doing well

[songbird]

sunshine, not much rain, but overall the gardens are humming along.

with six beehives in the neighboring field almost any patch of flowers we have are beeing harvested.

the heat has been in the mid-90s here or there, tolerable to me as i don't go out in the middle of the day. siesta and reading works. most days we don't need the AC much if we open the patio doors at night to cool the house down. use it once in a while more as a dehumidifier.

the patches i've been trying to weed are fun, i have to water them several times if i want to have any chance of getting the shovel down far.

too hot to do much transplanting or heavy work. watering, light weeding when i can get to it. in a few more weeks the temperatures will moderate. we should be starting in on some tomatoes by mid-August.

cucumbers are busy now, peppers look to be doing ok, well, everything looks to be doing ok.

rains, that's our hope. we've gotten a few more rains, but not enough to catch up or to get the places i need it most down deep. moving those trees in the late spring was really not a good idea... they are doing well, but having to water them to "be sure" they don't fry in this heat is a waste of time i could have done without. next time, i will be more firm and say, "No, we're waiting until fall."

ok, enough meanderings from me, hope y'all have a great day. :)

songbird

[George Shirley]

Same here Bird, but the gardens are slowly dying of heat.

We seldom see bees here anymore, there are a bunch of hives about two miles away but I suspect they are sitting in a clover field. Since the new subdivision behind us went in we don't see much bees except for some mason and carpenter bees, probably just making a living from the small bit of forest left.

Mid-nineties to early one hundreds here and will get worse in August, our really hot month.

We get out early morning and very late afternoon if at all. I'm generally out there by 0600.

Pitiful weird cukes if any, peppers are very small but a lot of them so we're still picking, chopping, and freezing.

We're watering by hose in the early morning or very late afternoon, at least the fruit trees are getting water, the rest get a drink early morning and late evening, just to keep the veggies going a bit longer.

George

[The Cook]

I started to prune some of my herbs about a month ago and noticed honey bees all over them. That put a quick stop to that idea. DH mentioned that the next door neighbor had put in a hive. Thank you Roger.

Other than that the rest of the garden is a mess. The tomato plants are really meager and the zukes have given up & the cukes haven't done much either.

Heat, lack of rain and watering are the main problems. Add to that I have not felt like getting out there like I usually do. The weeds are taking over. I am not sure that I can still find my rhubarb.

Hopefully I will feel like getting out there more next year.

[George Shirley]

I'm the lucky one, married a woman 57 years ago who stays healthy, works hard, loves to garden, and walks a lot. I'm at the point in my life that walking is a real chore and I don't exercise because I fall over so easy. All of that and I still enjoy life, do what I can in the garden, even occasionally run the electric mower for a little while. Tripped in the garden two days ago and have the bruises to prove it. Bad legs, wacky brain cells, don't help but I keep on trying.

I, too, hope you get out more next year Susan. We've been correspondents for a long time. Stay with it, gardening always gives hope to those of us who like it.

George

[Frank]

You sound a lot like me and maybe most of us old fogies. Doctor once told me you do what you enjoy until you can't do it any more. Sorta glad that deer and shade took over my big garden. It was a the bottom of our hill side lot and I can recall the days of bringing up two 5 gallon buckets of vegetables every couple of days.

[George Shirley]

I'm lucky, have always lived on flat ground. Just have to be careful you don't step into an armadillo hole around here and break something.

[songbird]

...

just picked 1/3 bucket each of burpee cucumbers and pickle cucumbers. will be making pickles later today...

the gardens got a good 1/4-1/2 inch heavy rain yesterday which probably also dinged the tomato flowers good. looks nice out there this morning.

i'm probably done for the day outside. nothing i got to do needs to be done "right now" so i'll wait until we get a few cooler days.

songbird

[songbird]

...finding rhubarb...

i have trimmed some trees and shrubs along that edge so they will get more light again. the ones further to the south are doing fine, but i've gradually extended the line further north along the edge and that has gotten along the honeysuckle bushes and some trees so the new plants haven't grown as strongly as the rest of them yet.

i already cut back one small tree that i could get the loppers around, but i will need to get the saw out to take down the other two small trees. both growing next to a tree trunk that i took down with a chisel and hammer a few years ago.

also along that edge i'm digging out invasive grasses and smothering them to keep them from taking over. i keep piling weeds, cardboard, leaves, etc back there which the rhubarb seems to enjoy and that also helps smother the grasses.

i hope so too, but i know how tough it can be to move when it hurts. *hugs*

songbird

[songbird]

George Shirley wrote: ...

each year is a new adventure. i went to the massage therapist yesterday and she pounded on a spot in my back that has been spasming, got a rib to move back into place so i'm hoping that was it and it will improve. we'll see. :)

as it goes, just another day. good day for reading and siesta. walked a little this morning. i haven't been doing much of that either, it's time to move some more while i can...

songbird

[T]

I love it when we get thunder storms. The rain water has a lot of sky nitrogen in it and my plants love it. Now if we could only do with out the occasional hail!

No raid anywhere in the forecast.

[T]

I got one lemon cuke and it died in about two weeks. I have never had much luck with cukes. One year got about 10 lemon cukes. My wife and I devoured them. But have had bad luck even since.

What happened to your zukes? (I am at WAR with squash bugs, who must die!)

-T

[songbird]

try burpee cucumbers, they've always done well here. just have to keep them well watered when it gets hot. we had cucumbers through the entire growing season last year. picked half a bucket yesterday from three plants and had given a dozen nice sized ones to my brother about a week previous. plenty of flowers and new cucumbers forming now even when it has been 90+F.

hail damage to large leafed plants seems to punch right through, but seems like the plants will recover.

we just ate the last of our cooked and frozen squash from last year. things look good out there now. never know what you'll get until the harvest is in AFAIAC, but planting a diversity of crops seems to be the best way to make sure to get something...

songbird

[T]

Thank you!

Burbee as in the seed company? They have bazillions of cukes. Or burpee as in they make you bench?

Do you have a link? (I am looking forward to them next season.)

ya. you got that.

I am also not past picking up plant that go on half price sale AND you can't be too picky. The left overs are on the looks challenged side, But I don't care as long I can eat their fruit.

[songbird]

...

no, just got the plants from the local greenhouse, i can ask next week if i remember. burpee is the brand/seed co.

we also have pickling cucumbers growing and they are decidedly different, they don't grow very long and are more firm. we used both and will be able to compare eventually.

i try to not plant anything when it gets this hot. you have to almost strip most plants back to nothing or the leaves will pull too much moisture out of the plant and you end up with dead everything. the greenhouse guy said to cover them with newspaper, but to me that is asking for rot and too much bother. i just keep the plants in the pots in the shade where they get dappled sun and make sure to water them until it gets cooler out. i have 9 pots of ground covers to split up and plant as soon as i can. might be the end of August. we'll see...

songbird