Garden Update

It's been uncomfortably hot the past week and today it got a lot worse: it was in the mid 70s F during the night last night and now it is (according to weather.com) 99F.  In theory it will rain a bit on Friday and that should cool things down a bit--but it will still be hot.  Everything is still alive in the yard but nothing is producing anything but a lot of leaves.  

This is a squash or pumpkin or melon of some sort.  I have no idea since I bought all the seedlings months ago and then tossed the little plastic ID sticks away because I assumed I would remember.  And I would, if it was 70F outside and not 99F.  I just like to see those little vines gripping tightly to the jute trellis net I put up--everything working exactly as it should:

I do remember that is a watermelon plant--the one with the leaves that look a bit like oak tree leaves.  While I see plenty of blossoms on the various squash plants, I see no blossoms on the watermelon--and other people online are already talking about how to tell when the watermelon is ripe enough to pick. I know Michigan had a crazy cold spring, but I am starting to feel a bit cheated.

And, yes, the ground hog has been back, reducing this squash plant to a few leafless stumps.  I see that the plant sent out new leaves immediately--that one right in the middle, almost at the bottom of the picture, appeared overnight. So far, since I have tossed around hundreds of garlic cloves, the ground hog has not eaten anything aside from this plant. I hate to wish ill upon a hapless ground hog but I really do hope it has moved on either to another garden or a garden in the great beyond.

And finally, I gave up and bought cosmos seedlings and they are doing especially well. I used to buy sachets of cosmos seeds because they are advertised as being "foolproof" for getting millions and millions of flowers.  I have never, ever had a single one produce ANYTHING.  So, finally, I broke down and bought 20 or so teeny seedlings in a tray from WoJos (a nearby mom-pop nursery that I have concluded is better than Bordines) in April or so and now I am sold: making them do the work of germinating the seeds and paying $1 per plant is the only way to go for me from now on. What's nice about these plants (if you can get them to live) is that they love heat and produce hundreds of flowers all summer long. And they take up little space so can be planted among other things like tomatos. In theory they are "self seeders" but I don't believe it.