It’s a lovely June, and the summer heat is starting to come in.

With it, the gardens are racing – especially the plants from the tropical regions of the globe.

Today I’ll share a few photos I took on my wife’s phone this morning.

First, here are some scarlet runner beans:

We grew these in the past, but gave up on them as non-productive in our North Florida gardens. However, they are beautiful so we’re trying again for the first time in a decade or so. Perhaps they’ll do better here in Lower Alabama. In Florida they’d bloom a lot without setting more than a few seeds here and there.

On the other hand, we’re overflowing with cucumbers. Yesterday we put up 16 jars of dill pickles, plus I have 2.5 gallons of relish in the fridge waiting to be finished up and canned.

And the cukes just keep on coming…

These cucumbers are a mix of various pickling types, some from newly purchased seed, others from the seed we saved from last year. Landrace style.

Like the watermelons, which are now fruiting all over the Grocery Row Gardens.

There are melons that look like Sugar Baby, some that look like Charleston Grey, some that look like your standard Walmart-style melons… and mixes in between. This is the third year my son has been mixing up varieties and crossing them and the vigor in this year’s vines is incredible.

Here’s a look at the saddest part of the garden – the potato patch.

It’s done for this year and it’s time to plow it under and plant something else. Perhaps okra, or maybe some pumpkin hills. It’s getting much later than when we normally plant pumpkins, but I met the co-owner of Mae Day Farm, which is within an hour of us, and he told me they’re growing Seminoles by planting them in July. It’s worth trying.

The zinnias are everywhere now, which reminds me it’s time to cut a few more for the table.

There’s a lot of diversity in the Grocery Row Garden, from onions to cucumbers to cassava to tobacco to cannas and sunflowers, goji berries, mulberries, apples, herbs, roots and more…

The herb garden by the back patio is starting to fill in nicely. 

We mixed in some wildflowers, some dahlias, and a Liatris with the herbs to make the space prettier.

Less pretty is the mess of pumpkin vines that have run wild out of the old compost pile.

Yet we don’t mind the productivity when the pumpkins start to roll in!

Our patch of carrots is still growing strong, and we’re getting them when we want them.

And the cassava is really growing now.

The onions are growing but not doing great. I’ve never been good at growing bulbing onions. I don’t even know why we try.

Especially when the tropical plants grow so well in the hot, Alabama summers.

Have a great Tuesday. We’re running all over town today, taking care of errands and catching up around the homestead.

It’s about time to do some more garden work, but we’ll wait for the cool of the evening to do that. It’s been hot and humid lately, without enough rain. Fortunately, we got all the Grocery Row Gardens mulched before the rain dried up for a week.