Thanks so much for the tip Dawn :-p My German Green Tomatoes are looking a bit wilted. They perk up some at night though (should've seen me outside with a flashlight checking on my babies lol). Maybe a little fish emulsion would help em out though...they're my first fall tomato I've got going and they just don't seem to like this heat!

Mandy

Rats, on the heat thing. The Tulsa Master Gardeners have their garden tours. Open to the public, for a small fee. The extension gardens, plus several gardens from Master Gardeners. I plan to be there, helping a friend in her garden.

Moni

Mandy,

You're welcome. We all try to watch out for one another when severe weather of any kind threatens....we have so much of it here.

Moni,

I hope y'all have some gardens with lots of shade, or at least some shady spots, 'cause y'all are going to be hot, hot, hot!

Dawn

Hot here now also. 97 today. Thought I was done with outside work at noon. Then got a call and was told we needed to finish a project. Most of it was in the open with no shade. About every 45 minutes we would go cool off. Should be done by noon tomorrow. Is hard on everyone. When we finished for the day I had a slight headache that went away when I cooled off. I didn't go out to the garden till after 7. Was starting to cool some.
Sprayed a weed patch tonight. Should get a good kill on it. Everyone needs to be careful in the heat. Can get you before you realize it. Jay

Blech. How long until winter??

Since we have no air conditioner, we go outside to cool off. Our wellhouse has no walls yet, just a roof to shade it. We sit in there feeling any breezes that roll through. When it's really, really hot, we plug in a fan out there and sit in front of it with the baby. She hates the heat most of all.

It's now 11 p.m. and the house has cooled down to 93 inside. Brrrr! LOL

Diane

Jerreth and I worked outside in the "cool of the evening" last night. When we came in, we were both dripping wet, from head to toe! I've noticed, with humidity, that I hit a point that I just don't feel right, and I have to stop. This heat really dries the garden out. I haven't found much cardboard this year either (for mulching).

George

I mega watered yesterday, and am watering another spot right now.

Actually went to the hardware store (cause I had a coupon for $5.00 off) and got mulch.

Started applying it last night, over the area that got watered. I am hoping, that everything will survive, while I am heading out for another biking adventure.

At least, it will be cool at night where I am headed.

Moni

Jay, That cool, rainy "break" y'all got this weekend sure didn't last long enough, did it? I've been an outdoors person all my life, and have gotten sick from heat only twice that I can remember, but it sure can sneak up on you even when you think you're cooling off often and drinking lots of fluids.

Diane, I don't know how y'all do it, especially with the humidity you have there. We grew up without air conditioning although we had swamp coolers when I was a kid. Of course, that was the 1960s and central air conditioning wasn't as common then as it is now and, having never had it, we didn't know what we were missing. I do remember going to spend a week with my cousins every summer and they had central air conditioning and I was freezing to death day and night the whole time I was there. LOL

Moni, I have watered deeply twice in the last week, which is a lot for me, and yesterday I was adding a new layer of mulch to some beds, on top of their existing mulch. I plan to go outside in a few minutes and add some more mulch to two more beds. I layer on more mulch all summer long, and as many beds as I have, I never really finish, but I figure even an additional inch of mulch helps a lot.

George, We've been trying to work outside in the cool of the morning and the cool of the evening too, but it is getting harder because those "cool" mornings and evenings aren't nearly as cool (nor do they last as long) as they were a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, our heat index hit 100 degrees by 11 a.m. and I was inside before noon.

Y'all, let's all be careful out in the heat today. I saw heat index numbers on the OK Mesonet heat index map yesterday that were scarey hot, especially in NW OK. Would you believe heat indexes in the 105-110 range? Even worse, is that it will continue for days and the effects of cumulative heat day after day can be deadly. None of us needs or wants heat exhaustion or heat stroke! (At least we all have a good excuse to eat lots of yummy cold stuff like watermelon, popsicles and ice cream!)

