Growing great plants even in your heat! Good job. Be proud. in response to your q: Tomatoes I don't see how you could cage the tomatoes now, so just let them sprawl if you can't get in there to tie to them to the stake anymore. Splitting might be uneven watering or just genetically programmed in the plants. When I've grown split prone cherry types I try to pick when orange to ripen inside & especially before a rain. Peppers Don't cut off the peppers: let them ripen. P plants are smaller like that, so look fine. Cukes They will grow up & over the trellis okay, so don't cut vines off. You can lift vines to find the cukes to harvest. Squash Yours is a small space just 1 squash plant that can be 15'+ in length & width, so removing others would work. Alternatively you can cut vine leaving just one squash on each vine. Also could build a trellis to let them climb up & attach squash to trellis with a pantyhose or tshirt sling. Trellis ideas: http://athomeinthenorthwestblog.com/2012/04/garden-trellis-tutorial.html http://www.digginfood.com/2010/05/vegetable-trellis-round-up/ This one would need something sturdier like wood to go across (squash can grow up & over the support you create) http://oregonkaisers.blogspot.com/2010/05/pea-trellis-tutorial.html In 100 degree heat you need mulch for all the plants (except lavender & go light around the rosemary) Ideas: -If you can purchase a bag of compost it would be better than the wood chips. -Loose straw from a feed store. They sweep up & throw away at the end of every day. One around our place puts in a separate dumpster & you can pull it out. -@ least 10 layers of newspapers overlapping, then topped with a bit of whatever you have (can also shred the newspaper 1st, spread, water it, then cover a bit to keep weighted down -dried grass clippings (no herbicides used) - Do you have friends with lawns if you don't have one? -used coffee grounds or teabags (coffee shops nearby?) -any garden clippings or vegetable waste chopped & dried 1st -leaves make great mulch if you have any nearby trees dropping leaves in the dry hot weather. Yesterday, while walking in Seattle we saw lots of dried bamboo leaves on the sidewalk from a hedge & spread quite a ways, so would have been a garbage bag full if raked up.

Okay, good! Hall of Fame I can definitely take! LOL And oh, Katy, I'm two years behind on my son's scrapbook, I've got some embroidery projects that have been on the shelf for a decade, a drip system in my veggie garden that needs to be replaced and 2/3 of a yard that still needs landscaped. I'm also in a choral group--but I practice my songs out in my workshop when I'm doing mosaic. So that's an ingenious way of completing two hobbies at once. LOL Like you said, Slow, I can't imagine life without hobbies. Lots of TV, you're right. I am out of the loop on the programs all my friends and coworkers watch, but I'm okay with that! This is much more fun.

I confess I agonised for years over pruning regimes - I have literally dozens of books and I honestly tried to follow strict timetables. However, England is essentially temperate while however hard I tried, I invariably failed...and nothing terrible ever seemed to happen. Of course, plants died willy nilly for this reason and that...but never because of mistimed, incorrect, incomplete or missed pruning...until, drunk on my own power (and new Japanese secateurs), I started hacking about whenever the urge, time or sorry sights spurred me on. So, I dunno, I tend to grow tough roses which get tested to destruction anyway and I might just have been lucky, plus the forgiving climate but basically, I came to the conclusion that pruning roses was a mysterious art, held aloft by dogma, tradition, habit and whilst it most definitely has merit, it is not a tragedy if we stop toeing the party line every single season. In other words, if they are getting on your nerves, cut them back and if they are looking OK, then have a holiday. But I admit to being a careless and ever-optimistic gardener with a short attention span and a very shaky memory...and yep, if you are in Kansas and north, probably best to consign this post to the dustbin. eta. this blase attitude most certainly bit me hard when I tried it on a rather large grapevine which promptly turned up its toes...and a customer killed a fabulous date palm by intemperate hacking, leaving a gaping infection site - the death was not pretty - so such cavalier attitudes do not apply across the plant world.

Cori Ann, that was a hilarious story, I could not stop laughing! By the way, I posted some pics of TRM climbing over an arch on your post, hope it can help in answering your question. By the way, I also saw you ordered Figaro Panarosa - you will looooove that rose - it is one of my favourites with very little thorns (I have it espaliered on the fence between Claire Rose and John Claire). Please update us later on how it is growing in your garden! Beth and Cynthia: Acropolis is very pretty! We don't have it here but I wish I could see it in real life. Koko Loko is not in commerce here either but I obtained one plant from Ludwig (I actually had two but one did not make it). I rarely see the brown colouring on it but I love the grey tones as well. I do however wish I could get a rose with the same colouring in a nice old fashioned shape. I will try to post some more photos soon but will do it on the rose gallery :-) Liezel