We’re Hot to Grow
A mightily impressive heatwave recently set upon the eastern USA. Many cities hit high temperature records. Every news outlet reminded residents to drink water, stay out of the sun during mid-day, and check on neighbors. Our town even moved trash collection times to keep our sanitation crews out of the worst part of the heat.
High heat can be really tough on plants. The Food It Yourself garden did okay, though. Today was significantly cooler, so I got a few pictures of the progress the 2025 Food It Yourself garden is making.
I have grown “everbearing” varieties of strawberry, but I have only ever gotten continuous production from Alpine strawberries. Mine are in part shade, which I think helped them survive the heat. The string beans are still small, but they have flowers forming. My herbs are doing just fine. I picked a few snow peas today. I am not sure if the peas will recover from the heat. They are called “snow peas” because they like cooler temperatures. Time will tell.
In case nobody told you when we were under The Heat Dome, I will tell you now: tomatoes like the heat. If you live in New England, someone definitely said that to you. There are a few flowers popping up on the Romas. The rest are looking healthy, so I remain hopeful and dream of tomato sandwiches. I think the rain we had before the heat, coupled with deep planting, kept the plants from wilting. Someone remind me this weekend to tie the plants up to their stakes, please and thank you.
I was especially worried about my cucumbers. Last year my cukes were wiped out by a heat wave just as they were starting to produce. I think they are young enough to recover this year, though. It is still early, but I should probably take stock of my jars in preparation for pickle making.
Things got complicated with the other squashes. Most of the zucchini sprouted and are doing just fine. A few yellow squash sprouted, most did not. I could not locate the packet of yellow squash seeds, so I planted some acorn squash. I then found the yellow squash seeds and planted some of them because the acorn squash had not sprouted. Now some squashy-looking things are sprouting and I am not sure what they are. I look forward to the surprise.
The front-yard pumpkins are growing quickly. With a little luck and some cucumber beetle traps, my walkway is going to look quite sincere in a few months. Remind me to put the beetle traps out this weekend.
Speaking of surprises- check out this volunteer plant I found growing by the garage. The red fuzz on the stem is quite charming. A reverse image search on the interweb identified it as a “vine”. A friend who is an excellent plant identifier said it looks like a kiwifruit vine. Mr. Food It Yourself and I decided the best thing to to do is let it grow and see what happens. If you have any other ideas what this could be, please let me know if the comments.
Extreme weather calls for extra effort from food growers, both professional and hobbyist. I gave all the plants extra water on the hottest days to keep them from getting over-stressed. (I was always told not to water plants at mid-day because the water droplets would act like lenses and burn the leaves. I do not know if that is true. If you can confirm or refute, please drop your wisdom in the comments section.) I did not disturb the dirt to maintain moisture under the surface. I gave everything a spritz with insecticidal soap because bugs like heat and humidity even more than tomatoes do. Most importantly, I did these things early in the day or in the evening. Caring for plants is important, but caring for yourself is much, much importanter. Be safe when the temperatures climb, DIYeters!
How is your garden doing? Share in the comments!