Dawn

My father just had sod put in and took all my water hoses! It's kind of hard to water without hoses. Of course, his sod won't survive without water. I got one hose back yesterday when he wasn't using it, but I need more to get to the new squash. I was going to Sam's Club today... a friend of mine said they have 120' contractor grade hoses at a good price there. I don't want to be borrowing their hoses all the time and even if I had both of my hoses back from them, it still wouldn't reach.

I looked at the forecast for here and had a laugh. I'd been thinking it would rain eventually, but the forecast is "Sunny" for the next 7 days with the daily highs and lows being virtually identical each day: mid 90s and 70s respectively.

I have some really late planted acorn squash and white corn (silver queen) I put in a few days ago that need watered. And I've been putting in sweet potato slips as they get ready (I've figured out it was rabbits eating the early ones - at least I haven't lost any since covering them all with wire or collars). I also haven't been able to get more mulch or manure and won't be able to get any until after July 4. My parents have a big party and pig-in-the-ground roast each year and they've got the dump trailer full of firewood.

Thanks for the warning. I'll get on the hose thing.

Game bird,

You're welcome. You know me---if I see severe weather of any kind is about to hit us, I try to post it here because not everyone is an obsessive weather-watcher like me. : )

If we have had a more miserable June in recent years, in terms of heat, I can't remember it. This heat is making me wish for the very wet (flooding wet) Junes of 2004 and 2007.

It's a good thing you've been working so hard on soil improvement and mulching, because this looks like it will be an epic summer in terms of heat, and the gardens are going to suffer greatly. All the soil prep and mulching you've been doing should really pay off.

I have put together quite a collection of water hoses since we moved here. All we buy are the higher quality, contractor-grade ones because the lower quality ones don't last 2 months here. We usually buy the big, heavy-duty black Craftsman hoses at Sears. We haven't bought any in several years, but at the time we were buying them, they came with a lifetime warranty, which is hard to beat. Even when DH ran over one with the riding lawnmower and cut it right in half, they replaced it, no questions asked!

I hope your new plants come through the heat spell all right. This is a very difficult gardening year. And, in future years, when I say (as I so often do, and I'm sure y'all get tired of hearing me say it) "it goes from too cold to too hot overnight here",.....well, this is just the type of year I'm describing. At least we had a couple of good weeks in May and June.

Stay cool!

Dawn

I got the hose. It looks good, except for the no-crimp, sureflo feature. I know that sounds wonky that I want a hose that stops flowing when it gets crimped, but since I haven't bought one of those valves you put on the end of the hose to shut it off, I rely on crimping the hose to stop the flow for me to change attachments or hook it up to a soaker hose without getting drenched. Though in this weather, getting drenched sounds like fun!

The hose packaging says it has a lifetime guarantee. I'll have to read carefully to see where I have to take it to get a replacement. I like Craftsman products because of their replacement policy. I broke a small shovel this spring digging up some peonies and they didn't have a matching shovel, so they gave me a big one instead!

You could test the hose by hooking it up, turning it on and spraying yourself. : )

I like Craftsman garden tools too. If I'm buying something locally, that's what I buy. If I want to order and wait for a luxury tool (very well made, very high quality), I order from Lee Valley tools.

Right now what I really want is a rain shower, a thunderstorm, etc., but its not gonna happen.

My 4 year old is suffering from heat exhaustion. I think we have it under control as she's starting to improve but we'll be taking her in to the doc's when they open this afternoon if she's not a lot better by then.

Yesterday, it got up to 105 or so (My good thermometer said 105 while my drama queen thermometer said 111) with humidity averaging around 50%. According to the charts I've linked below, that's a heat index of Major Ouch.

Be careful out there, folks.

Diane

Here is a link that might be useful: NOAA's heat indices chart

Diane,

Oh dear, I hope Nellie is OK....cause Nellie is the one who is four now, right? (I keep thinking of her as 'the baby', but she's not the baby any more.....she's the 'big girl' now, I guess.)

