Crazy hot outside. Since yesterday, I knew I was sweating buckets but it sunk in today when I saw "feels like" temp was 116F. Yikes!

Garden is still moist from the last deluge, but the sun is really cranking, so not sure how long that will last. We yanked the carrots today and ended up with a pretty good haul. Guess we'll start on onions and potatoes next.

The peas are toast and we didn't really get a whole lot out of them. The window is just too short, i think. Low temps delay germination, then a month later it's 100 degrees and they bake. Oh well, the sweet potatoes will take that space now.

Now those tomatoes...wonder how they'll do with these temps? Fingers are crossed that they'll motor through and produce okay.

Stay cool out there!

hwy20, sounds like your garden is doing well.

My garden is not doing as well as I would like, the flash flood we had really took a bit out of mine. We had company over the weekend, so I was not able to do a lot of repair work, but plan on getting out in a few minutes to till in some compost where the onions were and plant squash. One row of okra looks pretty bad. I had a row of heavy mulch piled up along the row to keep the soil from washing, and to toss around the plants later. The mulch formed a dam and turned the water right down that row, washing the soil from around the roots. There are still enough roots attached to the soil to keep the plant alive ( I think ), but the plants are on the ground. I don't want to replant, so I will toss soil or compost to cover the roots and hope they keep growing.

Its light enough outside to get to work, so I had better get after it.

I came in to eat and take meds. The garden looks worse as far some of it is gone, the deer got into it again last night and took some of my okra and a lot of my sweet potatoes.

I got the spot where the onions were amended and tilled and most of the electric fence up. What is that saying about closing the barn door after the horse is already gone?.

I sure wish it would rain and cool things down.

I am a wimp, i cant take the weather for long periods.

It shows to be 92 here, and no breeze, sure seems hot.

I am moving half rotted mulch to form a border on the gardens and to mulch some plants.

At one time I kept a small ditch around the garden, filled with composting organic matter. I think I would have been better off if I still had that ditch, it may have offered some protection. I still, somewhat have a ditch around the north garden and it has less damage, although it is on lower ground than the south garden.

Rick, I am with you, it sure does not take long to enjoy a summer around here.

Rick, I was playing my best farmer, and trying to always complain about the weather :)

Garry can't take the heat. . . He did some weed-eating in the back for a couple of hours and then was ready to quit. I will say, if we have heat waves, I'd just as soon have them here in the mostly shade yard and shady deck with the big fans blowing. I was out all day until just now. I'd run out and weed a bit, then back to the deck.

Finished pulling all the greens out of the mineral tubs. I'm going to replace them with some of the many plants I need to find places for. Even if they stay there until next spring, they'll be okay and in fact that's my preference--I can keep an eye on them and nourish them better.

The grasshoppers are getting worse, quickly, and I spent much of the past couple days trying to decide how to deal with them. All suggestions are welcome. Sounds like Kim's facing the same situation. Any of the rest of you? She mentioned DE. I'm ready to try dried molasses and water, flour sprinkled; Neem, DE, Bonide. . . . I'm not happy--but another reason to keep new plants in the mineral tubs for now. . . I can protect them more effectively.

Though many of the onions bolted and most are lying down from the rains, they're really still not ready to harvest. Same with the garlic.

Nancy, I think that this may be my best onion year. I think that the crazy weather, plus me planting them so close hurt the size. I harvested the last of them yesterday and got around 40 pounds of them. I will guess and say, that yesterdays harvest, and what I have hanging in the shop will total around 90 pounds. I will have to give some of those away, we wont be able to eat that many, and I am not sure if Madge will want to freeze any. I planted over 400 and only had about 6 to bolt. The red onions the past two years have been the best I have ever grown.

I hope to order seed garlic for next fall so I will know what I am growing. The garlic I have been buying in the grocery department an Walmart has been growing great, but I have no idea what kind it is.

I forgot about having a package of bunching onions planted in with my bulbing onions, and tilled then in this morning, but I had saved a bunch of them to mineral tubs and they are doing great, also have a lot of walking onions in mineral tubs. I also have tomatoes and peppers in mineral tubs that need staking, do you that grow plants in tubs have a favorite way to stake or trellis ?

I spoke too soon (at the other place) about onions repelling squash bugs. I found some eggs last night. Also, some aphids on a few of the blossoms. The vine is running rampant, though, so should outgrow damage.

