WHEN WILL THE NIGHTS GET COOLER?

Not for some time, I'm sure.

For weeks on end the garden has been subjected to temperatures in the 90s and that wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that night time temperatures do not drop below 75degrees. That makes all the difference in how plants tolerate the heat.

Tomatoes stop producing fruit once the night time temperatures stay above 70. At least most plants. My Celebrity, Peach and Romas have finished production. The cherries do a little better and my yellow pear and juliets are still producing. The Juliet was a seedling growing in the gravel which I found a new home for in the vegetable garden. It is a prolific producer of small fruits with a somewhat sharper taste than the larger fruited tomatoes. When I have an odd assortment of tomatoes, misshapen or requiring some parts to be cut away, even green ones, I have a great recipe.

Saute some onions and garlic until soft. Add the cut up tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Pour into a casserole and add chopped mozzarella, basil. Season and grate parmesan cheese over the top. Bake 20 minutes until cheese in brown. Great dish to have with fish or meats.

If the tomatoes shun the hot nights then this little plant is quite the opposite. It doesn't even want to open its flowers until later in the day when the sun is beating down with all its ferocity. Afraid that it would not be hardy in our winters I took cuttings in the fall and kept them alive over the winter, replanting them when danger of frost had passed. The plant sulked for the longest time until conditions were to its suiting. The time has come. It is vibrant pink like the portulacas but the leaf is small. Anyone know its name?

I always buy a couple of 4" pots of portulaca, Portulaca grandiflora. That is all you need because they are so easy to root. Just break off a stem and stick it in a pot in a sheltered spot until it roots and then plant. Notice the competing wine cup among the pink portulacas.

The difference between these plants and the first one is , these open their flowers as soon as the sun comes up and the other creeper opens its flowers as the portulaca is closing.

Here is another member of the portulaca family, shaggy portulaca, Portulaca pilosa. It appeared in the gravel and opened its flowers this week. It is native to texas and will cover the ground with a rosy mat of flowers. It seeds easily, hence its appearance in my garden this year.

I won't give a mention to that other purslane, the weedy one, which doesn't ever produce a visible flower but manages millions of seeds. Plenty of that over here.