The Garden

The garden hasn't produced as well as I had hoped for. The heat and humidity in coastal Louisiana can be oppressive during July and August. Since Byron couldn't build the raised beds until he had time, some of my plantings were a little late.

There are plenty of pickling cucumbers, jalapenos, Cheyenne peppers, and the Patti pan squash have just started producing. A few figs are ripening as well. My yellow squash and zucchini plants look wonderful, but the fruit rots when it is small. Any suggestions? Very few of the okra plants survived while I was gone,the ones that did look fine, but the bell pepper plants are loaded. The cushaw, pumpkin, water melon and heirloom melon vines look fine and are setting small fruit. My poor tomatoes are another story. They started out well and then pftttt... My sister Monique's tomatoes on the other hand look like miracle grow stories-I'm jealous!!!!

Speaking of my sister, I visited her in Maryland on our trip and had a blast. Here is a picture of her adorable front entrance. She has a beautiful farm style house surrounded with porches and decks on a nice size piece of land. Perfect for permaculture.
This is a new project we worked on in her front yard. All around the new vessel we planted fast growing tropicals. She'll change the plantings in this area yearly to reflect her current mood. We also replanted some struggling hostas in an area that will hopefully be a better home for them. It was impressive to view all the colorful flowers blooming the further north we went. Plants really do have to be bullet proof to survive the scorching heat and humidity in New Orleans. I was in flower heaven and arrived home to have my inspiration popped by the heat, but Fall's coming!!!! Anyway, I have to finish pulling all the grass that grew up in my garden while I was away.