I think it sucks. Ready for a cool down and green rows and patches of cool season stuff.

Glowing in the cool morning sunshine. Not frying in the heat and the bugs.

Bring it on sun angle.

Rick

This heat is so sickening. I have such a hard time breathing in it so I usually don’t go outside. I can’t wait until it cools off.

My husband and i have had COVID. First time, but its taking forever to go away. Yes we took the shots snd the booster but wont be taking more vaccines. Have determined COVID vaccine and the Shingles shot is what caused my husband’s PMR. Also think we probably caught it at one of his doctors appointments. Just so grateful we got all our hay put up and away before this

i have zuchinni, cucumbers, and new cherry tomatoes started for Fall, will plant greens and lettuce when it cools off. My purple hull peas have amounted to zilch, what grasshoppers havent eaten along with all the okra. i had a beautiful crop of green beans but spider mites hit and i had to oull them. Planted new ones today.

Ready for cooler, wetter temps

Kim, yes, please take care of yourself in this heat. I feel sick and I haven't had the health issues that you've had.

I have everything ready to can black beans tonight. It's gonna be brutal out in the shop. I just brought one of the outdoor cats inside. The other one finds coolish soil (recently watered) in the shade and does fine. The chickens have fans on them. It's blowing warm air, but it does make it a bit better for them.

Remember when Dawn brought her chickens indoors during an extreme heat wave a few years ago?

I got up and watered part of the SG early this morning with the sprinkler and part of our front yard....up by the house. The cracks are getting closer to our house. I had to go to work so didn't get everything watered as well as I had wanted too. I'll do it tonight.

Next weekend it's supposed to cool down a bit. I'll probably plant my tomato seedlings then. Just need to clear out a space for them.

My lettuce and one of my kale varieties are popping up. They're indoors under the grow light. Our cabbages--both Rick's and my varieties--didn't germinate at all. Hopefully I can find a reasonably priced 6-pack at Home Depot or Lowes in a month or so. I don't want to plant more than 6. They are going in the hoop house because we've never tried cabbage in the hoop house. My broccoli seedlings are doing well. I have 12. There was some weird glitch with Rick's broccoli and kale. I have no idea what happened to them. They were in the same sterile seed starter as my broccoli. Same grow light. Same watering. Just odd. Some of them are still alive and I'm trying to baby them back to health.

Anyway...I have jars washed, utensils/towels ready and the beans ready too. Thought I would post while waiting for Rick.

Thanks for starting this weeks thread, Jen. Are you doing any plantings for the fall?

I normally wear a cotton tee shirt, today I have more of a dress shirt on, and it is HOT, my daughter and her male friend came over with my grand daughter's male friend. I think my wife wanted me to put my best foot forward, anyway I was too pretty, and too hot. When it is 101 degrees a guy should be able to go naked if he wanted. Anyway I met the new friend and everything went great, they went home with a bunch of veggies, and I am drinking a cold sprite, trying to cool off after taking my water tank over to be filled with garden water.

My garden is suffering and I cant do much about it, other than hauling more water.

I would like to plant some seeds, but it sure does not seem like seed planting weather.

Rick, I don't pay much attention to the sun angle, other than planting in the north garden where I now have a tree that was planted about 15 years ago, and use its shade to shield some of my plant from the sun about half a day.

Larry I use the sun angle to gage how the season's changing. Lower sun angle , lower temps usually. ( However I seen some Septembers hotter and drier than August , and even into October.)

I'd like to plant a row of green beans for fresh eating this fall , but today is the last day of the planting window for them according to OSU guide. I sure wouldn't plant anything now while it's 105 all week long , unless you want to stand over it with a water hose.

Oh , Jennifer and me just canned 30 some pints of black beans

It was a record year for beans. this was before the heat wave hit.

Fall plantings are getting in the works , as soon as this dumb heat dome gets out of here.

rick

Rick, I hauled a 275 gal tote of well water over here near the garden. I can run a water hose from the tote, or drum, I have both set up to fit water hose threads, so I can place an irrigation tube to water the row/s with. Our water company gets a little cranky, and may go to phase 3 of water rations, which mean no outside watering at all. I wont plant many greens, and I almost never get them planted at the proper time, it is always too hot and dry this time of the year to properly get a garden growing.

