Yes, it's a freakish outlier, and no doubt our recent heat wave had a lot to do with it, but I just harvested my first ripe tomato of the season! What better way to celebrate Independence Day than by enjoying independence from tasteless market tomatoes?

It was from one of my two Stupice plants, of course, the reasonably tasty ultra-early variety that does reliably well in Seattle's unreliable climate. There isn't a hint of red on any of my other fruit, so it will likely be a couple weeks more before another one ripens, but I'll take what fate gives me. Also thanks to the heat, my ambitiously planted Brandywine set its first fruit this week, so there's a decent chance I'll get at least of few of those beautifully ugly beefsteaks.

I'll also be enjoying some first of the season squash blossoms this evening. My zucchini grew explosively during the heat, producing its first batch of flowers. But they're all female, so if I don't eat them as blossoms they'll all likely just shrivel up and die from lack of fertilization.

On the downside, my parsley and cilantro seedlings didn't survive the heat. My earlier parsley sowing was dug up by the dog, and my overwintered parsley bolted. So I now have zero parsley in my garden for the first time in years. It will gnaw at my soul to buy some.

How does your garden grow?