A friend has a neighbor that grows moonflower. I love to drive by and see them at night!

I thought I'd never get caught up on the weed eating and mowing for two lots after the rains.

I cannot even begin to work like you do. I go out at about 6:30, walk the dogs at about 8:00, and usually come in at about 11 or so. I have to walk the dogs during the coolest hours because they are golden retrievers, and I have to protect them from the heat (so much fur).

Sammy

My schedule is similar to yours, but the earlier that it gets really hot, the earlier my day outside ends.

I've been on that early morning schedule for a couple of weeks now and it isn't always the air temperature that's the issue---sometimes the temperature is okay but the heat index is just so much worse.

I harvested for a while this morning, but didn't spend any time really weeding, deadheading or pruning. Maybe I can do that early tomorrow morning. I was back indoors by around 10 a.m. My favorite time of the day right how is from about 6-10 a.m.

Considering the extraordinary amount of rain that has fallen this year, my garden is in pretty good shape overall. That's not to say it looks good----most of the tomato plants have, at the very least, early blight and septoria leaf spot on the foliage, though the diseases aren't affecting the fruit or the plants' stems yet. All the cool season plants are done now, except for a few dill and parsley plants that are hanging on really well despite the heat. I grow them more for the swallowtail caterpillars than for us, so I'm glad to see them looking this good despite being eaten constantly by the cats. Oh, and the garlic. The garlic foliage just refuses to wither and turn yellow. I believe it may be stalled like the onions were. I'm going to hang on and watch and see what it does if I leave it alone.

There's so much that I never got planted because of the flooding and perpetually wet soil (okra, southern peas, winter squash) and, if I could ever get caught up on processing the tomatoes, I'd try to find time to sow some seeds. I'm drowning in a sea of tomatoes right now, but think that if I work hard and apply myself, I can get caught up on the canning over the next 3 or 4 days.

Today I harvested tomatoes, mostly ones that are at the breaker stage, so they won't be their full ripe, mature color for a couple more days and I hope that gives me time to process all the tomatoes that are piled up all over the house.

With the veggie part of the garden only partially planted, I just tucked in lots of flowers and ornamental peppers to fill in as cool-season plants came out, so the garden is blooming in vivid color. I'll try to list what's in bloom but am sure I'm forget something: zinnias, moss rose, verbena bonariensis, daylilies, crinum lilies, cannas, morning glories, rudbeckia, Texas hibiscus, swamp mallow, the last of the rusty hollyhocks, malva sylvestris, Maltese cross, coral honeysuckle, salvia farinacea, autumn sage, tropical sage, Laura Bush petunias, 'Exerta' heirloom petunias, a few begonias (voles tend to eat them all in summer and then they start devouring the moss rose), daturas (both white ones and yellow ones), runner beans, sunflowers, celosias, four o'clocks, heart-leaf speedwell, a few periwinkles (most drowned), catmint and nicotiana alata. I didn't even get any moonvines planted this year. I usually have them in the northwest corner of the garden with the white daturas and flowering nicotine. The ornamental peppers I planted 2 or 3 weeks ago are growing well, blooming and setting peppers. They'll add a lot of color to the summer garden. A volunteer squash or gourd plant at the NW corner of the garden is sending out vines running everywhere, and I am just letting it grow. It will be fun to see what we get from it.

A lot of the herbs are blooming too, and I let at least some of them stay in bloom since the little beneficial insects love their flowers. Herbs that currently are blooming include catnip, borage (2 plants survived the wet year so far, though one looks iffy), chamomile (mostly burning up in the heat, but a couple of plants still are in flower and looking good), basil (I did cut back a lot of the basil the last couple of days but left flowers on a couple of plants for the little wild things), comfrey, tansy, silver tansy, and pineapple sage. The swallowtail caterpillars have been busy devouring triple curled parsley, fennel, bronze fennel and dill, but with all the rain we've had these plants (planted more for the swallowtails than for us) just keep on putting out new growth about as quickly as the cats are devouring the older growth.

This is possibly the worst my tomato plants ever have looked at the end of June and I don't care. I would have understood if they all died or at the very least just failed to thrive and produce fruit. I'm not taking any extraordinary measures to keep them alive. Who wants to stand out there in this heat and pick off the diseased leaves and then spray them with Daconil? Not I. I'll just leave the ugly plants standing in the garden until they stop producing and then I'll yank them out. I've already canned tons of salsa for us, so the salsa I'm making this week is intended to be given away as gifts at Christmas, so the world wouldn't end if the tomato plants all died tomorrow (or even today). I'd just make something else for Christmas gifts.

I'm definitely operating in hot weather mode now. It always amazes me that the summer heat seems to catch me by surprise every year. I don't know why. I find myself thinking "Why is it getting so hot? It's only June." Duh. Oh yeah, summertime is here.