Dawn; I'm not surprised by yer frustration. You've remained dryer for longer than most (if I remember right) and also higher in temperatures. We haven't broken 100 in a while now. We're only 7 days away from a temperature with a high below 90 for one day. You're definitely not feeling what we're feeling.

For what it's worth I cuss at the Mesonet screen sometimes wishin you and others in Oklahoma would get the much needed break.

bon

I was SHOCKED, I tell ya, shocked, when I went to NOAA this morning and saw 100's in the forecast. What the HE double LL is going on? I was hoping for some maters before long.

Moni, sitting in her ac cooled puter room! with 101 outside!!!!

I stood there with my jaw on the ground when I saw the forecast.

I hate this heat! GRRRRR.....

I agree Dawn - I had planted green beans, squash, and cucumbers and my late tomatoes were looking good - seed came up and was looking sooo good - then bam! 100's again......they look burned already......I'm ready to throw in the towel for 2012.

I hate the heat, but cant see that it will make much difference. The Deer got about the top 1/3 of my purple hulls. Something (grasshoppers) got 100% of my broccoli. Some kind of red bugs are eating my green beans. Okra is still doing well. Melons and cucumbers are gone, tomatoes are blooming again but it is too late to get anything but green tomatoes, and I may have to spray to even get them. I am afraid the sweet potatoes are not going to produce anything but vines. I felt around many plants this afternoon and found three small potatoes. I am hoping I have had enough moisture that the ground has been soft enough that the potatoes are forming deep, this time of the year I usually have potatoes sticking up out of the ground.

I know I dont sound very positive, so I am going to make a very positive statement. I am very POSITIVE this has been a tough gardening year for me.

Larry

My one little cucumber that did come up out of all the seed I planted just died in the heat. I am beginning to think that the only gardening that is going to be done is on the "back side of the calendar"...

Bon, We had good rainfall last week. It ended up totaling 3.2", which is the most rainfall we have had in the month of August in many years, much less in one week. I should stress that was over a tiny area of my county comprising about 2 square miles and we were lucky enough to be within that area. The rest of our county is still terribly dry.

After that rain fell, the garden greened up, the tomatoes put out huge bursts of new growth and new blooms, etc. I was all excited about what a great fall garden we were going to have. Then, a friend warned me a few days ago that he heard the 100s were coming back and I almost wanted to cry. Sure enough, when I looked at the forecast yesterday, there were those awful 100+ temperatures. It is crazy.

We had not cooled down as much as many, and have been in the 100s many days, but usually after a couple of hot days in early September, that ends. This week's forecast is just awful. I know I won't feel that much cooler at 99 degrees than at 101 or 103 or whatever, so maybe it is just discouraging psychologically to see us over 100 for so many days yet.

Moni, I was shocked too. We had a couple of really cooler days when it rained, but since then it has been hot and humid, and this forecast is even worse than last week was.

The heat does make me stay indoors more than I would like. I just wave at the garden as I drive past it. I am sure it is feeling neglected.

Yesterday I used the HPC's online Heat Index Calculator, plugging in the actual temperature from our thermometer and the RH from our barometer, and our heat index maxed out at 116 yesterday. My poor chickens were on the porch trying to get into the house. Needless to say, the dogs and cats were indoors and so were all the people. Our high temp was "only" 103, which I think is plenty hot for early September, but the heat index was much higher for most of the day.

I just don't get anything much done outside on hot days like we're having now, and that is frustrating. The rain we received is making everything grow like weeds, but this heat and sunlight will roast it and turn it brown again pretty quickly.

Ezzirah, Me too. All summer I told myself 'wait until September and it will get better'. Technically that is still true, because 103 or 104 is much better than 108 or 112. But it is not as much of an improvement as I was hoping for. I'm afraid to look too far ahead at the long-range forecast, but I will say that something must by happening by Friday, because my Friday forecast shows highs only in the 90s. Yay!

Farmgardener, I feel exactly the same way. My southern peas that were planted for fall are unfazed by this heat, but everything else is wilted, burning, curling up, yellowing and screaming "H-E-L-P!!!!" I am afraid to start any cool-season stuff because (a) the seeds won't germinate in the heat and (b) I am afraid it will still too hot too long and the cool season stuff will bolt.

At our house, 2012 has been challenging but much better than 2011. I know for some of the gardeners here, 2012 has been worse than 2011. I hope we all have a much better 2013.

Larry, You're just doing your part to feed the wildlife, aren't you? It is unfortunate that the deer think your garden is their garden.

I have an ugly (just metal poles and woven wire fencing so certainly not pretty) 8' tall fence around my garden that my friends jokingly call the "prison garden fence", but it keeps the deer out. Without it, I would have no garden because before we put up that taller fence they'd jump the shorter fence and eat everything down to the ground night after night. In the earlier years, I tolerated damage, but every year they got more and more until the only option was to fence them out once and for all.

