Death Valley Days

The title of this blog entry aptly describes my feelings about this summer.  We've had almost 30 days of high temperatures over 100 degrees with very little rain and there is no relief in sight.  This is taking a toll on our garden.  Here is some mint that I had growing in a tub.

Tom has exhausted the water in his big 1500 gallon water tank in which he catches water from the garage roof.  It was full and running over this spring.  We have a well, but we have to be somewhat careful about watering from it for fear of running it too low and picking up sediment.

Our tomato plants look pretty good, but they are not producing any fruit to speak of because, even though they bloom, the blossoms will not "set fruit" and form tomatoes above 95 degrees.

Of course my basil is doing fine.  It loves hot weather, although I think it is getting a little tired of this extreme heat too. 

Most of the other herbs in the herb garden have gone dormant and probably will not start growing again until cooler weather arrives this fall.  However, I am perplexed about my parsley.  It should be producing better.  Here is a picture of what it looks like.

Even though I water it, it just sits there.  So, I rigged up a shade cloth over it thinking that if I can keep it a little cooler, then it might be happier. 

I'll keep you posted on whether or not this works.