Hotter and even hotter!!

Today we are going for a scorching 39 degrees, followed by 40 tomorrow, so I have given up having any pots out in the yard and have rounded them up to the shade in the carport. That's one thing I have done to help with reducing stress, both on me and on the plants!! I have also constructed a mini shade house for my poor Forest Pansy tree - even though I keep it well watered and deeply mulched, its leaves are so tender and fine that they tend to collapse in the heat and get badly fried. Let's hope this will help!

Meantime the corn is loving the heat and is now about 7 feet high with 3 cobs on each plant that I can see. The capsicums are likewise developing fast and so are the chilies. The lettuces are doing well in the shade of an old apple tree and the icebergs are setting nice tight little hearts, but the radishes have bolted, again... Just picked a good feed of climbing beans - this year I am trying out the Lazy Housewife beans from Diggers - they are very tender even when you let them get a bit bigger than usual, so they seem to be a real success. The bush beans have set a heavy crop and will be picking in a few days.. yum!

So far only my Roma tomatoes are ripening, even though the Apollo and Grosse Lisse have loads of trusses. I don't particularly like Romas as a salad tomato but they are great, plonked on the BBQ with the chops - turn them once when the skin starts to really char, and they are sweet and juicy!

Wish me luck with the rest of this long hot spell...