I wonder what your red bugs are? At my house the only red bugs I've seen are some red katydids and the red nymphs of the leaf-footed bugs. I'll link a photo of them just in case they might be the red bugs you're seeing. Usually the leaf-footed bugs prefer to demolish my tomato plants, but after they've done that, they'll move on to other things like beans, cucumbers and southern peas.

Y'all, I think we have been cheated by our weather this year. We should bag up this weather, return it to the place where we purchased it, and demand a 100% refund. (LOL-if only we could!)

At the same time, my heart bleeds for everyone who has been hit so hard by Isaac's destructive winds, rainfall and flooding, and I know that my garden complaints are nothing compared to their troubles. Thinking about them makes me feel guilty for complaining about the heat.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Nymphs of Leaf-footed Bugs

One county south of Ardmore? Any more than that and you're in Texas!

It's been a tough year. I have no idea what to do now with a garden. I haven not yet planted my fall seeds, I ws thinking I was too late but now I guess I can plant next week or so.

Traditionally for years during the State Fair we'd get a cold front blow through, it's really cool off and rain. The last few years have not been typical.

Gene, You have no idea how close I am to Texas.

From our back property line, the Red River is less than a half-mile and some folks say only a quarter-mile, though I've never trespassed on the property between us and the river to figure out the exact distance, and of course Texas is on the opposite side of the Red River. That is to our west. I have been back on that property during wildfires on the property, and was shocked to find the river closer to us 'as the crow flies' than I originally thought it was. As we were driving back off-road from a fire on that property last year, one of the firefighters pointed out different areas to me and at one point he pointed to a fenceline and said "that's your back fence"....I'd never seen it from that vantage point before, and the river was not too far west of where we were driving. Not too far at all.

To our east, it is 2 or 3 miles to the Red River, and to our south it is between 9 and 10 miles....so Texas surrounds our part of the county on three sides. We're in the little part of Love County that sticks down like a finger into Cooke County, Texas, which also explains why most of our routine shopping is done in Gainesville, TX, instead of Ardmore, OK.

I think that our extreme southern location in the state of Oklahoma partly explains why my weather very often resembles the weather in Dallas-Fort Worth instead of the weather in OKC. Dallas-Fort Worth is roughly 80 miles south of me, and OKC is about 120 miles north.

I was born in Texas and lived there the first 40 years of my life, but I do love Oklahoma and consider myself an Okie now, albeit an Okie who is still sort of surrounded by Texas.

Dawn

I planted lettuce outdoors in a large container thinking I would let it grow there for awhile then transplant part of it to a raised bed. It germinated in the cooler temps and broke through the surface today and we are supposed to be 99 for the next three days. I may have been a little early with my planting. I think I will water it good and cover it with a row cover for a few days. That won't solve the temperature problem, but I can keep some sun off of it.

The return to the 100 plus heat was uninvited and not predicted here. I just returned yesterday from a 3 day trip to Topeka and back. They are still complaining about being dry and they just received over 3 inches last week and another half inch or more Friday evening. But it wasn't near as green or lush as normal the whole way. Did see some decent crops yesterday coming home a different route. Must of been some rains moved through that way during the summer. The garden markets didn't have much around Topeka this year. Went out to a fruit orchard. They did have some apples, plums and a small amount of veggies. The only places that had any amount of tomatoes were growing them in hoop houses.

Before I left the NWS was saying the highest temp while I was gone would be 96 yesterday. It was 105 when I arrived home. Some things were showing signs of needing water when I returned. Sat was over 100 also. They are now saying 99 today and then a gradual cooldown with chances of moisture returning. Hopefully they are correct. With the recent cool weather my beans had rebounded and were setting some beans. I notice some of the tiny beans had died during the heat and wind of the last two days. Although the plants didn't show any signs of wilt or being dry. It looks like a few of the tomato plants that were making an attempt to recover may of gave up. I yanked two before I left Friday and there are a few more I'm not sure they are worth watering. Will wait for the cool down and see if they show any signs of recovery. Many of the late crops I planted are showing stress. I should of waited another two weeks I think. The cantaloupes are looking good. Some of the bean varieties were still looking ok last night. The pole beans exposed to the hot, dry winds overall got set back again. Heading out now to start some more water. I watered till dark last evening. Hopefully this will be the start of a true cool down. Although I'm similar to Dawn. As one meteorologist stated once that our distances from the Rocky Mountains along with the prevailing SW winds lends to us having extreme temp swings that those 60-80 miles east of us might not. I have seen 1-2 upper 90 and lower 100 days up to October. I was hoping for a good harvest through Sept and at least the first half of October. This spell will really set that back. Although with cooler temps and an inch of rain things would change fast. Jay

Carol, I bet your lettuce will be okay. I often germinate it in fall when we still are having occasional high temps and they don't seem to bother it that much while it is young.

