The Heat Is On

Last year when June arrived,  it came with August's oppressive heat.  And it lasted the entire summer.  We've had a beautiful spring this year, and I was hoping we would gradually work our way into summer.  But yesterday, June 2, was especially hot (over 90 degrees), and the forecast for the next week doesn't look any better.

Plants often seem to grow very slowly from seed to the first two sets of true leaves.  But once they have enough leaf surface to feed the roots well, and the weather turns sunny and warm (or hot), as long as they have a little water, it seems like they grow so fast you could almost sit and watch the change.

Or maybe I'm just old.

The bell and jalapeño peppers finally got big enough to transplant.  And I had enough grass clippings to mulch their bed.

The "shady" end of the garden is in full swing.  This is where I plant things that could use a little less heat, and experiment with things that like full sun to see how well they do with a little shade.  I found out last year that okra doesn't respond well to it at all.

Suddenly, the 'Jersey Wakefield' cabbages are forming heads and have filled out the row, and the interplanted marigolds are bursting out.

The row of zinnias I planted alongside the onions isn't what I was aiming for.  Another Amazon seed order that wasn't what it claimed to be.  I was trying for something called "Lime", which I have found a reliable source for next year.  What I ended up with is a lovely variety of colors.  What I was wanting was closer to this one that has bloomed, only in the opposite color proportions - with mostly green, and a hint of lavender.

The lettuce has about gotten out of hand.  Fortunately, I've been able to find people to give it to.  I've finally pulled the older, first planting to give the second planting a better chance to come on, and then make a decision as to when to plant another round.

The sorrel has really filled in and is mostly just serving as an ornamental at this point.

Red veined sorrel and 'Rocky Top' lettuce mix before thinning (above)
after thinning (below)

I also forced myself to thin the Chinese cabbage.  It doesn't seem to be heading.  I had the same issue last year, even though I'd started the seeds indoors and transplanted them at a good spacing.  If I don't figure out what's wrong, I won't be trying to grow it any more (although it does make a pretty stand).

Chinese cabbage 'Hilton'

The tatsoi is already bolting.

The beets have been in about a month.  I've narrowed my beet varieties down to two:  'Golden' and some variety of red, looking for my favorite.  Previous red varieties I've planted are 'Detroit', 'Detroit Dark', 'Cylindra', 'Boltardy', and 'Red Ace'.  This year, I'm trying 'Shiraz Tall Top'. I haven't yet had a really good beet crop for either the root or the tops.  Fingers crossed for this year to be the first.

I planted them May 5, and I'm able to harvest lucious baby greens from them now, taking no more than one leaf from each plant.  They seem to be amazingly bug and disease free so far.  The first year I planted beets, they were riddled with leaf spot.  That could have been due to one or more differences from this year - but I don't know which.  That year (2014), there may have still been a larger presence of disease organisms from the yard that was previously growing in this area.  Also, I planted them much earlier - in mid April, as opposed to May 5 this year, so they were growing during a cooler period.  But I planted them in a full sun area, as opposed to the partial shade this year, so you might think that would offset that factor a bit.  I don't know what the issue is, so next year, I'll try planting them back in full sun, but around May 5 and see what happens.

'Shiraz Tall Top' in the outer arc; 'Golden' in the central triangle

'Shiraz Tall Top' - makes the most delicious steamed greens!
(also good raw in salads)

Both okra beds are at the same developmental stage, and I had about the same germination rate with the 'Jing Orange' seed I ordered and the 'Red Burgundy' seed I saved from last year.

Okra beds with Egyptian walking onions (aka bunch onions) in the centers

The 'Red Burgundy' bed has a large volunteer (weed) crop of purslane - normally considered a weed. It's perfectly edible, though, and I have a recipe for cucumber and purslane salad I want to try, so I'm letting it grow.  One previous year I tried to let it grow, and it just got lots of insect damage.  If that happens again, I'll give up on it.

