Tuesday, July 6, 2010

More hot days

Not that i'm really complaining.  Its 77.4 degrees out at 7am.  Last night was one of those nights where they say you can actually hear the corn grow. I guess it makes a creaking noise if you have enough of it. Of course we have those air conditioners going on, so that means i can't hear any outside noise at all. That is the main thing i dislike about the air conditioners, well that and the electricity they use. But i won't get into that.

I'm hoping to get out and put some water on the garden before 9am so it will have time to soak in really well before the sun gets too strong,  its supposed to be awfully humid so it might not make much of a difference.

I think the heat is making a few of my rutabagas try to bolt.  Its odd, i thought rutabagas needed to be made warm, then too cold, then hot again before they do that.  I seeded them in when it was warmer and i don't think we got a temperature drop below what induces them to flower...  in any case its just a few of them (like 3)  in a 4'x3' square.  This is my first try at rutabagas myself, so its possible that a few in each crop does this anyway.

The finocchio are looking good.  I was worried for a while that they weren't going to get anywhere since they were also getting nibbled by the groundhogs. I really hope they bulb up and don't bolt!

The Provider bush beans are in full flower, i like the light purple color. There are a lot of pretty flowers in vegetable gardens that don't get noticed.  My Red Eye and Carnival squashes have gigantic, brilliant yellow  blooms. I have some nasturtiums planted between them and the red and orange flowers look nice with the squash flowers.
I noticed that the tiny cucumbers that started about a week ago have not grown at all and a couple actually fell off.   We'd been having rain at the right times and i have watered a bit in between when necessary, so i don't immediately think it has to do with dryness, maybe heat?  I'll have to look into it, i am sure i read about it someplace but i have terrible memory. 
That first little summer squash i took a picture of a week back ended up melting away. I think a slug got to it.

The celery stump i planted seems to be continuing to look good, i have another package of celery hearts that i plan to enjoy with some spreadable brie, so i'll be planting a couple more later.  If i don't get full sized stalks i won't mind cause anything more i get from these stumps will be a bonus.  I am definitely going to try it earlier next spring by deliberately buying a bunch of celery  mainly for planting. We do use a lot of celery when we think to buy it. Its so good stuffed with cream cheese and olives or no-sugar-added peanut butter, and i like it diced and added to my chicken or egg salad.

Its looking pretty cloudy out right now and that is probably a very good thing. It would be much hotter already if the sun was out and strong right now.  I think we are expected to get into the high 90's but not into the 100's.

I have a few more things to plant, so as soon as the weather relents, i will be planting them.

Oh, the other day i saw a roadside plant that looks a lot like an Autumn Olive. I want to get hubby to help me get a closer look at it. Its not in anyone's front yard, its in a scrubby waste spot next to a big road drainage trench. I don't know what those are called, a large gully maybe...  Anyhow, i think i'd like to clip off a few pieces so i can get a positive ID and then try and root the cuttings. There are also a few other shrubs there with red berries, i'd like to ID those and get some cuttings if it is also an edible.  There is yet another plant i need to look closer at, this one is in the back yard, beyond our fence and on the nice mneighbor's property. Its in the scrubby corner where they don't go  and it will be hard to get a closer look, but i can see enough of it to try and decide what it is.  It looks like a familiar plant, but i don't remember what it is. I don't think its an edible, but i like plants that attract birds.  The red berries are double.... and i think its some sort of wild honeysuckle. They don't have much of a scent when they bloom, so it does not call attention until it gets those juicy looking (and probably inedible) berries.

I need to go out and take some pictures and edit them in later.

I guess its time for house work stuff.