Topic: Today in the garden I...

[Dianna]

I just got inside from giving the flowers a drink to combat the triple digits we are expecting. I don't think Angel and I will be outside much today.

Duh, please be careful hauling all that water. Is there no way that you could use a garden hose out there?

[patches]

Duh, it's now 97 degrees with a heat index of 106!!!        Geesh, we really need a break from this.  It's supposed to go up even more every day until Friday when they're predicted a break in temperatures with a high of only 96 degrees!!!  THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A BREAK!!!   

Well,I only thing I did in the garden today was gather up four of my tomatoes and I guess I better enjoy them  because I don't think I'm going to get the plentiful bounty I have the last couple of years.    These horrid temperatures are zapping all the flowers on my tomato plants.   

[duh]

I was really lucky we got a nice little rain last night and it cooled everything down and I didn't have to water this morning. 

I hope it cools down for everyone else real soon.  I can't believe triple digits. 

[Dianna]

...watered my flowers this evening. I did a good soaking without hitting the foliage. I need to make sure that they don't need more in the morning, though, because the temp will hit 103 with a heat index of 115...

I, also, cut the okra. Man, that stuff makes me itch! I harvested whatever looked like I could get one chunk out of. The deer, ants, and squash (?) bugs are having a heyday out there now. Daddgum fire ants bit me while I was cutting. The okra was just getting started really well and putting out a lot of fruit. Wish I could scare the critters all away...

Jim and I both worked in the yard this evening. He was raking with his new "lawn sweeper" into piles and I was pitching it into the back of the truck to haul to the back fence. We were both soaking wet with sweat by the time we finished...

[patches]

Geesh, Dianna, it's sounds like you got a whole lot done in spite of the heat!!!  You are doing a lot better than me  because I haven't been able to stay outside for any length of time.   

I did manage to get some of the flowers cut off that have been baked by the heat and sun.    Tonight I watered all the beds AGAIN!!!     We need rain badly!!!

[duh]

I agree that was one busy day.  I couldn't have done it in the heat.  I'm not sure I could have done it without the heat.  I'm thrilled that your starting to compost.

Your garden is pretty good sized but could you plant the deer repellent plants around it?  Basil grows easily and can be started indoors any time of year and there are other plants too that deer don't like.  It's just a thought.  Believe it or not you want to keep the ants since they clean up the garden.  I don't know what you can do about squash bugs.  But I'll cross my fingers that someone has a suggestion.  Possible put the squash it a bed far far away from the rest of the garden? 

I almost forgot to add what I did in the garden today.  I took water out to the garden and guess what it had rained last night.  But that allowed me to give the hostas and peppers a really good drink of water so it wasn't wasted.  They love water.

[barleychown]

For the last several days I have been re-working the front flower beds, removing spent flowers, cleaning up plants, weeding, replacing plants that were not doing well in the shadier areas, and just general clean-up.

With all the clearance sales at the nurseries, now is a great time to buy some more perennials to fill in blank spots or to add more color.

[patches]

  You've really been busy today, Sarah!  You're so lucky to have some decent weather to work in and so it sounds like you're making good use of your time.   

With all the clearance sales at the nurseries, now is a great time to buy some more perennials to fill in blank spots or to add more color.

Geesh, I usually can't wait until this time of the year so I can get some good buys on plants, but this year it's different.  There are no decent plants left because even the stores haven't been able to keep their plants alive in this heat. Besides, even if there were some good plants avalable, it would be a waste of time and money to try to get anything planted in this weather.     

[duh]

No matter how good the clearance I couldn't afford it this year or next.  They are garnishing my diability for an old student loan.  I'm fighting it because they are suppose to forgive loans when the student becomes disabled.  But of course they aren't living up to their end of the agreement. 

But I did manage to get out there and water everything this morning.  I'm assuming that the ornamental grass is slow to spread so I'm not seeing anything right now.  But hopefully it is going full bore underground spreading all over the berm.

The bed that got slept in is getting a huge crop of weeds.  I guess that's because the anenomes got stressed so they are managing to get a foot hold.  While I was out there this morning I got all of the weeds that I could see in that area.

I'm still hoping that the radishes will plump up.

I wonder what kind of a fall we will have.  Do you think it will be like last year and we can get a bumper crop in? 

[patches]

Duh, with the temperatures the way they are now, I'm thinking we might be looking at a very warm fall.  Of course, if I'm right, this means I will have time to get all my gardening wrap-up chores done.   

Today, I trimmed the upper third off all my Oriential and Asiatic Lilies.  I also trimmed the dead leaves off my Lilies, put some giant ice cubes in the bird baths and hooked up a drip hose in one of my perennial beds.  . I just can stay out there log enough to get everything watered.   

[duh]

We had a wonderful rain yesterday that soaked all the plants and cooled down the temperatures.  So today I weeded the beds and turned half of the compost.  And I'm airing out the apartment.  It really needed it. 

