I planted 8 plantngs of green snap beans. The first planting was Strike. They are tender and this vaiety is a keeper. The second was Provider. This variety did not produce heavily at any time, but is healthy and keeps bearing. The third planting is Accelerater. It is ok. The fourth is Derby. I like this one. It has very nice beans and is a keeper. I have Derby and Strike comig on later. I wanted Florence, but the seed was intercepted at the US/Canadian border.

There is an interestig thread on Vegetable Gardening about how to know when to pick watermelons when ripe. I have raised them many, many years and for most varieties it is pretty simple for the home gardener who can closely moniter them.

Sweetheart is productive and maybe 80% as good as Raspa. Charlene is pretty good for a change up.

It's another heat advisory day today. The middle of next week things should improve.

We were hit again around 3am by another big storm. I brought up the radar and it was a duplicate of the isolated storm from 2 days ago, it popped up right over us but just 1/2 inch of rain this time and no wind damage. HOT again today with dripping humidity as that rain evaporates. The fall tomatoes are setting good looking fruits now despite the heat, jiggling the plants in the early morning "coolness" must help them pollinate ok. A tropical disturbance may head up the coast in the coming days which should give Va more rainfall.

Picked another 5 watermelons this morning, recent daily rains have plumped them up nicely and new melons are shaping up. Cindy from your past posts it sounded like you're still rather dry up there so hope Debby shares some of her mositure for you. We have enough down here right now but Debby looks very wet and slow moving and they still are uncertain of her future path. You gardeners south of us look to get the brunt of Debby with some predictions saying 30 inches in certain areas of the Carolinas. Keep an eye on the sky....and on the weather channel too!

Yeah the weather forecast stated you might get 4-5 inches on Thursday Cindy

STay safe and dry everyone. Here it's projected to be in the 70s and rain tonight and tomorrow, around an inch. Perfect garden weather, for the garden and the weeds in it. I just picked the first ripe tomato last week, and peppers are coming along nicely. I'm just starting to get tassels on the sweet corn and the cucumbers are pretty much done, I think.

Annie

We are in disparate need of rain, RD.

I hope you get it Cindy. We got 5 inches last week and could still use more

So much for the temps cooling down-102 degrees today-100s forecast for the rest of the week too

Looks like we might get some rain from Debby on Friday.

We got lucky with a total of 1.25" of rain from Debby down here near Richmond which is a perfect amount. Cindy you should have gotten more rain up there and it's just in time to tap down any wild fire threat in your drought stricken part of NW Va. Hope this is the only tropical weather we'll see but the hurricane season has only started to gear up. Time now to start planning for the fall crops, will keep it smaller this time around with just carrots, turnips, collards, broccoli, and a few cabbages. A nice stretch of mid-80's is predicted for next week.

We had about 1.5" so far of very badly needed rain, vgkg.

Congratulations Cindy and Vgkg, glad y’all got some rain

Hail damage

Vgkg, this is that banana tree that was frozen down to a 2 inch piece of dead looking vegetation-that is an 8ft fence and the wire above it is about another 7ft

Today I picked the first ears from corn plot #4 which is the final plot. Corn plot #3 was somewhat of a bust do to deer chewing the new silks off of the ears, arrrrg. I normally have chicken wire on the ground to deter the deer from getting too close (they hate stepping on it) but when I mowed the grass I forget to put the wire back in place so the deer took advantage of it that night.

The watermelons are doing well thanks to Debby's rain, one did split open but several new melons are coming along nicely. Also started prepping new rows for the upcoming fall crops which will be planted in about 2 weeks. The late tomatoes are looking good and the late cukes may give us 1 soon. The Sweet Potato vines are very healthy so I hope to have a good harvest from the mother plants starting around early Sept. Temps will be in the mid 80's and dry weather is predicted for this coming week. Another tropical system is brewing out there so gotta keep an eye on that too.

Finally got some rain last night, yay! Happy to see all the plants perked up this morning. Basil is doing extremely well in this summer weather. Heres a pic of the basil next to a new to me variety of peppers I am growing this year, Feher Ozon Paprika Peppers.

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Well I got all of the fall crops planted > carrots, collards, turnips, cabbages, and broccoli. Also yanked out all of the early tomato plants, they were mostly shot and the small green tomatoes would not have made it before the plants died out. The late tomato plants should kick in late next week with their first ripe tomatoes, The late cukes are doing well so far too and are setting them by the day.