The soil in that bad is healthy. I'm not sure why I'm a magnet for aphids. I do not over-fertilize. When I see many ants busily running up and down a plant, I'll find aphids. Every time. I know that others don't have that issue, but in this garden, it is a fact.

Nancy, yes! Grasshoppers. I'm trying to smash everyone I see.

Rick and I dug the potatoes last night. We each got a bucket full. This week, I'll work outside as much as possible. The house was deep cleaned last week. Stella came in. The long day variety onions look really good. I'm a fan. We had a few bolt but those are being used for cooking. I'll probably leave them just a bit longer.

The garlic will be pulled either tonight or tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

It's hot and will probably be dry for 2 or 3 months. I'll be watering tonight. Already.

Oh, and sauerkraut is in the crock.

Several of the cabbages rotted in the rain last week. My fault. But a few are good. And I still have the tall raised bed full of cabbage and they look decent. So, we will get another batch of kraut. I'm going to use the Pickle Pipes for this next batch.

Rick is coming out to till where we dug potatoes and will plant cow peas there.

I'll be working outside too after cooking dinner. I will be finding the shade, however. I got a pretty good lecture on staying out of the sun because of the lupus thing.

The garden has some good things and some not-so-good things. Grateful to have it.

Be careful out there.

We had a bunch of rebar in our building so I bent some in half & made trellises out of them. Then tied old cloth strips around them. So far seems to be doing well.

Jen, thanks, that is interesting, but I think that I have already cut up most, maybe all my rebar for neighbor to use for pepper stakes, but I do have some treated fence boards that I might be able to rip into stakes.

Is the red paint on the tubs for protection from the sun? I have noticed plastic buckets break down in the sun after just a few years, I have been thinking of ways that I might be able to protect my mineral tubs, paint is one of the things that I thought of, but was not sure if it would help.

By the way, your plants really look good, I don't have any that look that good yet, but I know that mine don't get a lot of sun. My plants are on a shelf along the edge of the deck, which is pulling loose at one end because of the weight. I have 6 tubs on that one rack, that has mostly dirt in them, and they are very heavy.

I think it was on this forum that I heard about Fourth Of July tomatoes, I think Dawn is the one that was telling about them being early. Any way I bought some seed and have tried them for two years now. They have not had a good test yet, but I think that they are a "keeper", has any of you grown Fourth Of July, and how did/do you like them? They seem to be very hardy, good producer, not outstanding in taste, but still worthwhile.

Lol no, the paint was an attempt to make them not as glaring when I had them at the old house. Since the garden was in the front yard, Cliff suggested painting them so they weren't so smurf blue eyesore. Only as the paint chipped off, they just look like slaughtered smurfs. And I wouldn't advise painting them, the ones I painted are actually more brittle than the unpainted ones.

I tried 4th of July toms a couple of years ago. don't recall anything spectacular about them. But my toms hardly ever are.

Rick

Worms! Those aholes got into one of my Cherokee purples. I guess they don't know how much the gardener is ready to tear into them when they ripen. I layed down a healthy dose of spinosad this evening. I'm twitching a little, probably took quite a bit of it in the face on this breezy afternoon, lol.

Slow, yeah the garden has done fairly well so far, but the weather is awfully hot and humid now. Not sure what things will look like next month, but i'm giving it hell. Bella Rosa tomatoes are still impressing with the amount of fruit on. Half the plant is fruit it seems. More onion tops were laid over this evening. Guess it's about that time.

Lots of space opening up soon and we've still got plenty of season left. Maybe cantaloupe? More okra? Any ideas?

We planted 60+ hills of cantaloupe a week or so ago, many made it through the flood, but its been too muddy to get out and check them, plus I have been trying to repair flood damage in the south garden.

We have a full day tomorrow, but no way we can get it all done. Hopefully we can dig about 1/3 acre of potatoes and go to town for 5 cattle panels. I can handle the tractor work and going to town, but someone else will have to pick up the potatoes. If neighbor can get the potatoes picked up we can replant tomorrow afternoon. Neighbor wants to go back with squash, I think he is selling a lot of squash.

I called grand daughter to see if she wanted any more beets, if she didn't I was going to till them in to create more space, but she wants the beets. Space is something we have plenty of, but getting it ready can sometimes be a problem.

Hwy 20, BT would be a better option than spinosad! BT targets caterpillars. Spinosad, well it kills more, and does it even kill caterpillars? I guess it does, google confused me this time. I thought it said it killed bees. Anyhow, I'm sorry!

