My Garden Loves Rain!!!!

At last, after 23 days of brilliant sunshine, we have finally had some rain!! I read our rain gauge every day at 7:00 am (but only when there has been rain) and I haven't had to venture to the gauge for the past 23 days. Yesterday, Thursday, the gauge read 47 ml, and today a further 24 ml which put a smile on my face.
No matter how diligent you are watering the garden in dry spells, nothing beats a good shower of rain. All of our vegetables and fruit trees, not to mention the flowers, have been showing distinct signs of heat stress even though they have been watered regularly. I planted out 60 odd chilli plants one evening and only 3 or 4 survived. So its back to the seed bed to grow some more. It is almost heart breaking to look down at the garden and see the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers bowing their heads in the heat. Then, miraculously, as the sun goes down, they spark up agin for the night to absorb what dew there may be in the air or drink in the water I provided for them.
But since the rain everything is starting to look like they really want to produce bumper crops. Maybe the dry made them push their roots further into the soil looking for moisture, but whatever it was, they are doing well now.

My wife Kay uses vegetables from our garden for all her cooking when they are available. Kay has started her own blog mainly about cooking and has included recipes for her delicious dishes. Some are in Malay, but most have English ingredients and methods. If you want to learn some luscious recipes go to:  umikal.blogspot.com/    If you find a recipe that you like but it is in Malay, leave a message for Kay in her "COMMENTS" on her site and I'm sure that she will arrange for a translation for you.
I thought I had better take some pics this morning just to show how things are surviving. Even our potted stuff, which we put out every time it rains, is growing well.

The turmeric (or tumeric) in a pot is doing exceptionally well and we also have a couple of more plants throughout the garden, which are also looking up. It is amazing how herbs manage the dry weather. They just keep on keeping on (apologies to the paint company!!!).

As I said before, the beans haven't been looking too flash in the heat but just look at them now!!! Complete with a huge grasshopper!!!!

Cucumbers and lettuce are really susceptible to dry weather and I have found it hard to get them to climb. They just seem to want to lie there and wait, no matter how many times I helped them to climb. The lettuce is doing OK though.

Bananas

Dragon Fruit

Lemon Tree

Tangelo

Mango

The fruit trees have not shown a great deal of stress, although the bananas have a lot more dead leaves than normal, but they are all growing well and hopefully will produce fruit this season. One lot that has really survived is the strawberry patch. They are covered in flower and are producing large, sweet fruit right now.
A couple of things I must do at the end of the season:
1. Give the passion fruit a haircut.
2. Replant  strawberry suckers.

Peanuts and Corn

Hopefully that will ensure another good crop next year.
One good thing about the dry weather is that it helps to cut down on the numbers of snails trying to eat my veges!!!!!