The pepper plants are looking down right perky and have a bunch of blooms on them.  Hopefully they all turn into peppers.  I'd like to get a bunch of them.

If it is a warm fall then I can expect my pepper plants to do much better.  I hope that is true.

[Penny]

  We so badly need a good rain, and it doesnt seem to be coming.
We are lucky in the fact that we live on a Bay and arent under a water advisory like some are, and so we can pump from th Bay to water

[duh]

That is lucky.  Rationing water is the pits.  They used to do that in Washington State all the time in August.  It used to drive me crazy because if they had just built the resevours(sp) and caught the rain water we never would have needed to ration water at all and we wouldn't have had so much property damage from mud slides. 

I'm definitely becoming anti government as I watch them sit back and take large checks for doing nothing of any use.  Cranky aren't i?

And off topic oooooooops!

[patches]

Rationing water is the pits. 

I agree, Duh!  They have placed some restrictions on water use in a few of the areas around here, but fortunately it hasn't hit us yet. 

[duh]

Well I'm getting ready to head out there and see what it looks like.  Cross your fingers for me.

It is beautiful.  There is a slight breeze and the temperature is way down.  The garden is still moist from the rains we had the day before yesterday.  So I don't have to water.

After I recover my breath from walking to the store I'll see about finishing the compost pile.

[duh]

Well I didn't get it finished but I did get very close before my energy gave out. 

And I found some finished compost so I can make the tea as soon as I can find a bucket.

I have a yellow pepper on one of my plants.  I have no clue as to why it is yellow.  I'm not aware of any of them being for yellow peppers but we'll see what happens.

[patches]

Well, Duh, at least you can start your compost tea!!!  I like to use it on the foliage too, but you can't do that is this weather.   

Well, the only thing I was able to get done in the garden today was to spread some more mulch over one of the beds.  I'm hoping this helps to keep the moisture in and some of the heat off the roots.

[duh]

It seems to be working for me.  I mulched with grass clippings and the beds with the mulch definitely retain more moisture.

I watered and now I'm going to go finish off turning the compost. 

As soon as I find a container I'll do the compost tea. 

Woohoo the compost pile is turned.  Boy am I tired.

Fortunately church doesn't start until 11:00a.m. so I have time to recover and get ready. 

[patches]

It sounds like you got a lot accomplished today, Duh!    It's nice to get an early start before the heat of the day.

Actually, I was able to get two of my beds watered, and I put some more mulch on one of my beds.  I'm going out now to refresh the birdbaths.  When the sun gets off the other beds I can water them because they really need it.      

[duh]

Why am I up at 5:43 this morning.  I think it has something to do with sleeping all of yesterday.  I barely made it through first meeting and then came home.  I was so tired.

Well I watered everything and I added a dose of Epsomes salt to the water.  I have to say the peppers are looking even better today.  Which is so great because I was so disappointed when they got sick that I almost pulled them up. 

The radishes still don't have any width to them which is disappointing.  I guess I'll just have to make sure the soil around them has plenty of sand /silt in it so it doesn't clump next year.  That is if I decide to plant them next year.

A couple of the chinese lantern seed pods have turn bronze.  They are on really short stems but I think I'll harvest them now and dry them.  The color is truely almost metalic.  I know it's because they died rather than ripening but it made a really interesting look. 

[patches]

Today I thought it was a bit cooler, so I decided to dig up about 15' of my yard.  I wanted to remove a huge root that I found snaking it's way to my patio before this horrid heat heat wave hit.  Unfortunately, I soon discovered it really wasn't quite as cool as it was when I first started digging, but I finally got it out!

Here's a picture of it!  The large piece is about 2' taller than I am.  By the way, Patty, that's a nickel between the two pieces.   



I'm going back out later this afternoon to cut it up because our Yard Waste pick-up is tomorrow. 

[duh]

Woohoo my landlord heard me and brought me a load of grass clippings.  He must be a mind reader or something.

[Dianna]

I am at work with Jim today, but managed to get a little gardening "fix".

Outside the main door to his office entrance, there is a passionflora vine growing. I picked two pods off of it and have cleaned the seeds out of one of them. One of his employees was out there and asked what I was doing. I explained and she went to look for a seed pod. She didn't find another one, so I gave her one of mine and showed her how to clean it. I, also, gave her a card for SSH, so she could get some good advice on how to garden. Of course, I talked to her about spirits, also! I think we will have a new member before long...

[duh]

That is so cool Dianna.  Did you tell her I love to do tarot cards? 

[Dianna]

No, Duh, I didn't. I am sorry. I think she was wondering if I had two heads (one invisible) when I went on to talking about the site and mentioned it was a ghost site, too. I explained to her some of my experiences and I think she found it interesting. She was a really nice person and I hope she joins up...

This evening when we got home we picked corn. Though it is not supposed to be ready for a few more days, the heat has made it ready to be preserved. We shucked and silked corn until dusk. We are sick of seeing corn....

We lost a lot of corn to the heat around here. There were a couple of casualties from smut, but not half as bad as last year...