No new garden stuff, though Ron watered some this morning. Pots I think. Shouldn't need to water beds.

Larry, I'm sorry about your flood, that is scary!

Er, Jennifer, did I miss something? Lupus?

XOXO

Thanks, Amy, we can always say, "it could have been worse". Neighbor got water in his down stairs, and he lives up on the base of the mountain, he was telling me that we got 8" in 2 hours, I dont know where he got his info, but I have never seen that much water in this valley.

Nancy and all, the grasshoppers are showing no signs of stopping. My dianthus and walking onions are a favorite. Beans are gone. I got 5 chicks and built a redneck chicken tractor out of lumber I did not cut. It is crazy looking but built like Fort Knox. I saw one baby running around with grasshoppers in his mouth. The others were chasing him but I could tell he was so proud. The DE did not help. I am off tomorrow after picking plums,a zoom meeting, and watering I am putting up chicken wire all around my garden and turn those darlings loose. Just the movement will scare off the hoppers. And I will be covering my most precious things with row cover

Any forecast further out than 5 days becomes very iffy, and Jed tends to hype the outer end of this 9 day forecast. But if this happens, then that's the final blow for my tomato garden.

My experience says there's almost no fruit set with temps in the mid 90's. But that usually is not the case till the first week in July. Looks like July is getting here in June.

With my mulch and top soil washed away, and many okra and others lying on the ground, I am having trouble keeping enough water on the plants.

I think I can keep the sweet potatoes going, if I can keep the deer off of them. I got a new fence charge, the old one quit working. My tomatoes have not done much this year. I was late getting them in, and, the weather here could have been better, now it is too hot. I often run 5 degrees worse than Ft. Smith.

Neighbor did not get all of his potatoes picked up yesterday, so it looks like I will be working in a lot dustier soil late this afternoon to get the potato patch ready to replant, I have to wait till the mountain shades the garden because I cant handle the heat. We really have a sorry place to try to raise food. Years of work went down the creek in our flash flood, the low area permits us to have frost when many others dont, and the soil is so shallow that it will hold very little moisture. This is an area where raised beds are really needed. The next best thing is a raised garden, which I try to do, but they are no match for a flash flood.

I dont know if I mentioned it or not, but I still have 40+ hills of cantaloupe left, and maybe 36 tomatoes. The sweet potatoes are in an area that the flood did not hit badly, so I expect that there are 100+ of them still there. Although I have not walked in the watermelon yet, from the end of the patch it still looked like I still have 82 hills. I will go check them closer today, I still need to do some mowing and spraying over there. There are 9 rows of peas that still look good also. There are other things that still look good there, but those are things that neighbor is working on and harvesting. ( By the way, all of this is in the wildlife garden. ) The deer have eaten nearly all the sun flowers that are not behind the electric fence, it appears that they don't like zinnias. The zinnias look pretty good, considering they dont get any care, and only water when it rains.

Its 92*, and maybe still enough to spray the fence rows, so maybe I can handle an hour of heat.

Kim, I smashed probably a 100 grasshopper while weeding yesterday.

And what is up with the bag worms this year and last year?! I've always seen them on cedar trees. Last year and this year, they are on all plants.

Lynn, can you make a shade structure for the tomatoes? Could you start seed for fall tomatoes?

It seems early to be calling it quits on tomatoes, but I may not be far behind you, I still have tomatoes, but I am not sure how much longer they will be setting fruit. I pick my first tomato yesterday, but it was split badly, another one a worm had eaten a lot of it.

I check on buying some tomatoes to fill in for the dead and missing plants, but I could not make myself pay the price when I still have over 50 plants.

Jennifer--haha! I can't move fast enough to get the grasshoppers! I am impressed. Kim--I have too many things that I consider precious. AAGGHHH!

Dawn always said 95* was the magic number when they quit setting fruit. My experience is that my plants are pretty much done by the 4th of July to mid July. And by the end of July the blight has pretty much taken all of them.

For me, June is the window for setting fruit and then we're canning by mid July. That's why I'm anxious to get them in the ground at the first of April.

Hazel, I'm done for the year, I don't wanna work at the garden any more this year. My next big project will be tilling it in August and planting winter cover.

I just did a quick Google of temps and tomatoes setting fruit ............ daytime temps above 95 and night time temps over 75 , pretty much shut them down.

And our night time temps have been above 75 , though our daytime is not as hot as predicted, I think 90 today.

