Summer is definitely here and hopefully you're all beating the heat. This newsletter celebrates all the wonderful Alabama produce on our red market tables and offers a reminder for you to keep an eye on your plantings through the inevitable scorching days ahead.  

This week sweet corn and the first of the heirloom tomatoes arrived. We see some delicious tomato sandwiches in your future!  That's not all though - peaches from Clanton,  blueberries from Verbena, and blackberries from Petals From the Past are available too for all the fruit lovers out there. 

Don't forget to come in the greenhouse and check the cooler to the right. There you'll find all the lady peas, pink-eye peas, and butterbeans we can get our hands on! We are grateful to have such an abundance to offer. 

In the garden, be sure to check your  container plantings each morning and water them thoroughly if needed. Remember plantings, in the sun especially, will dry out quickly with high temperatures and on windy days.

 If your plantings in pots or beds dry out too much between waterings, you'll see a lot of yellow leaves and possibly dried buds and blooms. Don't give up hope; a good cutting back and more diligent watering may revive them.  Look HERE for a post on more tasks to do in the summer garden. We generally see underwatering of plantings when summer's heat really kicks in...though you might have plantings of succulents, vinca, and purslane, just to name a few, that do appreciate dry soil and love the heat! 

True to its name, the 'Better Late Than Never Garden" across the street has been cleaned out, and planting has begun for a new season. This year in addition to the sunflowers, zinnias, purslane, red cuphea, and tithonia, there will be an old fashioned tall red salvia, a cosmos that's chocolate colored, and a few more surprises. We hope you enjoy it! To see a post on the butterfly plants in last year's garden, look HERE.

A reminder that the next email will be at the end of July. Until then, beat the heat, eat some good Alabama fruits and veggies, keep your gardens watered, and we'll see you soon!