Still too dry. Soon to be hot.

 Blessings Darlings!

We're heading into a little heat wave here - 4 days in the 90's, at least one currently forecast to be 98. And the rain forecast for today didn't arrive, of course.  The somewhat underwatered basil really really wants to go to seed.  I really, really want it to keep going so I can make lots of pesto.  OTOH, the Chubby Hubby HATES pesto.  OTOOH, the Spawn LOVES it.

 
I've watered the potted plants on the patio, but not the ones in the actual veggie garden and certainly not the herb garden. That's hose work, and the hoses are already tucked away because the mowers the management hired come tomorrow morning. So I'll water after they mow, I guess, tho' the day will already be getting hot by then.  

 
If I was in charge of mowing the lawn - I'd certainly not be mowing this dry grass that hasn't grown at all since we're in the middle of a drought.  But I'm not.

 
I've made more progress in my lazy way to expand the garden (I cover the grass with cardboard, the flattened boxes we use to carry our groceries home from Aldi's). I've covered about another 100 square feet - like a 4 foot by 25 foot swath. I don't know if I'll expand plants into it this fall or wait until spring.

Cool, damp summer

Blessings Darlings!

While we DID have a dry month early this summer, on the whole this summer has been coolish and dry.  There have been less days over 90 degrees than usual, and rain levels have been more than usual since the early hot dry spell.

So now I have issues from those factors in my garden!  I've only lost a couple of zucchinis to end rot from the rain, but on top of those losses some of the zukes haven't been well pollenated - they grow right the first few inches then sudden narrow and don't develop the rest of the way down the fruit.  Others, while properly pollenated have seemed to started to hibernate instead of finishing growing.  And my tomatoes are not just waiting for a few hot days to suddenly have hundreds of them suddenly ripen all at once - the indetermanent ones that ARE coming ripe one at a time all have big cracks at the stem end, the standard sign of too much water. 

I'm concerned I won't get any of the sweet potatoes, as they need rather a lot of days over 90 degrees to move from forming vines to forming tubers.

By the way, the DE didn't do squat for any of the bugs on the beans.  I don't think I'll be getting even enough beans for a dinner side dish, let alone freeze or can any.  The leaves of the beans look like delicate lace.  And the daily rain means that anything I use on the plants gets promptly washed off.

To paraphrase the folk saying:  humanity proposes, nature disposes.

Frondly, Fern

 

Heat Wave Eve

Blessings Darlings!

An early heat wave is going to be starting here tomorrow.  Temperatures will be in the 90's and the humidity will be high for 5 days.  Therefore, I did some preparations to help reduce my electricity use during that time.

That means that today I totally caught up on the ironing, so I won't iron at all during the heat wave (the Spawn will, since he didn't iron his work clothes.  His choice).  The Spawn made blueberry muffins, and pizza for dinner tonight - we won't bake desserts during the heat wave, and will grill and/or pressure cook dinners.  Bread and rolls are about to go into the oven, so we won't bake those during the hot days.  We don't need the loaf bread at the moment, so that will go into the freezer for a few days.

Late spring allows me to do this.  The hot weather isn't unrelenting ... nor is the cold weather.  A little preparation, a little care to work with, not against, nature goes a long way right now.

Frondly, Fern

Staff of Life

Blessings Darlings!

It's Lughnasadh!  Let's talk wheat!

SOME Examiner.com writers are fucking morons.  One posted her article on a Prepper list I'm on.  She went on about how the drought trashed the winter wheat crop.  Except ... it hasn't.  The crop has been harvested a bit early due to the drought (no rain slow downs), but even Kansas, HARD hit by the drought, had a great winter wheat crop.  Winter wheat in the US finished being harvested in the middle of July.

I think that the author can't tell winter wheat, which was planted late last fall, from spring wheat which was planted this spring.  Spring wheat IS likely to be affected, but it's a far smaller crop than the winter wheat is.  Spring wheat is just beginning to be harvested now.  I've never lived in an area that grows any.  Here the rotation is corn one year, beans the next followed by a fall planting of winter wheat the second year, then harvest the winter wheat and plant beans year 3. 

Corn and soy beans ARE going to be affected, of course, as will all the things with those crops in them, from vegetable oils to meat to soda.  Prices of 'veggies' might rise 5% due to increased cost of irrigation, but amounts of them shouldn't be affected much. Local veggies and soft fruits are going to be more price-competitive with supermarket ones.

Still, in the US we spend a WAY smaller percentage of our income on food, so we're going to be hit far less than most other countries.  Without imported grains, there will be famine.  People will die.  Rulers will be overthrown.

Buckle up.

Frondly, Fern

Purple Sweet Potatoes

Blessings, Darlings!

I removed all the sweet potato vines from my garden.  They go into compost unlike the tomato vines which, due to risk of blight, don't get composted.  While removing the vines I found yet MORE potatoes.  Bringing my harvest up to about 18 pounds.  I'm VERY happy with those numbers, given I had NO idea what I was doing and planted only 3 slips 'lasagna' style over solid clay soil.  These are, after all, a crop that loves SANDY soil, the opposite of what I have!

So, I hear you asking, how are they for eating?  Remember - I've grown these in the wrong soil and in a drought/heat wave, so YMMV.  Not as sweet as most orange sweet potatoes to me, and while the skin on most of them is thin ... just under the skin is a fair amount of fiber which can be nasty.  But I'm sure that I'll learn how to deal with that better soon.

I expect that the leaves are edible, too, but haven't tried them yet.  The deer LOVE them.  I let the deer in at the end of the season, so they could help remove the vines.  Working WITH nature rocks!

So, again - nice flavor, GREAT color, GREAT yield.

Frondly, Fern