I don't remember planting these.

The camera does not do justice for these peppers. They are really a bright yellow, the camera shows hints of green, which I don't see. Madge may have bought these, she bought some weird colored tomatoes also, but I am very happy with her effort.

Larry, maybe it's a "peppergate" situation?

Jennifer, it may be. When Madge came home, she ask me " where did you get those peppers",?She does not remember ordering and seeds for yellow peppers. Madge said that she though these were prettier than the red ones. All though they don't look so in the picture, they are very pretty.

I think I'm done with the garden for this year. I want to "remodel" for next year, and if I have plants growing I know I won't want to displace them. So if I just let it all do as it will, I won't feel guilty in ripping plants out here in a month or so. I will be planting garlic. I have some in the fridge leftover from last winter, hopefully they're still viable? If not, I need to order some or pick up some organic bulbs from the store. I did toss out a bunch of beans that have popped up, not sure what all varieties, I just dumped a bunch of leftovers together and let them go. I need to replace a couple of my beanbag ice packs, so I'm hoping to get at least a gallon of beans out of the lot.

I also need to weed the driveway bed, the grass has taken over. But it's done pretty good considering I haven't watered it more than 2 or 3 times all year. The coneflower, tithonia, feverfew, and verbena bonarenisis are holding their own, and of course the wild sunflowers are doing fine. And HJ gave me a couple of west indian gherkins, which have produced a couple fruits. Not shabby for a mostly ignored bed.

My tree is doing surprisingly well. Some of you at spring fling saw the elm tree growing in a bucket and asked about it. Our roommate had it pop up in the garden she made at the old house and babied it, thinking it was one of her "rare exotic orchids" she bought off Wish. We finally identified it as a tree, so she let it grow just for fun, and when we moved she wanted to bring it with. So, the elm tree got a new home in the east yard. If anything, it'll give puppies some shade when it gets a bit larger.

I picked a few tomatoes today, but they had tough skins, also picked peppers which were ok, but its too hot to be out doing anything. My min/max shows that the high was 104, I have no idea what the heat index was. I have stayed in the house most of the day, I did get out a while around 9 or 10 o:clock. I just cant get in the mood to plant anything when it is so hot.

I feel like I have a ton of work to do. I am trying to wait till fall, but fall will probably last 2 weeks, and by then I will be at least 6 mounts behind.

A-hole weather as usual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvc3E_evvgI&list=TLPQMTgwMjIwMjFw7cZA82fALA&index=6

Rick

farmgardenerok, your post just showed up. I'm so sorry you are sick. Hope you feel better soon.

Hwy20, I would gladly take an extra month of winter as a trade for summers with highs in the 80's. I don't hate winter. I get other projects done....and some books read....and some TV series watched.

Your heat index is insane!

Larry, I have a ton of work to do too.

We had Covid, also, back in April. Three days after attending Good Friday service at the church.... haha pretty sure where we got it. We'd had our vaccines, and so weren't terribly sick with it. Just like a case of flu that lasted a week or so. I know it knocked many folks for a loop, and I hope you all will stay healthy--for the old geezers, as healthy as possible.

HU and Jennifer. I saw the FB photo of canned beans. A work of art. Absolutely beautiful.

Funny story. . . I had gathered a bunch of peppers--couldn't tell whether some were hot or sweet, so tasted the end of one. Benign. And so fixed a big ole skilled of fried onions and peppers--almost ran us out of the house, and made me choke because of the pepper fumes. Hot hot hot! It was a large skilletful and I didn't want to waste them if possible. So added a half cup or so of vinegar to help cut the heat, then put them in a pot with water and canned/pureed tomatoes. Simmered them for a few hours and tasted. Amazing!!! Rich and delicious. Still plenty of heat but doable. So now will slow roast a shoulder pork roast and make some posole. Bet it will be awesome--I'll let you know.

