Ruthieg tx The peas are under covers to insure no cross pollination. I have raely seen any effects of cross pollination in peas even when planted side by side But I always keep around 50ft isolation distance between varieties. This year I invested in a large quantity of insect netting, that I have been using and experimenting with, to allow me to grow out more beans and peas and melons without compromizing the seed. I had a backlog of older varieties that hve been given to me and I felt it was my responsibility to grow them out in isolation to keep the variety going. So I bought the netting and have 6 common beans, 6 Limas, 9 field peas, and 6 watermelons all growing undercover to exclude pollinators and to obtain data on caging. Check out my other post on Isolation cages.Another benifit of the netting on the peas is deer control I can successfully keep the deer out of the garden on the other crops and peas until the peas ripen, once they begin to turn its a battle to keep them out. Rodger

And I got out and transplanted a bunch of my seedling weeds (coreopsis lanceolata) that day. The forecast (rainwise) and temp wise, looks good. I went and wandered around Eureka Springs yesterday, back to work today.

I had to smile when I read what you think is hot! Where I am it's been in the 100's for several weeks and we consider a week in the 90's a cold snap. My daylilies have bloomed well, in spite of being hailed on and the extreme heat. They are nearly done now except for some rebloom, and my old faithful last bloomers, So Lovely and Sorcerer. And I too have a ferocious water bill.

After talking with my lawn guy this weekend I acknowledged that my idea to kill and mulch the garden paths simply isn't going to work. The bindweed would resprout, bust up through expensive landscape cloth and inches of mulch in a matter of a few weeks. So he will keep the area mowed and trimmed. At least it's green and not uncomfortable to scoot along on my bottom while I weed. I can toss some grass seed out there and hope eventually it will take over. Right, when pigs fly. I just keep telling myself, be grateful I don't live in kudzu country. The upside is I don't have to wait to set up the canopy pavilion. I'll need someone to help with part of the set up, but I can start assembling it this evening. I really want to have it up so I can sit on my new chair at my new table in the shade and shell the peas that are ready to harvest. Then I can start collecting party lights for the canopy and trellises and have a dinner party out there. I need to clean and paint the rusty garden chair set I got several years ago and make seats. There's a snocone stand here in town with table umbrellas of the most gorgeous Liberty print fabric. I need to start looking for something like that for seat cushions. In addition to shell peas, there are purple snap peas, salad greens, spring onions, purple kohlrabi, baby beets and sprouting cauliflower ready to harvest. I might be able to snag some new potatoes soon too. And there are tomatoes already. The blue cherry tomatoes are deep purple, but still hard. I keep squeezing them to see if they are ripe. There is one tiny strawberry starting to turn red. My corn came up spotty. I've reseeded and fertilized. Something has eaten my cucumbers I may need to replant those as well.