Jay, Surprise, surprise, surprise! The heat snuck back in while you were away. In this awful year, maybe we shouldn't be as surprised as we are.

I assume at the hoop houses where they were growing tomatoes, they had shade cloth up?

I am glad that you came home when you did so you could water those heat-stressed plants. Our cooldown has been pushed two days farther away, to Sunday, which is starting to worry me. We had several rumored cooldowns this summer that never happened--they kept pushing the arrival day out farther and farther and then dropped all talk of a summer cooldown as it never arrived. I hope our fall cooldown isn't going to be that elusive.

I am having to fight the mosquitoes big time thanks to all the recent rainfall, and since West Nile Virus is at epidemic levels in Texas counties close to me, I am not taking chances. I believe about half of all the West Nile Virus-related deaths in the USA this year have occurred in Texas, so it is constantly in the news here. This morning, as soon as the first mosquito landed on my arm, I stopped what I was doing and came inside. Two of the deaths in Oklahoma from West Nile Virus have been from Carter County which is the next county north of ours, and I think it pays to be careful. On a day I want to work outside for a prolonged period, I wear long pants and long sleeves, and spray every inch of myself with Deep Woods Off, but it is too hot this week to dress that way even to work outside in the early morning hours.

I've been hibernating inside in the cool air-conditioned house, working on my 2013 Grow List and ordering any seeds I needed for next year, and I am almost through with those tasks.

I don't know how well my fall garden will produce. I'm still having far too many grasshoppers. In fact, this week it seems like the population has doubled, so I feel like some have migrated in from elsewhere. If the plants can survive the hoppers and get through this hot week, maybe I'll still hae a fall garden left to worry about next week.

The weeds are growing just fine. The heat isn't bothering them at all, and the hoppers aren't eating them either.

Dawn

Dawn I knew by the time I left Friday that missing one day of watering would be pushing it on some of the crops. I soaked everything either Thursday evening or Friday morning. Those I watered Thursday evening were needing a drink bad.
I did pick over two gallons of beans this morning. The short row of Fowler bush beans looks a little worse with every heat spell but so far has out produced everything else combined. Some of the others were starting to come on but got set back again. The later Fowler beans planted on 7-7 will be ready to pick this week. There are a few more varieties that are showing signs that they may produce well once the heat breaks. I have one variety that I planted real late after the hoppers mowed down the first planting. They are looking good but will be at least mid Sept before I pick any. Things sure don't look as good as when I left. The two 100 days and it is 96 now have really took a toll. Overall this summer has been worse than last summer for some reason. I now have the little worms boring into my beans and tomatoes. All I need is a few more things to battle and too stress my plants. Jay

Red bugs on green beans - could be Mexican Bean Beetles? Or, stink bugs. There is a species of stink bug that is red. I've seen so many weird bugs this year, nothing would surprise me.

My tomatos "were" looking better. I don't know if I will get any of the bigger ones to ripen before frost, but I will probably get the cherries, which is okay with me.

Okra still looking good, and squash is coming along, but not producing fruit like I think it should. I think it is getting too much shade now that the position of the sun has changed.

The fall plants are starting to hit their stride, though. The Lady in Red Salvia is blooming up a storm. One of the Asters is getting buds, the Mistflower has buds everywhere, the Golden Crownbeard is flowering like crazy, as is the Dallas Red Lantana (a plant that LOVES this obnoxious summer), the Tecoma guarame Miami Sunset is 8' tall and about to burst into bloom from the top on down. Passion vine has tons of blooms and some fruit forming, and lo and behold, my Button Bush that I grew from seed planted 3 years ago, is getting ready to bloom - really, really odd. This is the one the City dug up when they did the water line out front. They just plopped it back in when I complained, and it must have LOVED the disturbance because it has grown in leaps and bounds ever since. But, these nativs usually bloom in late spring to early summer.

Dawn, this one is for you -

Susan,

It sounds like your garden plants will be hosting tons of butterflies and other flying critters with all those flowers in bloom.

I love the photo. I have missed my Texas hummingbird sage so much this year. I guess I'll start over with seeds for next year because I never got one volunteer this year. When last summer's drought killed off my salvias, apparently it really killed them all, including any seed that might have sprouted this spring. Usually the Texas Hummingbird Sage volunteers sprout as thick as grass in May and I have to thin, thin, thin, but not a single one did this year. On the other hand, I am glad I didn't spend money buying and planting new perennial salvias this spring because I don't know that I could have kept them alive in this heat.

