Well, it’s now August and my bell pepper experiment is going right along. These are the two scraggly peppers doing their best to beat the heat. They were twice this size, but when everything else died from heat exhaustion, they lingered on. I cut them back to half their size, I think it was early July (wish I had written that down now), to help them deal with the stress of the heat. They lived on, and you can see that the leaves are chewed up and curled, but, oddly, they live still. I’m wondering if they will revive when the heat abates, and the evenings cool a bit. Perhaps they’ll put out some more peppers?? They have a couple of flowers, and I’m watching closely. They do wilt midday. Normally I would have pulled them out by now to save myself the work and water, but curiosity saved them.
In the pots with them are the remains of Marigolds (companion plants), which are themselves suffering from the heat. Behind them just a month ago were my beloved tomatoes…now gone. In their place I’m planting beans. That’ll be mid August.