Much as I love fresh from the vine ripe tomatoes and lots of glorious squash, we are in a severe drought here in No. CA and so my veg garden this year is tiny...some beans (which the deer are snacking on, so hard to say if I'll ever get any actual beans to eat), two tomatoes and two planters with zucchini...dark green and yellow. That's it.
I do have some plants that will need water like my rose bushes and perennials, but I'm helping with that by keeping a small bucket by each of my sinks and the shower to catch the water that runs as the wash water heats up. They are small enough that I can easily tote them up and down stairs as needed. I still need a bit of additional watering, but not much.
The berries have started coming into ripeness by the road as you can see from the top photo. These are the berries that come in first and I was planning on turning them, plus some local strawberries and a few non-local blueberries into some pies to take to a birthday party on Sunday, but came down with the stomach flu instead. Will probably bake a pie tomorrow or Wednesday to use up the berries...I'll post a photo when I do, and a recipe. In the meantime, here are a few photos from the garden.
The walnut tree has great looking immature nuts this year.
One of the tomato plants has its first flower.
Finally getting some morning glories, too.
We always dig water-holding polymers into the soil, so we have some overwintered lettuces and herbs remaining, but indeed, the garden is much smaller with just container versions of cucumbers, yellow squash, and beets. We have a few returning morning glories as well. Mostly we keep water for the crows and the little birds in a catchment basement from a leaky faucet and we're glad we can do that. Also have been grateful for the fog/June Gloom that has kept things reasonably cool (all that is set to change this week, of course). Hang in there. Here's to surviving this week mostly smoke-free...
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