purple by the end of the week.  Tomatoes will show heat stress eventually, but right now they seem to be doing well. It looks like we are going to have a huge crop all at once and then a steady crop after that happens.  Last summer I put up tomatoes every other day.  I may have to increase that schedule this year.  Unfortunately for Tim, I will be in Indonesia from July 27th until August 11th.  This will be prime tomato time and he will be the prime tomato processor.  I'm sure he will develop vast improvements over my system and I will have lost my job by the time I get home.  I think I will be able to deal with that.

The exterior of the new addition is finished.  We are thrilled at the way it is turning out.  We are also delighted that not one leaf of one plant was harmed.  Some of the carpenters were lusting after the tomatoes last week.  I promised to make sure they got some when they were ripe.    I think the second best thing about a good yield is being able to give part away.  Nothing is more appreciated in mid-summer  than a fresh tomato or a basket of beans. 

A few years back, our daughter spent her summer working at a summer theater in Massachusetts.  She left before the sugarsnap peas were ripe.  I didn't want her to miss that special pleasure, so I sent her a big of sugarsnaps by overnight express when they were ready.  I wish I could take fresh tomatoes to Indonesia with me.  Polly and Max did move into a new house with a patch of yard,  and she is looking forward to growing her own produce.  When she lived in Boston, she grew a variety of  flowers and vegetables on her third large floor deck.   I think once someone has been exposed to the practice of gardening, it just becomes part of one's being.