I get so unhappy with myself every time I think about how I have screwed up my gardening year by planting too much stuff. I have more than I can take care of here at the house without planting on every bare spot of land I can find.

I hauled another tank of water this morning, I will use this tank on some peppers in the wildlife garden. I really need to cut back on the gardening for the rest of the year because our freezers are full, and we don't can much.

I want to start some green. I expect that I may have to haul water for starting greens because we may go on water restrictions again. If I wait for the weather to get favorable for starting seeds, it is so late that they wont get much growth before cold weather.

I worked on pulling Johnson grass out of my sweet potatoes. ( with much more to go ) I hope that the Johnson grass does not destroy my sweet potato harvest. The sweet potatoes have had very little water this year and was shaded by the Johnson grass, ( the Johnson grass was a gift from some of the free hay I collected ). I got the hay sight unseen and just paid for the hauling. I can see why the hay was free now. I have a chance to get some free mulch now, I am not sure how much more of this free stuff I can handle.

Thank you, Nancy. It was nice to have a good bean year finally.

Peppers have really been messed up this year. Wrong peppers, hot peppers when they're supposed to be mild. All sorts of stuff.

Your meal sounds really good. I'm glad you were able to get creative and find a way to use your too hot peppers.

Larry, I often think I've planted too much to take care of....but nothing like you've planted. You were really ambitious back in the early spring with the help of your neighbor.

I was able to take my day off so did laundry, watered house plants, cleaned cat boxes--stuff like that. I accidentally left the water on the SG garden for 3 hours this morning. On top of watering it for an hour last night. It was pretty wet. That's a good thing, I guess.

Other than that, I was able to put the dried chamomile and calendula into containers...and just tidy up a bit around here. I'll water the ornamentals and KG after Pilates. Luckily the native bed seems to be doing okay without consistent watering. I've lost a few milkweek to aphids and the false indigo looks rough. There was some type of caterpillar on it, but it looks like something else finished it off. Not an insect. Maybe it will come back.

Larry, I had the idea of putting sweet potatoes in the SG, which is the garden that Rick mostly tends to. Apparently, I'm not going to be able to grow winter squash because of pests...and sweet potatoes are able to be used in recipes that call for winter squash. Maybe if we ever have a flooding May, I will try them again. Not that floods are good at all, but you gotta take advantage of the possible good things that could come from it, which is pests drowning. Anyway, it will be an interesting experiment.

That's pretty much my day other than doing my best to keep the chickens from dying of heat stress. There's fans on the pens of the little coops, and the chickens in the main coop have more choices of where to go for shade and coolish dirt. They get fans at night in the coop. When they're all in their shaded pen, I'll squirt them with water. They don't like it but I think it cools them down. One of the little coops' hens (the bad girls who escape from the main chicken yard) join them at night. And the youngsters in the other little coop have a rigged-up fan deal. Their enclosed area is "upstairs". Has a little ladder that they use to go to roost at night. The window (covered in hardware cloth) is right at the same level as a shortish ladder that we have. So, I bungee a fan to the ladder and shoot it into that window. It's ridiculous....and it all looks so ridiculous. Then, during the day, I put the fan on the ground and shoot it into the pen.

Ridiculous.

But, I haven't lost one to heat stress yet. In all the years. Most other people have.

Time to figure out dinner. Paleo enchiladas.

The only thing I’m growing around here is babies. My son and dil in Lubbock just had a beautiful baby girl. Both are doing very well. That puts me at 11 grandchildren. ☺️

Kim, I am happy for you with the growing family.

Jennifer, I think you would enjoy growing sweet potatoes, they seem to be more forgiving than most vegetables.

Madge was cleaning and re-arranging the pantry 3 days ago and found some Covington sweet potatoes from last year, we also have 5 winter squash from last year, all still look good.

Thank you Larry. I think sweet potatoes are my favorite vegetable to grow. They are so easy and they can store for 2 or more years

Congratulations, Kim! I would like to have one of those someday...but realize that babies/pregnancy don't come easy for everyone. I'm happy that your kids haven't had that issue. I saw her pic on FB....and oh my goodness! She's so pretty! Just lovely.