There is no telling what your heat index was yesterday and it is very high today. Hold on, and I'm gonna go pull up your Mesonet page and I'll be right back to tell you what it says. Well, it is showing a heat index of 102 at Wister at 2 p.m., but in the counties around you there are several 106-107 readings, and it is 111 at Tahlequah.

Y'all be careful. I know you don't have AC but hope you can find a way to cool off everyone...and remember that the heat's effect is CUMULATIVE, so every day builds a little heat stress on top of the stress from the day before. Remember what happened to Red's friend in Georgia!

It is scarey hot for this time of year. We usually have this weather in late July and in August, so having it this early sure is a cause for concern, and it reminds me of 2006, which was the worst summer we've had since we moved to OK in 1999.

Dawn

Even my squash plant looks like it is going to melt in the heat. All of the top leaves droop during the middle of the day, but come out of it a few hours later. It looks like it needs water, but the ground feels damp. I guess that is just the way it conserves energy. Only one pepper looks like this, but all of the rest seem to be enjoying the heat and humidity.

The runner that you can see over the top of the chair is on a stem that has already reached the top of a CRW cage and started back down. I won't have to bend over to pick this one. LOL

These plants are planted next to our bunkhouse since it is a nice sunny spot for a few hours. I have tomato plants, lots of peppers, 3 squash and 1 melon also growing in pots near the property line. I hope to get my garden back in shape this year since it is a nice sunny spot for most of the day. It is sure easier to water the garden than ump-teen containers, but is much harder to weed. LOL Most of my yard has shade almost all day.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:407989}}

Carol,

The daytime wilting in hot weather is normal for squash famiy members. My summer squash don't wilt as often as the winter squash do. The winter squash and pumpkins wilt daily. Today it was hot early and they were starting to wilt before 11 a.m. I don't even worry about it if I know the ground is moist. They start perking up aroud 6 to 7 p.m. depending on where they are and how much sun they're still getting that late in the day. Of course, if they don't perk up in the evenings, then there is something wrong (and in my garden, that something normally is Squash Vine Borers).

The containers look great. You could put them on a drip irrigation system. They have starter kits for patio plants at Lowe's or Home Depot. I've even used driplines to water the hanging pots on my wrap-around porch and it sure makes life easier.

One thing I love about containers is that you hardly ever have to weed them!

I watered my flower bed this morning, so it is full of turtles and frogs and birds this afternoon. Even the wild things are trying to beat the heat.

Dawn

Actually, I could probably hook up soaker hoses for my tomatoes and such, pretty easily. This squash is just planted where the tub was because it was too heavy to lift and was in a sunny spot. Most of the flowers are there with it because I just didn't have beds ready for them when they needed to go in the ground.

It got cloudy here for awhile and I could see a small raincloud on radar near here, but it didn't hit us. It was cloudy long enough that the squash perked back up and it's only 5PM.

Goodness! I just checked the weekly forecast and our temperatures (not heat index, temperatures!) for Thursday, Friday and Saturday are 99, 100 and 101. I'm definitely running that sprinkler tomorrow on my flower beds. They need it!

Gamebird, Our forecast down here in Love County is pretty much identical to yours and we hardly ever break 100 in June. I bet we haven't had 5 days 100 or higher in June in the combined ten summers we've been here.

It is starting to look like it is going to be a bad summer. I bet your new water hose gets a good workout this summer.

For what it is worth, they forecast 100 for us for today and we only went to 99! Ha! (Well, not that 99 is a huge improvement over 100......)

Dawn

"There is no telling what your heat index was yesterday and it is very high today."

Yep, the numbers can go +/- 20 degrees on the heat index just from various normal factors so I usually just don't pay them much mind. It's either nice, hot, or really stinkin' miserable. That's the owiebrain index (tm). LOL

Nellie's doing well recovering from the heat exhaustion but the doc also found she had tonsillitis and now she's in a lot of pain from that. If it's not one thing, it's another, right?

Hubby found two old a/c units and tinkered them into mostly working. Yay! We're now fairly cool and going to make the electric company filthy rich.

And I've lost several plants, just burned up, and think a few more are following in their footsteps.

