As promised, I will now present to you the things I did not post pics of while showing what has been loving our heat and humidity lately! I can no longer sit here all smug with my green lush photos... it was all a lie...!
Here it comes... the death and destruction of the past month's heat wave. 15 straight days of heat indexes in the triple digits has taken its toll.
My only heirloom Yellow Pear tomato plant
My only Red Zebra... they were chugging along fine, then bam! Never even got to see pink...
Heirloom Paul Robeson
I pulled out all my Edamame, found this volunteer True Black Brandywine in my hand, and tried to frantically "stick it back in"... not so much.
Yeah, this was an Artichoke... all 3 look exactly like it... can you see it? The brown toothy leaved stuff!
Lessons learned: DO NOT try to contain heirloom tomatoes in containers! (I just had to try!)
No more Artichokes
Luckily, all my other tomatoes are doing fine! Severe weather passed through last night, and on the other side, cool temps! It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about in the garden, more like I have so much backlog to do that I haven't had time to sit at the computer! This morning I felt the glass storm door fire-style before I let the dogs out...COOL! I was so excited I woke the kids up screaming "it's not 100"!! For the next 3 days we are supposed to have temps ranging from 78-83 during the day, high 60's at night, I am so excited to get back and enjoy my garden again, at least for the next 3 days. Hope you are all having good weather, too! I will be back with you all as soon as I can get caught up on the garden stuff!
We've been having a heat spell too. I think that's what happened to our broccoli, could not take the heat. http://nycgardening.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-happened-to-you-broccoli.html
ReplyDeleteSorry about your plants.
Enjoy it, we are COLD here tonight, but the daytime temperature was a dream. Our heat will be back for the weekend, how about you??
ReplyDeleteNow those are some sorry looking tomatoes. But don'tcha think they would have done better in the containers if you hadn't had the HORRID heat?
ReplyDeleteSo glad you're getting a break with cooler (I guess that's relative!) weather for a few days. I'll bet you're feeling a real surge of energy and "The Runaway Train" will be going lickety-split for the next couple of days! Have fun.
So you are human after all ;) Sorry to hear about your heirlooms... that heat is truly dreadful. Enjoy your "cool" weather!
ReplyDeleteYay for cooler weather! Yeah, those poor plants look sad! How could they help it with heat like that!? I still think you're amazing! :)
ReplyDeleteWe're struggling, too. I think there's a weather conspiracy around here as it's rained in every county and town around us, but not on us. Today, it poured on the main road and we, about 1500 feet from the pouring rain, stayed bone dry.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry you lost your heirlooms. Maybe some of my dwarfs will be tasty enough that you could grow them next year in your containers. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteOH NO! I'm so sorry. What a heart breaker. My artichokes didn't like the 90 degree weather either. Maybe I'll mulch the bed with straw to reflect more of the sun's heat.
ReplyDeleteI think I might asked you this before but what's the benefit to growing tomatoes in pots in the garden? I've seen Gran and others do the same thing. Why not just put them straight into the ground?
Aha haa I don't take pics of my weeds. So there we're even!! Heehee
ReplyDeleteHey all! Oh, yes, I am VERY human, LOL!
ReplyDeleteGran, at least it was only a few that I lost, I still have plenty for our little family that is minus the biggest tomato consumer in the house!
Thomas, mostly I tried containers this year because I needed to be able to tuck them in places here and there, no room in my beds since they take up way too much space. If I was to stick them in the ground here and there, they would get trampled or peed on by dogs (my tenants have 2 male dogs!). A big reason for others to do it would be if you have disease in the soil, since it can take a decade to get rid of it. I can only fit 3-4 heirlooms in a big raised bed since they get 8 ft high and 5-6 ft wide and that's just taking up too much of my bed space. I think determinate tomatoes would do fine in a bottomless pot, just not these massive heirlooms. I do still have 5 heirlooms in bottomless pots that are doing great, I have been keeping them pruned.
Gah! I'm kicking myself now for pulling up my dead tomatoes last week! I could have posted them for GBDD.
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