Larry, I've done sweet potatoes. In 2021, we put them behind the shop and they did okay. Not great.

Last year, I put them in buckets/feed tubs. Again they did okay.

Putting them in SG will be a new thing. It's pretty clayish out there.

Jennifer, my sweet potato crop will suffer greatly this year. I kick my self every day for letting my gardening flop. If I am able to garden next year, I have to do things differently, I have to work more on my garden, and stop spending so much time helping my neighbor with his market garden. I have already told him that I just had to cut back, but he says his doctor has told him to cut back also. Neighbor is having heart issues also.

I will show you one thing not to do with sweet potatoes.

I got some free hay, it was a clean up job that my renter did for a guy while he was at the guy's place bailing hay, so neighbor just bailed this field of Johnson grass and blackberries.

I had told my renter that I would take any scrap hay he had, and would be happy to pay for the hauling. I normally compost the really bad hay, but I didn't this hay, I just used it as mulch last year, and you can see what a mistake that was.

I mowed a 5' strip along this side of the tall Johnson grass, thinking that I might be able to pull, or dig the stubble out, but I was not man enough to do that. I sprayed the tops of the dead Johnson grass that you see, hoping I could kill it without killing the sweet potatoes. I guess I was a pretty good shot, I don't think I lost any sweet potatoes, and killed a good bit of the Johnson grass. The Johnson grass on the left side of the picture at the time I sprayed was too thin and short for me to risk trying to kill it with spray and not damage my sweet potatoes. I waited until a few days ago and took that stool, and the garden hose you see, along with a "stream" attachment screwed onto the end of the garden hose, and squirted the roots of the Johnson grass loose and pulling the stump out. I have most of that green Johnson grass tossed out to the end of the garden now, and my pickup, containing a 275 gal tote of water draining on the uphill side of the sweet potatoes.

While I am boring you, I need to ask advice on how to use the onions. These are Egyptian walking onions and Lisbon bunching onions, they were overgrown worse than the sweet potatoes. I got them cleaned up and squirted a little water on them. I think they look pretty good for something that will, more or less, grow wild. It is a shame to make the best use of something that will last for ever.

I am sorry if I have shown these pictures, and ask these questions before, but at my age you wake up in a new world every day.

Thanks for sharing your pictures, Larry. I'll be very interested to see how your sweet potatoes do.

I'm glad you're cutting back next year. I can imagine how frustrating it is to feel like you can't take care of it all. Maybe you can just grow enough for you and Madge with a little extra for your kids.

Maybe you can just chop up your bunching onions and sprinkle them on everything you eat--sandwiches, pizzas, soups, salads. Do y'all like sour cream and onion dip? That would be good on baked potatoes or with raw veggies.

I'm at work now, but will go home in awhile and fix dinner and then water. Same song and dance.

We're not harvesting much. A few okra pods. Very few tomatoes. Unfortunately they are getting sun scald along with the sweet peppers. There's a few small kajari melons on the vines still. I did get a few habaneros and Rick took home some of the jalapenos yesterday.

If there's time, I'll clear out some dead plants tonight. I cleared out some last night. It's time to plant the carrots, golden beets, and turnips. Hoping to do that next week.

I am just stunned at how affected the okra and west indian gherkins are by this heat. Other than last year, I don't remember okra having such a hard time. The lower limbs are all drying up and falling off...although I see new ones emerging. They are trying to make new blossoms. Just need to keep the grasshoppers from eating them.

Watering all evening in this heat, along with trying to keep the chickens alive, has me coming indoors after dark, eating dinner, and basically falling asleep after my bath (if not IN my bath if I dare to lie back for a minute or two). Heat is draining for sure.

Maybe a break coming soon.

This morning I put the sprinkler on the SG and drove off with it still on. But, saw it as I was leaving, so had to turn around and go back to the house to shut it off.

Our house is on the northwest corner of our property and the SG is on the southeast corner. Luckily it's next to the road going out of our neighborhood so I was able to see the sprinkler going.

That's about it. Nothing too exciting.

