In the heat

I fear for the garden when the temperature soars.  Last Monday it went to over 40 degrees Centigrade and I could do little until the storm brought some rain the next day.  Wednesday morning between 6 am and 8 am I am allowed to water, with my hose, using main water.  The rain of the previous day did not go down deep enough but the wet surface helped the watering.  Before the temperature rose I covered the delicate plants and carrying buckets of water from the rain water tank I gave such plants as the Jerusalem artichokes, the basils, chillies and eggplants a good soaking.  I forgot about the pointsetta in the front verandah, sitting in front of the glass window.  I suppose I did not think it would suffer, being under shade.  As the blind was down I did not notice the plant desiccating and when I found it in the evening the red leaves were dried and curled up.  If that has happened to a pet I would have rushed to the vet.  I was not going to give up so the pot of shrivelled pointsetta, sitting in a ceramic potty I bought from an op shop a few decades ago, was taken to the bathroom and I filled the potholder with water and soaked the soil.  I left it there, afraid to see a non responding, dead thing.  After the storm, with the house much cooler I found the pointsetta, happier, with only a few burnt leaves.  Not quite the show it was when it was given to me, but pretty enough.
There are still beauty to be found in the garden even though the heat seemed to have left the place looking wrung out.  In the early morning the chattering lorikeets visit the different trees looking for food.  The cockatoos seem to prefer the evening. Where do these birds hide in the heat of the day?

There are spaces in the vegie boxes, with the lettuces and radishes harvested.  The tomatoes are looking a bit straggly, having been left to their own devices for a few weeks so they need a bit of staking and pruning.  I have been enjoying the roma and cherry tomatoes.  In the outside garden the tomato plants which have sprouted out of the compost are doing very well and I think the butternut pumpkin leaves are giving them some protection from the heat.  I have counted three butternuts and I hope they will survive to ripeness.  I have been pinching the shoots and cooking the tender leaves, to encourage lateral growth, rather than have one very long snaking vine.

The two zucchini bushes are not doing too well in the heat.  A couple of the fruits go yellow at the tip and I pick them, still, saving the good bits.  The weather man says to expect rain tonight, and rain or shine I will do some watering in the morning to give the garden a good soaking.