Right now, I'm sanding and re-staining my back deck...so tables and plants are everywhere.
I have two little bistro tables that I muscle in and out of the house morning and evening
until December or so...when the weather begins to turn poor (get it!).

I have two Portulacaria afras, a Crassula ovata, and an Euphorbia beharensis planted in the
garden. I'll dig those up in November, thoroughly clean the roots, and re-pot in proper soil.

Josh

c-mch -

Fall is coming...I know...so sad...yet it's 91 outside today, going to 96 tomorrow...

Two things I usually try to do is to make sure that I am up to date on my systemic imidacloprid application, and I usually like to do a preventative spray with a miticide (like a bonide mite-x).

How do you 'check' for pests - just eyeball it? Do you do any preventative spraying?

T

Josh,

I never thought of you as a bistro table fellow, but whaddya know.

Tom,

I just eyeball it and check the rootball (when I do repot). I've not had any problem yet so no systemic for me, thankfully.

I'm envious of your heat, but that's with humidity at the same level, isn't it? Yuck.

...actually, humidity is pretty low right now - 43%. Feeling kinda Arizona right now...my plants are happy, and so am I.

T

Dear Jeffrey,
these stylish black bistro tables are used only for my plants. They're quite low,
almost a bistro coffee-table, really. They cost about $20 bucks. Perhaps a picture's in order...

We recently had a three-day hot snap...then three days of cool, with a novelty rain Saturday.
Now we're back to the mid-90°F's, with a forecasted 99°F on Thursday. I hate the heat.
Thankfully, this morning is still nice and cool.

Josh

So, I went out there this evening with my spray bottle of mite-x, expecting to immunize my plants as I usually do. But, when I looked at them, I found that I did not have the heart to start broadcast spraying them...they looked pretty good, with no suspicious activity at all, really. So, I didn't do it...am I being pound foolish?

In any case, I will probably invest in a batch of mite destroyers when I bring them in. I did it last season and had no mites...not sure if that is why, though. In fact, I really did not see much mite destroyer activity after I sprinkled them around either. Just no mites.

I guess that is okay, too.

T

I'm really not ready to think about transitioning to winter when the temperature was 97 degrees during the day!

I have to move all of my echeverias and jades indoors and find some room for them. (That task may be easier than I previously thought though, since I came home to a toppled planter of rosemary -- courtesy of my cats.)

I think I'm going to do some preventative spraying before moving them indoors, but I hear that the gritty mix doesn't harbor many pests, so I'll mostly looking for buggers on leaves.

But the thought of the coming cold weather has me in the mood for looking for cold-hardy succulents. . . .

We already had some hard frosts--had to cover the tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins. That is a little early, but not the earliest I've seen in my many years here. It will warm back up again. We will probably have more frost sometime in September and it will warm up after that as well.

I leave my tender Cacti outside under shade cloth until mid-October. There are a few that I will bring in a little sooner (my orchid cactus and some of the mams).

I did have to order another small plant stand for all of the Echinopsis hybrids I ordered during the summer. I usually use a systemic on the cacti, but I'll just have to look and see how they are doing. I also isolate any plant that looks like it has problems; especially bug related. I can't afford for problems to spread under the conditions in the sun room.

Since I've been doing this, I have been losing fewer plants.

I'm sad to think summer is almost over :-(

Because of the heat in Texas, I am glad sping is coming. But I don't want to see winter, because it is lot of work for bringing all the plants inside garage, park cars outside and covering all the ground plants. I am not complaining, because I know my winter is much mild than people who live up north.

Your summer was mine last year..:-)

When the west meets cold, the east meets hot..

Mike

Ugh. The summer the east coast had last year... makes me grateful for this week's heat wave, LOL!

For the last 3 weeks I've been bring plants in for the winter,its about 3 weeks early for me but with the way things have been going I wanted to get a jump on it, all my cactus are now under lights,my larger plants will be in by the end of next week, just need to make more room for them.