Okra bed infested with purslane

I've tried a green cowhorn variety of okra in the past and didn't like it.  The pods were too large, and less like a cowhorn than a ram's.  Too curly to slice into rounds, and a bit tough.  I may be judging too quickly since one year I had a very poor showing of 'Red Burgundy', but last year it gave me a bumper crop.  Still, I won't likely be trying any more green varieties since the red are long and tender, and the mature plants are so pretty.

My tomatoes are growing rapidly, and I just got them caged yesterday.  A beautiful bluebird couple made a nest in the birdhouse that's hanging there, and every time I did any weeding, I would get swooped for discouragement.  I couldn't see well into the house to tell if there were more than one baby, but yesterday, whoever had been there was gone. I hope and assume that all went well with the first flight.

The peas are finished producing.  I'm hoping for a little cooler weather after this week in which to pull them up and save them for seed next year.  Or maybe I'll try planting them later for a fall crop.  Not sure how that would work using fresh peas.  Otherwise, I want to get some limas planted in their place.

I'm beginning to think maybe the tomato cage for the golden zucchini might just work out okay.  They haven't started leading off in any one direction yet, though, so it still remains to be seen whether they go up or  go through the wire and out, or whether the leaves get too crowded in the center of the cage.

The cucumbers have gotten a very good start.  I hope it doesn't rain buckets and rot them like last year.

Somebody had a feast on one of my rhubarb plants.  I think I saw a tiny baby grasshopper the other day, and this looks like it could be possibly be grasshopper feeding, but it could be somebody else, too.  I haven't seen the culprit.

As for the flower beds...

These lilies made a good showing last year - the first year after I planted them - but they are screaming awesome this year.

The "Black Dahlias" I ordered from Amazon turned out to be a variety of colors: mostly yellow and fuschia.  They're growing well in my new cut flower garden, and they'll be fine.  But this really is the last year I'm going to order seeds off Amazon.

The rose garden and cut flower gardens are going to be favorite places.  I was concerned I might have bitten off more than I could chew, but now I'm glad I made room for them.

The rose garden is still pretty bare, but I'm looking forward to future blooms and next year when I can purchase the rose 'Earth Angel'.  So far, 'Pink Enchantment' and 'Shazam!' are blooming, and 'Pat Austin' has a bud.  In the meantime, a volunteer poppy ('Lauren's Grape', I believe) is showing them up.  The red Nemesia (var. 'Blood Orange') adds some color, but up close it's looking rather weatherbeaten.

My 'Julia Child' rose in a bed next to the house is especially prolific this year.  This is it's second year in that same place, so it's more established than those in the new rose garden.

The new poppy bed in the wildflower garden is gorgeous, as are the volunteer poppies that came up amongst the large tarragon plant.  They're all 'Hungarian Blue' and/or 'Lauren's Grape'.  Sadly, I don't see any 'Tangerine Gem' or 'Black Peony' poppies.  Amazon orders.

I needed a replacement pair of garden gloves this year, and having bought a nicer pair than I usually spring for last year and hung on a hook in the cellar until I needed them, I went to fetch them:

I hope those mice babies appreciate their clean, soft nest, wherever it is.

My neighbor invited me to pick cherries at her house yesterday.

I'm going to need to find a place for a cherry tree.  And blackberries and raspberries.  Maybe grapes.

Till next time, I'll be trying to keep my cool in this heat.  How's your garden growing?

360-degree panoramic view (l to r):  cut flower garden, rose garden, sunny vegetable garden, shady vegetable garden

The Hottest Summer on Record

I don't want to think of breaking this year's heat record in the future.  This morning was the first one in weeks that it wasn't too hot to go to the garden when it was just light enough to see, even before the sun "came up".

Basil is flowering, the okra is as tall as I am, and the Mexican sunflower is still going strong.

Plots where I had squash and beets are still fallow and covered with a layer of grass mulch.  I plan to plant more beets where the squash had been, but I may leave the beet plot empty.

Purple Ruffles basil that I started from seed indoors on the 19th of May and transplanted June 29 is happy and beautiful.  Apparently, it loves heat.

