"Just greenery and humid air"...

I'd almost despaired of my poor garden, but here I am, sitting in a quiet house, listening incredulously to the still-steady rain. A quiet house in itself is pretty good cause for incredulity (love that word), but calm rain and 78F/25C temps in the third week of July? Typically out of the question for even the most credulous.

Unlike my other 5 siblings, who grow beautiful, abundant things whenever they durn well please, I did not inherit my mother's green thumb. But I determined that this year would be My Year. This year, I would prove that certain scientific truths must prevail, regardless of thumb-color. Taking my British mother-in-law as my strength, I made the trip to Home Depot in April and purchased actual plants. Further, I planted them in the actual ground. But just a few, mind you. (Still planning ahead for mortality rates, you know.) A tomato, two squash, basil, rosemary, and some onions.

Hurdle 1: They lived for the entire month of May.
Hurdle 2: Early June brought heat and strong sun, and the things thrived. 8-l

My own naivete proved to be Hurdle 3, and that was supposing that plants which require "Full Sun" will do great no matter how much sun they get. (You know, because Full Sun means they should be in the sun. All the time. Right...?)

Not so.

Mid-June brought us consistent +100F temps, with a heat index of around 110F. (For all you Celsiu'ns, I'm not bothering to convert, because it's a temperature you'll probably never experience in your lifetime. Just think "really, unbelievably hot".) A month later, you can imagine my dismay when these (supposedly) Full Sun plants withered, shrunk, and did everything but thrive and produce...although being well-past their 60-day period till fruition.

Naturally, when daily watering and other care rendered no response, I hurried to conference with some of the Master Gardeners at church (like, the elderly organ player) and was shocked that my result is typical of everyone's about now. Huh? I'd always assumed that more heat = better tomatoes, but apparently that's not the case. Tomatoes have a hard time thriving in +95F temps, and ours have been well past that for an age already. *long Napolean breath*

A glimmer of hope shone through when, last week, the weatherman insisted we'd be seeing highs (or, lows, for this particular region of T*xas!) of 88F/31C over the weekend, and - thrilled out of my mind!! - I'd planned to make soup today. But then yesterday returned to +100F, so I watered my pitiful, nearly-dead garden once the sun relented at around 8pm, and reverted to mentally designing Madeover Leftovers for today's dinner.

My bad.

I should have gone with soup! But no worries. I'm wracking my brain for all the pent-up baking I've been putting off the last few weeks, so come this evening, the oven will be ON. And who knows? Maybe the plants will still produce. Perhaps if they can make it through August, they'll produce for me in September and October. I mean, summer doesn't end for us till at least October 1st, so...?