Keeping a close eye on the sweet potato plants and the mother hills will be dug up by Labor Day. The pears are looking great and it'll be another banner year for pears, will start picking those around Sept 10th (from last year's calendar). The watermelons are also done, a poor year compared to recent years but my favorite top 2 varieties are no longer available. Hope to post some pics soon...

vgkg, sounds like your garden is coming along nicely! What two varieties of watermelon are your favorite? Hope you were previously able to save some seeds. Looking forward to seeing your pics!

My pink banana squash is spreading out nicely over the fence and i see flowers starting to come out. Hope to have some squash on the vines soon! I started seeds for some acorn squash recently, i think table queen. Some older seeds i had. Only one sprout so far. I also bought a pack of cream of the crop acorn squash seeds too while we were at Lowes so got those started. Never tried that variety, hope its good!

Thanks Sharon, here's some pics from today,,,,,,,,

I had to shade the broccoli & cabbage transplants, too hot outside.

One of the late tomato plants....

,,,and a few more...

Late Cucumbers......

more to follow.......

....continued....

Sweet potatoes...

Below my back field is dormant so I planted just 2 leftover Sweet Potato slips in it and they took off. I covered this plot with 6" of pine needles last fall to shut it down and prevent weeds and that is working good. It will be interesting to see if any SPs formed under the pine needles. Will dig up these before 1st frost.

One of 3 pear trees, should be ready to pick by Sept 10th or so.

The carrots, collards, and turnips haven't popped up yet. Temp will get near 100F on Weds so I'll have to baby my cabbage and broccoli transplants with shade for a while longer.

vgkg, I'm envious of those pears. I have three pear trees that I planted seven years ago and haven't gotten a single pear. One gets blossoms, but the others do not, so no pollination. (sigh) Maybe next year. I did get plums on my little plum tree, I think that's three years old, but some insect just devastated those, I'll make sure to spray next year but I wasn't sure that the cost in spray would be worth those 16 plums, LOL. The peach trees and apple trees are loaded, though, so I'll survive. (grin)

I'm disappointed in my corn. I planted some Mirai, got about 50% germination, replanted and got a few more. The plants are, I swear, 8 feet tall or taller. I had to reach over my head to get the first ripe ear yesterday. We had it for supper and it tastes like field corn, it's definitely not Mirai, which I kind of figured out when it got so tall. And that's what you get when you order seeds online from a company you don't know anything about. Ugh. I'm going to let it go and see if it becomes grinding corn. If not, the cows will be very, very happy. (sigh)

Meanwhile I'm shelling beans. We've finished with the cranberry beans and kidney beans, started nicely on the cannellini and the crowder peas. The pole beans aren't ready yet, but I have Scarlet Runner, Christmas Lima, Nonna Agnes' Blue, Trail of Tears, Rattlesnake, Turkey Craw, Mayflower and my favorite, Good Mother Stallard. Yeah, my husband really likes beans and we have them two or three times a week, LOL.

Annie

Oh Sharon, I forgot to answer your question above. My past 2 fav melons were Gold Strike & Raspa, both of which are no longer available thru Willhite Seeds and I cannot find them anywhere. So this season I planted Jubilee, Orange Tendersweet, and All Sweet. The only one which was really good, sweet, and juicy was Jubilee, but I only got 2 nice ones so not very productive. I don't think All Sweet produced any melons that were noticeable and the Orange Tendersweet was not that sweet, plus those would split open after a moderate rain, lost several of them that way and they were not ripe yet either.

I'll keep trying out other varieties next year but in the past I had no luck with either Crimson Sweet nor Sugar Baby, here's a pic of one of the 2 Jubilees, they were Fantastic and Huge, but just got 2, one per vine. Almost got a hernia picking this baby...

PS Sharon, my 3 pear trees range from 10-15 years old and are 2 Bartletts and 1 Keifer. I planted a Seckel Pear tree about 4 years ago and it set 4 pears this year, 3 of which did not make it so I have 1 nice one covered in netting to keep the squirrels at bay, so far so good. I also planted a 5th pear tree this year called Pineapple, not sure what to expect but it will be a few years yet.

I cut a Charlene watermelon today...38½ pouunds. This plant made a very good first melon and then set on this second one.

Green beans are doing great. Late potatoes looking good...planted July 6th and 8th. These late potatoes don't sprout during fall and winter storage.

I started on number 6 planting of corn...Incredible...excellent.