It is like an oven in Alabama

It is 7pm as I write this and it is 95 degrees and feels like 101 in Birmingham, Alabama. I only go out to water and then immediately get back inside. My garden has all but stopped producing. Still getting some cucumber here and there if I beat the worms to them. Had a nice couple of weeks of getting a good supply of ripe tomatoes to eat and then bam! it just stopped. I do have some green tomatoes on some vines, but then some varieties have nothing (mainly the hierlooms). I want to get out and plant some fall harvesting things, but I am not sure how or when. It is over 80 degrees before the sun comes up!

CPN

I feel for you. I can handle the heat during the day but it is brutal when it doesn't cool off at night. This, too, shall pass.

UGH! I am so sorry. We had weather like that for 3 weeks. Bleck! I bet the plants need lots and lots of water. Hang in there.

I feel for you.. we used to live up there in Irondale and it is truly miserable in summer, no breeze or anything..

I feel your pain! I'm south of you, just over the Florida line (zone 8a) and it's 95* as I type, slightly cloudy today...it was 100* yesterday. Nothing is growing very well right now...even the hot weather plants like okra. The Homestead tomatoes are about the size of tennis balls and most of the leaves are green, but they don't seem to be growing at all right now. My cucumbers are doing better than the others, but even they have yellow leaves from the constant oppressive heat.

Your state extension agency is a good source for info to help you decide what to plant when specific to your area. I'm starting an herb box this week (hopefully) and another box with beans (pole, lima, & bush) and brocolli. A third box will be for salads and planted with:

nasturtium
swiss chard
lettuce
radishes
cucumber
carrots

I plan on covering these boxes (with lights if needed for heat) during frost and extra cold snaps this winter...I'm curious to see how long they'll last this winter.

We may be in for another 4 or 5 weeks of this heat, but surely September will bring with it some cooler nights, at least! Until then, I'm going out to water, harvest what little there is, and then spend most of my time inside in the A/C! Temps of 103* with a heat index of 113 is just a little too hot for me! Until then, try to stay cool!

Rhonda

You have my sympathies, Youngatheart! We've had a sweltering summer here in South Carolina as well. Today is not so bad, but there have been too many days with the heat index well over 100 degrees! DH has proclaimed that we will have a drip watering system in place before next summer, and I heartily endorse that concept. I like being outdoors in my garden, but trying to keep plants alive by hand/hose watering when you can barely keep up with their transpiration -- that's not a happy situation for either the plants or us.

Because of the heat, I'm sprouting my fall seeds indoors and will plant them outdoors as soon as they show signs of germination. I'm hoping this will prevent delayed germination. We're planting Packman broccoli, bok choi, carrots, and beets so far. Don't have room for much of anything else at the moment! I know it will be rough on the seedlings, but South Carolina farmers traditionally start collards, turnips and mustard at this time of year, so I'm in good company.

My tomato bushes are growing well.. in this incredible hot heat.. just not producing.. thats due to suckers sucking the life out of the blooms Im sure.. Im a mess.. its a 100 degrees where we are..and with the heat index.. a whopping 109 ... ekkkkk
and the butternut seems to like this heat.. Im a wet rag is all I can say!! So to get out there in the garden I would have to be there at dawn..and Im going to have to do it.. I am so over whelmed with huge things to cut.. and weeds to cut.. (cant wait to have pea gravel walk ways !!!!! and drip system in place. Im not whining really !!! just over whelmed and doing lots of pep talks to myself
Ha-v-v
and now my sons are sticking playing cards on their brothers back .. the one that was out with his Pa working on our log home foundation!! lolololol I love my kids.. they make me laugh