I know our nights have been warm. I walk the pug at the park every day. And pugs don't handle temps over 80 very well. Dogs cool down by breathing and flat nosed dogs have trouble breathing. So I have the pug out on the trail at 6 am and its been high 70's at that time all week.

Wellll , there's okra and cowpeas.....and watermelon and such.

And fall gardening is just around the corner , starting with fall tomatoes.

If you're up to doing battle with the heat and the bugs.

Of course it's a little harder just after a flood.

Rick

Rick, don't forget morning glories. I think my morning glories are out growing my watermelons, that what I get for not spraying them when the started on the butternut trellis last summer.

20, Bella Rosa is probably one of my favorite, if not my very favorite, tomato to grow. Beautiful tomatoes, taste great, impressive disease resistance. I only got one plant this year, so i need to refresh my seed stock for next year. Fourth of July is another one that does really well for me. Just gave me my first blusher this week.

Big Beef is officially off my safe list. Third year in a row that its been the first plant to crash and burn with fungal disease. The diseases must be mutatimg or something, or the disease resistance is washing out, or somethimg. But no more. Hopefully i can keep this one alive long enough to let the fruit that has set finish ripening. Im starting a couple replacement tomato seeds for fall this weekend. BB will be first to get yanked.

I didnt get big onions this year, but they’re way better than last year. Most of them are harvested and curing, still waiting on a few more necks to break. Not sure if i need to feed more or water more, or both. I dont neec Dawns softball sized onions, but bigger than a golf or tennis ball woułd be nice.

Potato harvest isnt great. I dug up several pieces that not only never sprouted, but still looked almost exactly the same as when i planted them in March. The eyes just never grew. I got the same potatoes I always do (yukon gold), from the same place, cut and chitted the same, planted the same, fertilized the same. Its weird What did grow is good, though. Just a small harvest

About half my tomatoes look like crap. Me and my wine slushie went out last night and trimmed the blighty parts out of all 24 of them. Filled 3/4 of a large lawn bag.

What is the secret to getting beets to bulb up? Are they heavy feeders? More water? Mine are just tiny.

I hate morning glories. They grow up my corn stalks better than my pole beans do.

Rick

I don't try to get my tomato plants in the ground as early as possible, because I'm in a race for the first tomato.

There's definite window for plants setting fruit and the only way to lengthen that window is to plant early and take chances on getting through a couple of mild freezes.

And this year the back end of the window is closing early. Weather has not been kind this year.

Lynn, when I was young there was an old gardener in out church that would say, that if you get a tomato by the fourth of July, you are doing good". I was young enough then that I did not pay much attention to anything, but now anyone can get a tomato by the fourth of July. I don't know if the weather has changed that much, or what type of tomatoes he was growing. The old man has been gone for many, many years, and I don't remember anything about his garden, but something has had to have changed,

I got most of the wildlife garden mowed yesterday. The wildlife garden is more work than it is worth, but at this time it looks nice. I want to have it just in case the family needs the extra food, but at this point they are not showing a lot of interest in it, but the deer are, they have eaten all the sunflowers that are not protected by the electric fence.

Larry, maybe weather patterns have changed because my Mom said her grandparents always said "knee high by July" regarding corn. It meant that the corn was coming along/on track for a good outcome/harvest. I'm pretty sure our tallest corn is taller than me now....and have silks.

Lynn, unless the plants are just completely awful/dead, I'll leave them and often they'll make fruit again when it cools down. But, I realize everyone of us has reasons for growing and gardening the way we do. We have our schedules that work for us. We're all different.

Nancy, grasshoppers don't like being wet. It slows them down. So, spraying them with water gives me a few seconds to smash them. I watered this morning but didn't take a lot of time to focus on them, although around 20 went to grasshopper heaven.

It's pretty hot out there already so I came in at 11 instead of noon. I might go out and try to braid the garlic. We had a great harvest this year. Super excited about it.

Does anyone know if onions can get sun scald in the garden?

Plans for today: Stella leaves, so I'll send her off in a bit.

Then, maybe putting the kraut into jars? Maybe I'll wait one more day.

Rick is coming out this evening to check the SG to see if it needs watered. Everything else is watered.

I know that ground level watering is the best, but has anyone used the tripod sprinklers in their gardens. Two of our neighbors have purchased those and it looks like a good way to water the SG. We can't run dripline in that garden because Rick likes to keep the rows fresh and fluffy with the Mantis.

