Cantaloupe Flowers

I guess the cantaloupe likes the care it's getting.  There were two new flowers this morning and the leaves are getting nice and full.  I'll have to keep an eye on it and make sure it's wattered well.  The 4 o'clocks are perking up as well.
We'll be topping the temperature hump in the next few weeks and the plants will be ready for a quick sprint of growing.  In preperatoin I still need to wrap the tomato plants around so the stems can root and provide a larger nutrient base for growth and pluck more basil flowers off to keep them happy and growing.  They've been real troopers in this heat.  If I can keep them up then we'll have plenty for a nice italian dinner using fresh tomato and basil.  Mmmmm.  Maybe even a fruit salad with cantaloupe on the side.

Heat in the garden

I have done some light weeding in the side bed and it's already taking a toll on the plants.  The 4 o'clocks really don't like the heat on the ground and are showing it by having wilty leaves.  I have since put some of the dried weeds back on top to give it some shade and hopefully keep the heat off a little better.  It's a hard battle in DFW between weeds and mulching in the heat which always comes and eventually leaves it's mark on crops.
I have watered enough to keep the cantaloupe plant happy and growing.  There's even a new shoot producing nice size leaves.  If it keeps up I hope to have more cantaloupes in the fall. One of the cats loves them.
I found wasps trying to stay cool as well by making a nest on my rose bush.I haven't gotten it out entirely yet but also don't want to be stung.  I'll try again today and see how far I can get.

Wonderful Weeds

The heat is up and all of my plants are growing like, uh well, weeds.  All thanks to the actual weeds growing in among the plants  The four o' clocks especially are blooming in the morning. By this time they are usually just hanging on and waiting for September to roll around.
The cantaloupe plant has started growing again after fruiting and I hope to see new flowers soon for a possible fall crop.
The tomatoes in the back are a healthy green with many flowers. Trying to pollinate early in the morning before the heat rises in hopes of having more tomatoes.  Not much of a crop yet this year.
Planted some leek bottoms which are already double the size they started out as and are still very healthy looking. Hopefully they'll keep it up and we'll have leeks available all year.

It's 4 O'clock Somewhere

It's four o'clock somewhere and that's exactly what these flowers believe too. These pictures were taken around 6:30. I have to say they were on their way out at this point but that's a long happy hour if you ask me.

Strangled

It seems to be a death match between the hops and 4 o'clocks. Unfortunately the hops is a sure looser unless I assist it. Only a few days ago the 4 o'clocks were winding around in the background and this morning I had to remove the strangle hold it had on the hops. I also uprooted several 4 o'clocks just to make sure they didn't try it again before I got home to implement a more permanent solution. They're still climbing the drain pipe nicely and may have to uproot most of them so that the hops can have plenty of breathing room.
There also seems to be another vine plant coming up near the far right hops plant that looks similar. It might just be another hops vine coming up with the leaves slightly different.
The hops plant on the far left still hasn't emerged and may never emerge. I did split that one off of one of the larger roots so everything I bought has sprouted and it will put off more roots next year.

4 O'Clocks

We have some 4 O'Clocks flowering in the morning instead of at 4. This really shouldn't be a cause for concern but it would be really cool if I could get some flowers blooming like, and this isn't a pun.. ok it is, clockwork.
I know it's probably been done by plenty of people but I've never heard of or seen it done where a clock is made up of flowers that bloom in succession at the different hours. A real vegative biological clock. Ok maybe it would be a bocanical clock, whatever.
I remember my grandfather on my mom's side waiting until the wee hours for his night blooming flower to open. I really don't remember what it was except that it was a vine and it had a huge bloom on it. I was about 6 years old at the time so the hugeness could very well be relative to my size at the time. I can remember their cat seeming huge too. The claws on that thing were the most memorable since I got a closeup look at them one day after loosing a staring contest with it.
Well, clock or no clock they're still not flowering on "time".