Today should end the worst heatwave in recorded history in CZ. It was horrendous because my house does not have AC. Normally, I would not need it either; the thermal mass of well-insulated thick brick walls generally ensures a pleasant indoor climate even when it is hot for a few days outdoors. Not when there is persistent heat without even a slight breeze for two weeks, though. These last three days, the heat got so bad that I was completely unable to do anything, literally except lie in bed with a wet towel directly on my skin to cool me off. Luckily, my parents live on the first floor, and temperatures in their bedroom did not exceed 26°C, which is OK for them. I, on the other hand, had to endure 29°C from afternoon til almost midnight.

Before the heat got this bad, I managed to transplant my beans. So let’s talk about them a bit.

Beans do not make a strong taproot; they make a short and stubby one that very quickly starts to split into thin and fragile roots that do not like to be disturbed. I never had problems replanting them, though, because I always take care to not disturb the rootball during replanting. And this is one area where my clingy clay soil actually helps, because when I let the soil dry a bit before replanting, the whole rootball hardens somewhat and keeps its shape well. I also generally do not let the plants grow too long – I try to plant them outdoors just before they develop their third or fourth leaf.

I transplanted some pole beans near the hedge between my and my neighbor’s garden (with my neighbor’s consent), and for the rest I put some poles near my second walnut tree. These are beans “Konstantin” which have pods without the paper layer, so even if they do not manage to ripen fully, I should get some edibles out of them.

I was worried that the heatwave might harm the freshly transplanted beans, but almost all of them survived for several days, and they already start climbing. Only one pair died the very next day, and that was entirely my fault – when transplanting them, I dropped the rootball, and it shattered. That disturbed the roots too much, and in this weather, the plants had no chance. And one pair was eaten by something, probably voles.

Bush beans from the new supplier did not have as good a germination rate as my own pole bean seeds, but they fared much better than those that I tried before. So I planted them around the Painted Mountain Corn patch as planned. They are still alive four days later, so the transplanting probably succeeded too.

My garden copes with the weather relatively well so far, although I had to pour over two thousand litres of water into it to keep it alive. I even had to water the oats so they do not start dropping flowers. I hope we get enough rain to replenish my reserves.

Lufas love the weather. I have my first fruit growing. This plant started flowering much earlier than the others, and it started with female flowers. By sheer luck, the third female flower started closing at just the same time that the first male flower opened, so I tried to pollinate it. And surprisingly, it worked. The other three plants did not start flowering at all yet, but I do hope they will.

There are indeed new flowers in the making, although this one does not look female from this angle at all. Hur, hur, hur… Sorry.

Figs and grapes, of course, love the hot weather too. I might get a decent harvest this year.

Tomatoes are a mixed bag. I did something wrong this year (I do not know what), and the seedlings were generally small and sickly when I was planting them. In the greenhouse, they recovered and are already starting to flower. Outdoors, however, most of them are still way too small, and there is a huge question mark over them.

Of all the pumpkin species and variants that I planted, only butternuts look really promising. None of them were ravaged by slugs, and now they are growing fast. They are not flowering yet, but they started forming plenty of flower buds. Last year, I got the first female flower in the last week of August, and I still got a usable harvest. So this year, it could be really good. And btw., the only butternut squash that fully ripened last year remained perfectly fresh for five months; they store really well. I am hopeful they will compensate for the total failure that my Hokkaido and Zucchini are very likely to be.