If I can take the heat, I might try to tie up the tomatoes in the SG. Those tomatoes are full of fruit but look like crap. There are 19 jars of diced tomatoes in the pantry from 2021. I sure would like to get an additional 2 dozen put up. Rick needs to replenish at his house too.

The overflow tomatoes--the ones that looked horrible from the potting mix--look wonderful. Especially the ones behind the shop. So weird.

Andria, if you're reading this, how do they look in the community garden? I was truly embarrassed to bring them to SF.

I should have forced all of you to take some because they look great now. haha.

In the summer, I really like to sleep in to 7 or 7:30. I'm considering getting outdoors by 6 and then napping in the afternoon. On my days off work, of course.

Take it easy out there, People.

My potato harvest. After the grasshoppers took out the plant three times I gave up.

These are 3” at most

It's sweltering out there. Hot & humid and really hard to cool off. I've figured out that as soon as my hat starts to drip continuously from the hat rim, it's time for a break. If it were drier air and we had a little breeze, it would make a huge difference.

Sure could use one of those thunderstorms that blow a blast of cool air before a nice rain. Stay cool and stay hydrated out there.

It is a little cooler here, 94*, which is still warm.

I have not done anything to day. Because of health problems I have to be careful. I did quit a bit yesterday, so I have taken a break till now. I finished in the wildlife garden, other than spraying some sapling and morning glories. I went after gasoline and diesel, first time I have used my ski mask in a long time.

I am really happy about how the wildlife garden looks, but with this weather all my gardens are going to suffer. As I was checking the wildlife I only notice 1 zinnia beginning to bloom, but more should follow.

I was surprised how the cantaloupe have taken off. They are in new un-amended soil, so I was not expecting much.

I spent way to much time outdoor yesterday and today. Yesterday I said, I was in the sauna. LOL

Actually went out about 8:30, in around noon for a lunch break and more conversing over whatsapp, FB messenger and email. My uncle in Australia died last week. There was no will.

My cousin (by uncles sister) is trying his best to get the body and arrange for a funeral. Since there is a sister (my mother) and another full blood brother living in Germany they have to give consent to the funeral stuff. All very confusing and hard to manage with German relatives (older) that don't use/have a computer nor a cell phone.

Between my cousin and my sister in France, we are trying to get all needed permissions.

All this, while daughter is still living here, but thankfully German sister is now gone, in California with her sons and grands.

back to gardening: I was weeding and watering. I still think, I will quit the watering... soon.

Meanwhile I went to the beginners ride, where no one showed, and the ride leader and I ended up riding 42 miles. It got HOT before we got home.

Somehow, I can't make myself go out and finish the job from yesterday... YIKES.

On a happier note, here are some pictures of my elderberry plants.

a few days later using macro:

Elderberry bushes in bloom are so pretty! I have two out front but at the corner of the yard, so we don't ever really see them.

I am SO sorry about your uncle--and all the grief in every way for everyone.

The grasshoppers are on their way to two wins in two years. Bad deal. However, I'll count my wins--a yard full of butterflies, too, at this point. Blueberries, blackberries, peppers, a couple tomatoes, garlic and onions. Kind of a strange harvest!

I don't know if I'll ever get my laptop debugged so I can sign on GW on it. For now my indoor big computer's the only access. Well. . . cell, but I don't use the cellphone for this stuff. And I'm out on the deck from morning til I fall asleep in the evening, for the most part.

It was quite nice here yesterday and the day before, Larry--it would have been great gardening weather, but the lake is finally down low enough so that we can launch the boat, and the high was just below 80 for most of the time were were out there--morning--beautiful weather. Fishing no good. Zip, nada.

Jennifer, your garden looks just beautiful, as did your kraut! I'm going to wind mine down--easy stuff like the strawberries, onions, garlic and asparagus.

We really need to get together one of these days, Rebecca, here or there with the others. My beets didn't turn out either. ONE. One great beet. lol

Crazy busy here. Been working at the school garden--and right now John and I are working up an inventory--he started it and I've been filling in the blanks. I laughed--Rick, I hate morning glories, too. John has been very conscientious about getting them out of the beds--BUT. we have this 8' tall fence all around the property. . . I've been planning to get the fence obscured along one long side by elderberries, blackberries, clematis virginiana, coral honeysuckle, and crossvine. And then John had the great idea of moving the morning glories into pots with bottoms removed and setting them against the fence. If there's one place we're fine with them, it's there. Fun idea, actually.

And that's about it from here. Take care, all.