Jennifer, Madge is not adventuresome in her cooking, and is not really fond of me trying to cook anything, she says I make too big of a mess. I have use the onions is a few dishes I have made, and they turned out good. The only thing I have had to watch out for is using part of the onion that will stay a little tough.

I should have been up experimenting today, Madge is having a day out with the girls, and she wanted me to stay in out of the heat. This would have been a good time to play in the kitchen. From what little I have played with the onions, it seems as though I need to use more onions than I think will be required to get the taste that I like. I have ask Madge to try to make onions soup, she said that she did not know how, I told her that it cant be that hard, you start with onion and add anything that you want, if it does not taste good, add something else of throw it away and start over, she thinks my approach to life is too simple.

Larry, what ever Madge is doing, it's working for her. I've seen her swimsuit pics in the snow and she's rocking it!

I do understand not wanting someone in my kitchen messing it up. Tom makes a huge mess. I tend to clean as I go. It makes me nuts! A lot of women say they would be happy for their men to cook dinner for them, but I just know it will end up being more work for me. Even if he tries to clean up, it's not done correctly. LOL.

I ran out of time again last night and didn't get anymore dead plants pulled. I was still watering at dark. The cracks in our ground are disturbing.

I'm going to try to get my grocery shopping done tonight for next week and then get up early tomorrow morning and pull some stuff and prepare the beds for fall planting. Then, it's supposed to cool down on Sunday and I'll sow seeds and plant the fall tomatoes after work. Looking forward to some alone time in the garden...when it's not a million degrees and I'm not watering for a change.

I need to start more lettuce seed and arugula.

Wanting to keep it simple this fall.

I am doing so little that I should say I am doing nothing at all. I do try to haul a few tanks of water a week to water the garden. I want to keep the peppers and a few tomatoes alive till frost. I hope to keep my sweet potatoes going also, but I don't expect much production from the sweet. I expect to get all the purple potatoes that grand daughter wants, plus all the slips I will need for next year. The Covington and Red Wine Velvet will produce plenty for slips for next year, and some for food. The "for food" part I am concerned about, and this is the wrong time of the year to start watering sweet potatoes, but I feel that I have to.

I would like to build a small garden in the center pasture.

Jennifer, you words about the kitchen sounds like a recording of Madge. I am like that cartoon character, Pig-pen, a cloud of dust follows me everywhere I go.

Madge is a sweet lady, she took me to the beauty shop with her today, you would not believe how pretty I am now lol. Madge just finished a cake for us to take to my senior class get-together tomorrow. You would not believe how well Madge has blended in with my class, you would think that she is the class-mate rather than me.

Went to Walmart to pick up a few things and browsed the garden area as is usual.

However, they were having a great sale on garden stuff, y'all! I picked up two small raised beds for $6 each! They are small and probably aren't super sturdy, but for $6! If I had gotten there a bit earlier, I could have gotten more. I saw people with those cute "wicker" (they're really plastic but looks wicker" raised beds. They were also $6. Giant pots and planters for $9. It was pretty picked over. I got the last two raised beds. The boxes are a little beat up, but everything looks good. I almost got two giant pots but could tell another woman wanted them and I don't really need them, so I stepped back so she could have them. Anyway, you might check your local Walmart if you're interested in those sort of things.

Jennifer, I am glad you found your bargains. I don't like going in Walmart, or any large store, there is just too much walking. It seems as though everything I want is always in the farthest back corner.

I did go to a 1961 class diner today, and had a great time. There was only one class mate I did not recognize, but his wife ( sister of one of the guys I ran around with ) noticed Madge's name tag, and then came to me. After jogging my memory, I remember her and their family, and remembered Carl also, we use to ride motorcycles together.

I am still trying to get some moisture into the ground where I plan on plant some fall crops. It is still over 100 degrees here on most days. Before we left for the diner, I placed a garden hose on the ground, and opened the valve to my water tank. I checked the garden a while ago and there is a wet spot about one foot wide and about 12 feet long. I felt that was a small wet spot considering I dumped 275 gallon of water in that spot. I should have another tank of water ready now, I will have Madge take me over and haul it to the house.

This has been a nice day so far, has only made it up to 90 today.