I'm scheming of where to put a hibiscus bush. Yep, Winter Greenhouse in Wisconsin apparently has hardy hibicus, so I'm going to check it out! I just can't decide which color to get...

Morning and evening chores, making hay, picking wild blueberries, spraying for powdery mildew, pull a weed here and there, collecting seeds that are ripe and.... after dark, wage war on slugs. They are winning. Today I hiked out to some known Habenaria psychodes sites. (Purple Fringed Orchid). With all the rain we've had, they are looking great! Tomorrow mow the lawn.

I really am sick and tired of this 90 degree, humid weather. It can cool off anytime.....life is just more fun when it is in the 70's.
Jan

I cleaned my house, caught up with many of the things that gardening keeps me from accomplishing. Continued watering the market vegetable garden via hose and sprinkler.
Added fertilizer tabs to the water garden plants and enjoyed being knee deep in water while I was doing it. Caught a couple of tadpoles, talked to them like an overprotective mom while I lowered them back into the water.

Considered the fact that while I was wilting in the heat, my melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, and tomatoes are LOVING this, and things seem much happier than they did last summer with the cold and rain.

Kate

You are so right, Kate. The veggie garden is flourishing as are some of the perennials. With all the rain we have here, only have to water the shallowly rooted perennial seed beds on those few days that have been rainless.

A brief reprieve. Last night a thunderstorm came through, dumped a bunch of rain, and the temps dropped. Today is suppose to be only in the mid 70's. I will literally be running behind the lawnmower today!. LOL. But.....heat and humidity returns tomorrow. Still...it is nice to have one day that is comparatively cool.

It's certainly cooler now -- I was actually chilly this morning while I was out deadheading. But when it's HOT I find I have to resort to using the same kind of tricks I use on myself to get me to do housework:

1. I'll work only until the phone rings
2. I'll fill just ONE grocery bag with old daylily flowers, then I'll quit
3. I'll weed only as long as my radio program is on, until I see 3 different butterflies, until the mail comes, etc.
4. I'll drink a huge mug of tea and then work until I have to run to the bathroom
5. I'll work until I come upon a huge boring task, then I'll stop
6. I reward myself with buying a new plant or two....
7. I allow myself to flit from task to task without finishing anything, but I have to keep doing this for a whole hour without stopping
8. I make myself do whatever ONE job I've been procrastinating about the longest

So my garden looks pretty good despite the heat, but you can probably imagine what our house looks like...

Wow, someone is actually getting rain? We got a sprinkle last night but that is all we have had in weeks! Have had my sprinklers going daily, thank God for well-water, no bans or restrictions! LOL

I ran thru the sprinkler yesterday...felt good...don't laugh!

Linda

Linda, I would gladly share some of the rain but somehow Mother Nature won't take directions from me! We had about 2.5 inches this past week and that is fairly typical of the weekly rainfall.

I would be the last person to laugh about running through a sprinkler. Yesterday evening when it started to rain... I went out and stood in the rain! Felt so good after that terribly hot and humid day.

Today was a different world. High was +67 with incredible north winds and a little rain. Tomorrow back to the hot and humid. My internal thermostat is so confused.
Jan

So fun to hear about extreme heat and extreme rain. Only in Minnesota. Yes, it is finally cooler in mid Minnesota today but I see the heat will creep back. As far as the garden, bugs, bugs, bugs. They are aweful when its so hot. thank God for wind today. Got out the weed whip and mowed down a bunch of perennials that are done. can't take the bugs enough to clip them down properly.

Had .85 inches of clear skies and no rain last night. Weather forecasts are so accurate! LOL. I see by the maps the metro area was getting T&L storms. Hopefully mother nature watered some of those dry gardens....without hailing.

Insects of all types are rampant this year and doing lotza damage. Saw my first case of Spruce Needle Rust yesterday while on a garden tour. Ugly, Ugly stuff.
Jan

I have beeen staying inside, not by choice would much rather be outside with my flowers........and to top it off we are banned from watering anything as some city water pump cant take all the heat........we live in a new development and just too many new lawns and plants etc. for the city water system to handle........city planning?.....so I am just trying to keep my shrubs and tree that I planted this year alive till we get RAIN......which doesnt seem to come and the wind has been hard on the container plants......oh well just have to let go and let God! This too shall pass......have a great day..
Donna

I've been staying inside, too. Can't think of a good way to get rid of a huge patch of weeds (other family member had a 'project' and didn't take care of it), especially since the spiders call it home now. I'm terrified of spiders. But I'm having a great time picking out plants to put in on the theoretical day that the weeds go bye-bye!

I do weed my daylily bed, but it's a 10-minute job tops every week. And watering my container plants is a must, though one of my lilies has gone ick from the heat/humidity.

At work we had an outdoor tent sale - what I found works best if you're going to be outside for a long time is to fill a cooler with ice and some drinks, then use the melted ice to dump over yourself, and the evaporation will cool you off. Plus you don't need to go in for a drink!

I'm surprised to read all these postings talking about rain. It's been bone dry where I'm at--my yard (grass) is brown and crispy and even with faithful watering (as much as I can afford-I'm afraid to see what my water bill is going to be) on my part, all of my plants/shrubs/trees are showing signs of stress from the heat and lack of rain.

I've been getting up early (like 5 am) on the weekends to try to beat the heat and work out in my garden--by 11 am, it's too hot to do anything.

What I can't figure out is with the lack of water (everything is drying up), just where the heck are all these mosquitoes coming from?

And slugs....I've never had problems with slugs before...jiminey crickets!-I'd figure with the heat and lack of moisture they'd just shrivel and dry up.

We actually got some rain this morning, but I fear it may be too little too late....

It's depressing, I live all year for summer and my garden, and after enduring months of snow and cold only to have a summer so hot and so dry that it makes me sad to look out and see how bad and unhappy my plants/shrubs/trees are...and there's so little I can do about it.

My garden hasn't gotten much rain to speak of either, but the plants (mostly natives) aren't showing much stress, even the seedlings, bless their leaves & roots! I am going to hand water some of the newer shrubs and trees.

Recreated a refreshing summer drink I first had many, many, many years ago at the Amir Afandy restaurant. It's made from tamarind pulp and better than lemonade!

Is it hot and humid? I haven't noticed much. Actually, I just came back from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where I used to lived, and the air here feels so dry to me. Minnesotans always say it's not the heat it's the humidity. But let me tell you, there's humidity and there is REAL humidity. This is nothing. (BTW it really is the heat).

I moved out of MN last Christmas and now live in the extreme drought of Chicago where it's supposed to reach 102 today. I'm staying indoors except for keeping the pots watered. Inside I'm playing on the computer, cleaning the basement, sorting out old photos. After dinner, we'll get the sprinkler going and come right back inside.

Maybe next weekend will be a gardening weekend....