Fenton Friday: Lovely Lisianthus

This week the intense heat was back and we had hardly any rain. Now we are experiencing extremely poor air quality due to smoke blowing in from the Canadian wildfires. I'm praying for rains this weekend to clear out the air and for the gardens. The smoke haze cannot be good for our plants, which are already suffering greatly from the drought and record heat waves.

I cut blooms from the Dahlias and the Lisianthus (pictured above).

We weeded and watered a bit -- and picked a few Blackberries.

The Squash vines are flowering, so I expect to see them developing soon. The Eggplant and Tomatoes all have lots of blossoms on them. As soon as the temps go back to normal, we should have fruit development on both.

And speaking of Tomatoes, when I eft last week to go tour gardens in Buffalo, NY, there was one nice-sized tomato starting to ripen on the 'Fourth of July' plant. When I got back, it was gone -- not rotting on the ground nor bitten and left behind -- just gone. I suspect a hungry critter took it (maybe of the human kind?).

For the Pollinator Strip, we are still waiting on germination of the second batch of Nasturtium seeds and Celosia seeds that we planted last week. The Sunflowers and Marigolds are blooming well. The Zinnias still need a few weeks.

I finally got the Pepper seedlings planted! They are a sweet Cayenne variety and a 'Calabrian' one.

Everything else is coming along well. 

What are you growing and harvesting in your garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 15th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton"  into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).