[gardeners] Gardening today
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 31 Jul 1998 10:17:46
Here it is six after ten in the morning and I'm soaked with sweat and the
pup is panting under the desk. Been up since six am trying to get stuff
done before the heat hits. Ha! It was 85F when I got up and it's over 90F
now and headed for 95F by mid afternoon. Forecasting 105-108 for heat index
today, probably make that by noon.
Anyway, got the main veggie garden deep watered and have the sprinkler
going lightly on the sloping herb garden. Front flower beds have been
watered until the coffee can method showed one inch deep. Got two loquat
seedlings transplanted into bigger pots and stepped the 7 Heatwave II
tomatoes into the next larger pot. June beetle grubs got my Spanish oregano
in a clay container and I just dug the little rascals out and squished
them, sifted the potting soil, mixed in some new soil, and planted a start
out of the main herb garden. Like to always have a backup on the newer
herbs that really haven't established themselves yet. The leaf celery is
doing poorly and I haven't figured out what is wrong with it other than the
heat. Garlic chives are tall and pretty, onion chives aren't much bigger
than seedlings. Soil fertility is approximately the same, same amount of
sunlight, same amount of water, reckon garlic chives are just hardier than
the onion variety.
The Lemon Drop chiles are getting bigger but still haven't turned yellow
yet. They are the slowest of all the chiles I planted this year with the
exception of the Thai Hots. The Hots are not very prolific at all, sparse
pickings but large, beautiful plants. Bees not working them? Don't know.
Turkish Hots never did much and now the plant has bit the dust. Charlestons
are going great guns and are, next to the Longhorns and the Casabellas, the
most prolific chiles I have growing.
The cucuzzi has slowed up on setting fruit and the lageneria, Hercules War
Club gourd, is about a foot tall now and reaching for the sky. Okra
evidently likes the hot, dry weather because six plants are providing us
with all the okra we want. Picking every other day and getting two to three
fruits off each plant and they're only about 4 feet tall now. Cukes have
about had it and I will plant fall cukes in mid-August along with some
other fall crops.
Got a little work done on the greenhouse rehab this morning too. As you may
have guessed I'm feeling much better. Reckon whatever crud I had has run
its course. Kid down the street is trying to make a little money for school
so I've got him mowing what yard we have left and he is going to take his
pickup truck out to the quarterhorse farm and get us a load of manure when
it cools off this afternoon. Will pay him for loading, unloading, and
hauling. He doesn't charge much and it helps him and certainly helps us.
Gotta go move the hoses.
George