Diane

Diane,

Poor little Nellie. Glad she's recovering from the heat exhaustion and so sorry to hear about the tonsillitis. It's not easy being 4 years old. The cure for anything at that age? Popsicles! Ice cream! Jello! Pudding! (Well, if I was an overheated 4-year-old OR a 4-year-old with tonsillitis, that's what I would want!)

Your hubby is able to tinker and fix and build anything, I think, which is great! The folks at the electric company are already hard at work calculating how much their profit is going to rise....and it is all coming from your pockets! I don't know what's worse in the summer: watching the electric bill skyrocket when the heat arrives or watching the water bill creep higher and higher when the rains don't fall.

Plants are just going to burn up in this heat. What are you going to do? (sigh) Sometimes you can't water them enough to save them (even if you try). Last year I lost one shrub in a row of shrubs. Undoubtedly it was because of the drought, but I'd watered them all the same. The others made it and that one didn't. I guess I probably should be grateful only 1 shrub died.

At least a cold front is coming although, of course, the use of the word "cold" is relative. For us, it will mean perhaps an 8-10 drop in the temperature on Sunday from Saturday and, of course, if that happens we'll be thrilled....but we'll be plenty hot even with the 8-10 degree drop.

Dawn

At least we don't have a water bill to add to the electric bill. (We have a well but it goes dry every summer unless we're very conservative with our water use -- so watering our garden is a very rare thing.)

Cold front? I'll believe it when I see it. The stinkers said it was supposed to cool down yesterday/today when I looked last weekend. Ha. (Boy, I'm sure glad I'm not a weather forecaster in Oklahoma! Those poor folks are probably mobbed and beaten each time they leave their houses. LOL)

Diane

Diane, so glad you have a/c! Keep cool.

All, my squash are doing great, not wilting one little bit but I'm afraid my zuccini are wilting something fierce. They're good on water and perking up at night so that's something.

Bring on the cold wave baby! I'll take the 8-10 degree drop...hope it comes my way too :-p

Stay cool you all.

Mandy

Diane,
You can find brand new a/c for real cheap at Habitat for Humanity. We have one here in Norman. I don't know about your area. I know you found some other ones. I hope they work well for you. But we do have another few months of this heat. I'm kinda scared for you and Nellie. If your a/c stops working you should check out Habitat. They have alot of really good stuff.
Kristy

Thanks, Kristy! I believe there might be a store in Fort Smith -- I'll have to check for when these clunkers give up the ghost. Right now, they're doing a bang-up job considering. It's well over 100 outside but only 85 inside. Woo hoo!

Diane

Y'all are going to be jealous. It has dried out so much here, and our humidity is so low that our heat index is one degree lower than our temperature! So, temp=100, HX=99. That only happens in the afternoons. We still have high humidity in the mornings, so our HX in the mornings is often 10 degrees higher than our temperature.

Diane, the 'cold front' has to get here. I'm already making plans for how I'll spend my day outside if it only gets up to 93 or 95 instead of 99 or 101!

Dawn

Let's all go camping at Dawn's place! We all know she already knows how to cook for an army and she grows a great garden so we'll be well fed. :-D

Diane,

And we're having cool nights too. Somewhere between about 1 and 3 a.m. it hits the low 70s before climbing back up into the mid to upper 70s by sunrise. : )

AND, I still have lots of "overnight" wildlife to keep us all amused.....raccoons in the corn patch, snakes in the driveway and compost pile....bats and sphinx moths flying around.....and frogs and cicadas "singing" all night long. What more would we need?

Of course, since I would be a good hostess and would camp out with you, forgoing the comfortable bed in the air-conditioned house, I'd have my fire pager radio with me, so prepare to be awakened at 1 or 2 a.m. pretty much any night for a false alarm, house fire, accident or a pasture fire in the middle of nowhere that is of suspicious origin. So, you see, we could have all kinds of fun and not even sleep!

Y'all come on down for a summer campout while it is still nice and cool here. : )

Dawn