Hot so hot so hot

I have two thermometers on the back porch, both in the shade. The one on the wall of the house reads a couple of degrees hotter than the one hanging from the lattice behind the potting bench. That one gets more air movement, but both are always in the shade. The 'cooler' one is solidly on 100 degrees. And it is humid.

Then there is the metal dragonfly thermometer hanging from the back fence where it is in the full afternoon sun. Almost at 120 degrees.

It is still June.

*sigh*

Painted Ladies. Isn't it a pretty name?

I planted these and Scarlet Runner, and Scarlet Emperor to climb the bean poles in my vegetable garden. I had heard that they produce beans as well as the pretty flowers, but so far just the flowers. They are so pretty that I don't mind. I have some bush Roma beans that I am enjoying, usually eaten fresh off the vine as I stand there and the puppies nose around. Cassie likes bites of green bean; Aggie has no interest.

I let a couple of my Ichiban eggplant get past me in the heat and they started shriveling. Bummer. But more are on the way, and the green goddess eggplant has 3 or 4 I need to pick. And more cucumbers, always more cucumbers - good thing I like them! Tomatoes are continuing to ripen. I don't expect more to set until fall, but lots of green ones are still coming along.

It is my watering day - back to moving sprinklers!

Water so that it will rain...

I watered well yesterday, so today I had a pretty good rain. No complaints - I was going to mow, but I can do that tomorrow.
The squash are about dead and gone, vine borers. I got some good crops off of them, but should be able to get more without those dreadful pests. I tried burying the vines to promote root growth, but I don't think it is working.
Aggie surprised me this morning. I had been at the back side of the pond filling some plant tubs, and was back by the front. Suddenly he came barreling across the stepping stones in front of the bog! He is the adventurous one. I am glad we are having lessons with the escape ramp. They will be splashing in the bog before I know it!

The puppies are helping in the garden...

I am so tired of the humidity. OK, I am looking forward to a few days of good rain, as forecast ;) and I do not forget last summer's extreme drought, but it should be comfortable to go out at 7am to the garden, not drippy. *sigh*

However, last week's rain has produced a lovely thick flush of rain lilies, and the vegetable garden is happy. I have lots of flowers, lilies, cannas, skullcap, daylilies, and more. Not to forget all of the scarlet runner and painted lady beans. In theory those produce green beans, but mine are just flowering. I have some asparagus beans planted in with them, though, and am getting beans on those and on the bush romanos in he cinder block bed. The tromboncino has a large squash hanging from the trellis, and I am trying to extend the life of my squash by burying the stems in mounds of dirt, to form new roots. A few of the vine borers finally got through.

With the impending rain I got out there and dug the potato bed. With one exception all the vines were essentially killed a couple of weeks ago by an overnight defoliation of hornworms. Hey! I think I just came up with a new term of venery: a defoliation of hornworms!

Anyway, it was fun digging them out - I kept going over the beds and finding more. I am sure I missed some. There were 4 with pitchfork wounds which I will cook today. None are large. A few had rotted - the reason I wanted to dig them before the projected rains. I had planted the aged sprouted remnants of a bag of russets, too soft to eat, so anything is a bonus, and the new potatoes taste so good, a different texture, yummy.

What really made it fun was deciding to let the puppies help. Probably a bad idea in the long run, as I have been trying to keep them out of the garden, but I removed the little (pitifully inadequate) wire fences first, and did keep removing them from the remaining fenced areas. They can walk through those little fences, so they are meant more as a deterrent/learning tool than a real block. I had to be very slow and careful with the fork, sometimes lifting them with the pile of dirt! They had a blast. Dig dig dig - they are doxies, after all - getting gloriously dirty.

Now that the bed is well dug, I will add in a little fertilizer and plant okra. I have been eating mostly out of the garden for a while, squash, green beans (usually eaten right there as I pick them) some tomatoes - lots of green ones coming along - as well as cucumbers and eggplant. And a few late snow peas. Between the yard work since I was laid off in February, and especially since I got the puppies, I have lost 15 pounds by eating better (lots of veggies and fruits), more outdoor time/exercise, and being too busy with puppies to remember to eat. It is 11:30am and I am just now finishing my morning oatmeal. It is a drop in the bucket to what I need to lose, but every drop counts.