Hot Friday. Garden pictures.

Today should be the last day of our heat advisory.  I have watered everything but it is already 80F at 7am.  I found a couple of Mohawk peppers that will be pickable in a few days and a couple of Bullnose in similar stage of development.  Nothing yet on the cayenne or lipstick peppers.

I have a few pictures you might like.  This one of the hibiscus shows the color more accurately than the last one I shared.  The damned Japanese beetles have munched on several parts.  But there are fewer of them now.  I have sprayed with a mild insecticide, drowned as many as I could, and crushed a few more.  Later, at the end of the season, I plan to move the hibiscus to one of the largest containers where the yard long beans are now.  I won't grow beans next year.  The beetles like them too much.  After a couple of years rest I may try them again.

I didn't get a very good picture of the blooming lemon squash.  They are pretty while they last--which isn't long.  The little yellow bulb at the bottom will, with luck, be a nice lemon sized and lemon yellow summer squash.  We enjoy these but I probably won't plant them next year.  They are very hard to control and require al lot of room.  You can barely see a developing tomato just to the right of the squash blossom.  One of the bloggers I usually read showed a picture of her first ripe tomatoes.  I am so jealous.

These are cypress vine blossoms.  I put them in because bees, butterflies and hummingbirds are supposed to like them.  We have seen the hummingbirds exploring them before they go for the feeder hanging nearby.  This is another plant that will be moved to a more permanent place in the largest containers.  It is a very invasive plant so I plan to spend some time pulling stray runners but I think it will be a good replacement for the blue lake pole beans which I won't be planting next year because they are a beetle magnet.

This is borage flowering with the hibiscus behind it.  This plant was an impulse addition.  I saw the seedling at the local farm market and decided to give it a try.  I may not put it in next year.  It is a large plant and I have a number of other herbs that are more useful to me.  But that is a decision for later.  I will simply enjoy it now.  The last picture below is a closer picture of the flower spike.