I am hoping for a better spring next year so I can replant perennial salvias in the front porch flower bed and can get the Texas hummingbird sage growing again all over and around the veggie garden. I have a new, fenced Three Sisters Garden across the driveway from the main veggie garden and it has well-drained sandy soil that will be great for some salvias at one end of it next year after I do so more soil amending. I didn't have any flowers in it this year because it was a first-year bed so I mostly used corn interplanted with winter squash to smother out any grass that tried to sprout and reclaim the area, with beans, ornamental gourds and southern peas on the fence. So, technically, there were the flowers from the veggies, but I didn't plant any ornamental flowers there and I think I would have liked that area better if I had sprinkled in some zinnias, salvias and sunflowers. You'd love the neighbor's pasture just over the fence from the Three Sisters Garden. It is full of waist-high native senna in full bloom and is gorgeous. It always has a lot of senna in there, but this year that stuff outcompeted everything else and just took over the whole area between the property line fence and his woodland. In our pasture behind the barn, some of those horrible native crotons have staged a coup attempt and there are hundreds of them back there. I know the butterflies like them and we usually have a few scattered around, but they've never taken over one of our pastures before. That's more common in the sandy soils near Thackerville. These are some of the ones with the gray, fuzzy leaves. It is fascinating to see what native plants will be dominant one year versus a different year with different rainfall patterns. In our 14 years here, this is the first time the crotons have been as thick as grass here. And, when I described them as horrid, I only meant that in terms of their invasiveness because they are so very aggressive.

Dawn

You may see a lot of Goatweed Leafwings flying and laying eggs on that Croton then. I think it's an Annual, no? If I so, maybe it won't reseed as heavily. I do know its extremely drought tolerant and maybe it just saw an opportunity to rule the roost this year.

Not only the butterflies like the Crotons, but many hunters plant them to draw game birds. They like the seeds. That may resolve the problem next year.

I don't know which native Senna is in the pasture. Could be Partridge Pea, Wild Senna, or Maryland Senna, or a few other not-so-well-known Sennas. These are larval host plants for Cloudless Sulphur and Sleepy Orange butterflies. I bet it is a pretty sight when they are in full bloom. These are nitrogen-fixing plants, and good forage plants as well.

I am ready for the butterflies this month. Linda should be posting her Monarch watch info before long.

Susan

Susan, We always have a lot of Goatwings....so many that I walk right past them without really noticing them or paying much attention to them much of the time. Familiarity breeds contempt I guess. I don't even know if it is an annual or a perennial, but it colonizes unmowed pastures and takes over them completely, but normally in sandy soils. We don't have a lot of it here often. I think it tolerates dry clay pretty well, but not wet clay. So, as long as we have a good wet winter every now and then, that keeps it from getting too invasive. This year? I could walk 300' through the pasture in a straight line and step on a croton plant with every step. When we mow that pasture and catch the clippings in a normal summer, I won't put them directly on the garden as mulch, but compost them first because I want to compost all the weed seeds as it is about our wildest area and has a little bit of everything growing in it. It is in the game bird area where we commonly have a lot of doves, wild turkeys and bobwhite quail, though I don't know if those three actually eat it. There is other stuff in that pasture that attracts them, though, because they are always there, as are rabbits and deer.

I think the native senna is Partridge Pea, but I've never gone into the pasture next door to look at them closely. The plants themselves look pretty tired, dry and worn out but are covered in flowers which are spectacular in that golden beauty right now. The plants had turned brown and withered already in early August, but then the recent rain seems to have revived them.

I've been waiting for Linda to tell us to start watching!

Judging by the speed at which the hummingbirds are racing through here this week, I think the hummers feel the big cold front coming and want to get ahead of it...or maybe they are gathering to ride that cold front further south. Presumably the monarchs should be at least beginning to gather and flock together for migration, right? If they cut west before coming this far south again this year, I am going to be so disappointed.

Dawn

The official migration has begun, and so far they are filtering down into the North, Northeastern states including NY, NH, VT, ME, PA, NJ, etc. I'm attaching the map FYI. There's a few numbers showing in the midwest and south, but so far mostly the NE and Eastern Seaboard as the map reflects.

I have a pair in the yard right now that have been there for a few days. A very tattered male, with most of his left wing gone - poor thing, he won't make it to Mexico I don't believe. Very few eggs showing up. I haven't gotten a closer look at the other one, so I don't know if it's a male or female.

There are concerns about how the drought has affected their nectar sources along the way. That may be why they seem to be congregating along the Eastern coastline.

Susan

Susan,

I don't see the map.

I'll link the one from Journey North, but if you had another map in mind, feel free to link it as well.

I bet that poor tattered male won't make it either. I hope your other one is a female and she's laying eggs. I'm not seeing many around here yet....fewer now than 2 weeks ago. Maybe it is the heat and they are laying low (and you know that I am hibernating inside the air-conditioned house).

I have been worried about what this year's prolonged drought has done to them and their fall food supply. I guess we'll get some clues from the migration as it progresses.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Fall Migration Map