I have been so caught up in bees and rabbits that I have lost sight of those of you who don’t have rabbits, chickens or insects yet. Maybe you are just starting out on your homestead. Well , this post is for you.

This is what is going on in my garden in the month of June in Dallas Texas. I make a point to include my location, because often times, on the internet, we can forget that we might be talking to someone in Australia. I learned yesterday that it is Winter there!

My point is, what works for someone on the net might not work for us here in Dallas Texas. For instance; tomato season is almost over here, which is VERY different from our friends in the North. They have their challenges to be sure, WINTER BRRRRRR! For us here, a hotter than hell period is coming up. This is the time that we spend as much time under water as possible( the water is 85 degrees). We give our animals shade, ice packs and electrolytes to try to get them through this season. If our veggies don’t have shade relief then it is game over! I will show you how I am providing shade to my crops in an up coming post.

While I have some crops that soak up the sun: Moringa trees, Okra, Egyptian Spinach, Egg plant, Sweet potatoes. Sadly tomato season is over. Night time temps of over 80 degrees means that no matter how much you want your tomato blossom to set fruit, IT WILL NOT TURN INTO A TOMATO!

This is where you need your girlfriend to come over, slap you across the face hard, shake your shoulders and yell;  “The fat lady has sung. Give up on the tomatoes already! Grow something else for God sakes!”

Consider me your best girl friend or guy friend, although I don’t have insight into how you guys speak truth to each other? I will have to ask my husband about that tomorrow. Any way you slice it you can float down the river of D’Nile as long as you want, but that won’t get you homegrown tomatoes.

Before you get totally depressed and give up, I have a small glimmer or light to shine on your tomato-less future. At North Haven Gardens in Dallas, they have tomato starts just for us! They are totally in tune with our situation and have acquired baby tomato plants for us to sink into the ground in July for a Fall harvest. Hey, you might just get green tomatoes for your efforts, but we all know there is a lot to work with there, right? We are talkin fried green tomatoes and chow chow. No one in their right mind is going to turn either of those down. Can I get a Southern A’men!

This week I will harvest, pull up my tomato plants and sink in my heat lover crops. This is when Okra shines, Eggplant just keeps producing and Egyptian Spinach can’t get enough of the heat! And you can’t forget the melons. Although melons need a lot of water, they can be a great Summer crop too. So freeze, give away and make tomato sauce out of those tomatoes. Embrace the Summer heat and the things that grow well in it!

Here is a Summer update of the June garden on video. Enjoy and please let me know how your summer garden is growing in the comments!

This post was shared on Simple Homestead Blog Hop