Bear

Wow, ya'll are busy! I'm uh, going to pull out my winter clothes in November. And cross my fingers I don't have to carry anything in for more than one night this year.

Hope winter treats your plants well.
Tally HO!

bring in . . ? winter. . .?

sorry - couldn't resist :D I'm with beachplant in that my "winter" clothes won't make an appearance until some time after Turkey day - IF then.

- altho we do get a light frost here every once in a while so I do have to keep an eye on the forecast in late january. I AM looking forward to our planting season - which will begin mid-October or so. That's the time I like to get my trees/shrubs/annuals planted and boy oh boy are we going to be digging some holes this year! (hubby doesn't know that yet - it's a surprise!)

This is also the time I can start going outside and seriously work in the garden without fear of shriveling up from dehydration. I guess I basically treat our summers like normal people treat winter - time to stay inside and plan for milder weather! (altho it was 104 yesterday. . . and HUUUUUMID!)

@tom - I had to laugh at your note that your humidity was pretty low at 43%, anything over 30% around here just flattens me!

95°F out right now....with 18% humidity....

Josh

Josh. It was 96F today with high humidity!

Tom, would you say it was a tad bit more humid today? We are going to miss this for sure..A fall feel in the air this weekend..

Mike

Yeah, sorry to rub it in :o) but I won't be bringing anything in either till January, and if our winter weather returns to normal this year maybe not even till February? We did have a brutal winter last year and broke 30+ year record lows, I'm hoping that's a one time thing! I can't wait for some cooler weather but that's not happening till November if I'm lucky! Long, hot/humid spring/summer/early fall!

ZZini, 43% is LOW humidity in FL too...normally we're in the 60%-90% all summer. 40% range humidity is usually our winter humidity,lol...which we look forward to!

ACK!

pulvr hope we both have "normal" winters this year, last year was a killer! I still have to cut down the dead 30' rubber tree.
I dream of 40% humidity. Though then you have that stuff called static electricity LOL!
zzini, never thought of it that way, we DO treat summer like they treat winter, hide in the ac and drool over gardening mags.
Tally HO!

Zzini,

Where do you live? I think it is rare to see anyone post around here that lives in zone 13..WOW, you could be so lucky!

Hope you are all enjoying the last few days of summer, at least us up here in the north..I'll bet all you southerners can't wait for the fall...

Pug, you are so fortunate never needing a humidifier..lol

Mike..:-)

Yes beachplant, we certainly can hope for a "normal" winter...gosh knows we don't want a re-run of last winter! I still have battle scars from it :o)

Hey Mike, I think zzini lives in CA at least that' what I remember zone 13 being? Hence her very low humidity...I used to live in Lancaster, CA and we had very low humidity like zzini...not quite as low as NV but close. Got very cold in the winter(rarely snows though) and got up in the 110°-115° in the summer! I NEVER sweated,lol...no matter how hot it was, gotta love that low humidity! You're so right Mike, humidifiers are rarely used here...except for sick kids with a flu or something in the winter.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Hi Everyone!
Like some here. I don't do much for winter here in Tucson Arizona.
ZZ is also in Arizona.(I see a few were wondering) :)
Mike, the zone ZZ has listed is the sunset zone.

Bring in? Winter? lol. Good one ZZ.
And yes, when the humidity gets over 30% we know it! LOL!

I wont be bringing in any plants either. I gather the majority on my patio area and just cover with Plastic to keep dry and a sheet for frost. I'm hoping to put together a simple greenhouse, for the few frosts we have and help keep them dry.

I will admit to being a big baby and drag my winter clothes out sooner than most around here. LOL!

I'm a summer person, and don't mind being out all day.
HATE winter and cold!! YUCK! :)

I'm starting to get the rest of the yard/garden ready for fall planting and looking forward to that.
Dec and Jan is about the only break I take.

ZZ~ you'll have to let us know how hubby likes his surprise of getting to dig holes. ROFL!

Happy Fall everyone!
JoJo