So, what's to do at the end of July in my ornamental vegetable garden?  Weeding would be a good bet, but I try to stay on top of the weeds from the beginning, and at least pull a few each time I go out.  I have more weeds this year than I have in the past, but I've decided to call one kind a salad green and let it grow.  Purslane.  So there.  One less weed to pull.

I even found a tomato, cucumber and purslane salad recipe.  Too bad my cucumbers croaked.

Speaking of weeds.  My compost heap is totally overgrown!  I don't want to spray it out with herbicide, so I guess I'm going to have to wait until it all dies and take a shovel out there and turn it under.  I won't think about that monumental chore right now.  Maybe the early winter will be mild and I'll take my sweet time doing it bit by little bit.

This year, I found a nice surprise in my compost pile: potatoes.  Nice little bonus for having done nothing but thrown out some grocery store potatoes that didn't get used before they went soft.  They'll not be organic, but I dug some out already when they were small and roasted them. They were quite yummy. Obviously, there are more to be had.  When it cools off enough to dig.

Like every morning, this morning I went out to capture Japanese beetles.  I also had to spray the asparagus ferns and some roses.  I thought the little buggers were on the decline, but they were certainly plentiful on the shrub roses at the back side of the wildflower garden this morning.  Between them, my string trimmer, and my mother's mowing, those shrubs have taken a beating in the last three years.  I'm probably going to have to hit the ground under them with herbicide in the early spring, spray insecticide regularly, and mulch heavily if they're going to have a chance to live.  One of the three is already looking like a lost cause.  I'm guessing it's a type of witches' broom disease.  Perhaps I should cut that one down before it spreads.

My sister pointed out to me that I'd made an error in yesterday's post, and I've corrected it.  I said that I put acetone fingernail polish on a kleenex in my kill jar.  If you saw that and are back today, it was supposed to say acetone fingernail polish remover.

Let me say here, if when you find future errors (or today's errors, for that matter), please click the comment link above the post and let me know.  I thank you.

This morning's "catch", and that won't nearly be all that were there.

I'm collecting (euphemism for killing) the Japanese beetles off okra in my garden, which is where they hang out and cause damage.  

I've noticed this year with the proliferation of Japanese beetles on the okra there are concurrently lots of granddaddy long-legs (aka daddy long-legs, aka harvestmen, which are not actually spiders).  I hadn't noticed them in earlier years in such numbers.  I'm wondering if they're attracted to something that's going on with the Japanese beetles.  They're generally known as scavengers, eating dead insects, but maybe they're also after something else.  I've read they eat bird droppings, so maybe they also eat Japanese beetle droppings.  There's plenty of that in the okra.  

I'm also seeing ladybird beetles on the okra.  I'm not sure what they're eating either, but generally speaking, juvenile (larval) ladybird insects are eating some stage of pest insects, so that's helpful.  Another reason I don't spray chemical insecticides.  I don't want to kill beneficial insects like grandaddy long-legs, ladybird beetles, bees, assassin bugs and some other insects.  I saw a young praying mantis this morning.  They are weird but wonderful.  

That said, there are some plant-feeding ladybird beetles, including the Mexican bean beetle, but I'm pretty sure these are not, so I leave them alone.  If they are eating the plants, there aren't enough of them to do any harm.

There's one mallow in the wildflower garden, and Japanese beetles like that, too.  It's in the same family as okra.  They especially like roses, and I was surprised to find hordes of them on the asparagus fern, because the other plants they prefer are broad-leaved.  

I keep saying "asparagus fern", but that's not really correct. There's actually a fern called asparagus fern.  What I'm talking about is asparagus stalks that have bolted and flowered.  They look like fern, and so they apparently call that "ferning out".   So I should be saying the beetles are in hordes in the ferned-out asparagus.

Tomatoes are still growing and ripening.  Hooray.  They don't seem to be setting fruit, though, and who can blame them?  It's too darned hot.

Till next time.