The heat wave is almost over....

But first, we have to get through today. High humidity expected, its about 7:30am and the temperature is 80.  Humidity is 61%.   Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, relatively, but after that one more day of extra hot.  Then thunderstorms.
I watered the garden as well as i could yesterday morning as i hoped to do, so it shouldn't really need it today.
I took some pictures of things here and there and for my records i'll post them.
I love seeing how fast the plant can grow once this type of weather hits.

Those berry plants i saw on the roadside... i did get to stop and photo them:

 In my original guess i was sort of half right.  I was wrong when i hoped it was Sea Buckthorn, but i'm confident that i was correct thinking that they are some sort of wild Honeysuckle.  I didn't realize that the berries also come in orange as well as red.

Its too bad they are inedible, there's so many of them.

I decided to buy one of those Japanese Beetle Traps yesterday. I know there is debate whether or not they actually attract beetles to your plants or away, but i had so many on my plants i figure it couldn't hurt at this point.  I have a porcelainberry vine in the overgrown flower beds and they attract the beetles most shamefully....  Within 2 minutes of opening the pheromone packet, they came swarming!  It was like a cross between Hitchcock's "The Birds" and Pearl Harbor rendered in Popillia japonica!
Not sure anyone else can make out the beetles, they are the tiny, white, somewhat blurry spots...  there were about 30 of them in the trap within minutes. I'm sure there are hundreds in there by now.

I have green tomatoes!  These are Polfast.

Swiss Chard recovering...  i think i need to pick some.

Slim Jim eggplant.  The leaf color is so deep its almost black. The camera did not capture the color.
I have been thinking that the beds that currently hold overgrown flowers might be better used as veggie or berry plots...  if i do decide to go in that direction, i think this plant would be a great edible/ornamental candidate.

Rutabagas.... Two naughty ones trying to go to seed....
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Provider bush bean flowers

Finoccio

Rosemary

Summer squash... hopefully this one won't fade away.

Sunburst patty pan squash, these are really yummy and best when small, so it won't be long before these are ready to collect.

Blogger is uploading these photos extraordinarily slow today....

Birdhouse gourd....  i think it is going for world domination here.

Watermelon, finally starting to get somewhere.  I forget which one this is... the others aren't as big as this.
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If these flowers set fruit there should be enough time for them to ripen to eating stage before summer is over.  We usually run out of time with melons so i hope this year is going to be a good one.

Borage. This plant has struggled to grow, its no more than 8" tall, but it has a flower!

Marechal Foch in bloom. Fascinating teeny flowers.

Edelweiss making an unexpected comeback.

The big tree hydrangea budding up.

Marigolds from seed... finally blooming. These are in a large pot at the front door, there are others scattered throughout the veggie garden. They are also beginning to bloom.  The potted ones are Aurora Mix from Park Seed.

This rose came with the house. Its been hit pretty hard by the Japanese Beetles, but it manages to bloom nicely anyway.  I think i found the name tag that goes with it, but i don't remember for sure what the name is.  I think it might have been Mary Washington ...  its some historical American woman's name at any rate.

.Purple Smokebush. I need to move it someplace it can spread out. The silky dogwood is crowding it out. I might take cuttings of the dogwood and then use an herbicide on the rest.  I can't dig it out like i want to.

Not exactly sure what this is, i tried to get it ID'd at Gardenweb and i think they guessed "Nettle-leaved Bellflower" but this plant looks more hefty than the pictures i have been seeing online, but i think i agree.

Yes, the picture is upside down. I couldn't reach through the raspberry canes (they belong to the nice neighbors but the plants have totally invaded my flowerbed) to get a picture any other way.

Clematis Henryi

My Bay Laurel might have enough leaves this year for me to harvest and use without killing the plant. lol

I bought some landscape fabric yesterday.  When the hot weather lets up i hope to start digging up the flowerbeds.  I'll have to use herbicide on some of the ornamental grasses that have overstayed their welcome and overgrown their boundaries.  Then i can use the landscape fabric to prevent things from getting so darn crazy so quickly.  It only took one year (the year i spent on the couch in recovery) for the gardens to totally get out of control.  I don't ever want to see that happen again.

Well, that is pretty much it. The rest of the day will consist of house work. I might take a roller brush with herbicide on it to the aisles in my garden. The weeds are harder to pull from there because the earth is packed. Some of the weeds are trying to go to seed and i can't allow that.