🌺 Unusual Veggies Rule! Welcome To My July Garden!

How's your garden doing? Here's an update on my pretty unusual veggies, as an entry for the July edition of the 🌺 SteemIt Community Garden Journal Challenge. You can still join by posting your own garden update.

The Challenge

This is the third time I'm hosting this 🌺 SteemIt Community Garden Journal Challenge, in which I invite participants to share what's going on in their garden.

This was the basic idea behind sharing a monthly update:

If we keep this up until the end of the season, you’ll have a great journal that tells the story of your garden. You’ll be able to see how your empty containers or beds turn into beautiful jungles of plants and flowers, and see your garden flourish with every month that goes by.

From past experiences, I’ve learned that such a journal feeds the feeling of accomplishment when you’re finally able to pick that first ripe tomato, or the first large zucchini.

And who doesn’t like to share his garden stories with like-minded people?

You can read all about this month's edition here

My Own Garden Update For July 2018

If I'm honest, I need to admit my vegetable garden is suffering. We haven't had a decent splash of rain in weeks, and temperatures are way higher than normal for our Belgian climate.

We can hardly keep up with watering all plants.

But the worst has yet to come... Whereas average temperatures during mid-summer should be around 25°C (77°F), the weather forecast for next week predicts temperatures up to 37 to 40°C (98 to 104°F).

Since the last decent rain fell more than a month ago, the soil is completely dried out. It is going to be a real challenge to keep everything alive.

Maybe I should have chosen to plant those tropical fruits I want so badly after all, lol.

Harvest

When going through my previous update, I can see a lot has already changed.

We've picked and eaten all our raspberries and our one and only plum.

Believe me when I say it was the most delicious plum I ever had :0)

We've also harvested most of our cabbages, our potatoes and a lot of our carrots, radishes and beetroots. Oh, how I love the feeling of going out in the garden to pick whatever you want to have for dinner that evening.

We also enjoyed our watermelon from hell, and although I thought this huge piece of fruit had used up everything the plant had in it, two new ones are growing already. On the opposite side, on another plant, I had to come up with an idea to support the plant for carrying another giant watermelon.

Note to self: watermelons are not the ideal fruit to grow vertically.

Growing Veggies

Squash / Gourd

We have different kinds of squash plants, of which most are doing pretty good. But again, just like last year, I didn't always think through where to plant them. As a result, some of the squashes are growing on the 'wrong' side of the trellis, where I can barely see them, let alone reach them.

I am a little worried about the fig leaf gourd, though. According to my information, this plant is supposed to become a real giant, and that it can grow up to 50 gourds. So far, I have only one. And although the vines keep growing very rapidly, the bottom of the stem doesn't look very healthy to me. This is the first time I am growing this kind, so I am very curious to see where it will go from here.

Root Vegetables

All root vegetables are doing fine.
Both Yacon (or Peruvian Groundapple) plants are doing good, although they aren't as big as last year's.

The Jerusalem Artichokes are related to the Yacon plant and they are a first-timer in my garden. They've already grown to be over 2 meters in height, and it won't take too long anymore before they will start growing flowers. I can't wait to see how they will look.

This year, I have two containers in which I'm growing the funny, crispy Crosne (AKA Chinese Artichoke) tubers. Just like the other root vegetables, they will not be ready to harvest until frost comes, but I can see they are going wild underground.

I planted the Skirret last year. It was not such a revelation like Yacon and Crosne were, but since it is a perennial I decided to leave it where it was and let it grow again this year. It's not really a big plant above ground, but at least it grows flowers...

Lemon Apple Cucumber

Since I sowed my lemon apple cucumber seeds too late, I wasn't expecting them to grow any fruits.

The plants are still way smaller than they should be, so you can imagine how surprised I was to see that there were actually growing a couple of those yummy, round, yellow cucumbers.

They are still only babies, but they are really there...

Melon Pear

It is going to be a good year for the melon pears. I'm very happy about that, because it is one of the most delicious fruits I have ever tasted. Last year, it took the plant until August to grow fruit, but this year I didn't have to wait that long. There are already plenty of fruits hanging from the bush. It's a bit of a shame that they take so very long to ripe...

Next up, the greenhouse update, starring more melons, sweet peppers and a truckload of tomatoes. Top of the bill: the cucamelons are finally here!
I'll also let you in on all the flowers that are blooming in my garden. Stay tuned!!

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Images source:
Sun Image: Pixabay
All other images are my own.