Sometime last night the dewpoint dropped from 72 to 40! We woke up to 64 degrees, breezy and beautiful - time for work!
Victim of the heat...
Think it's time to pull the lettuces?
And maybe the peas? Pretty pathetic.
New friend on a grape leaf...
the grapes on the fence are loving the heat -
Anyone recognize this? I haven't had time to surf the web yet, but it looks like some kind of scab on my grape leaf, we only found one leaf like this.
It goes right through to the back side of the leaf...
A harvest today!
Below is the almost the last of the lettuces for now, only some Mizuna and Mesclun remain out there.
Planted some clumps of corn and Sugar Pie pumpkins in the makeshift fence bed, hubby put up bird netting and bamboo stakes all over to keep dogs and birds out for the next few weeks until it gets bigger. Notice how dead the yard is - we are now officially designated as a "Severe" drought area. I didn't notice until this week, but apparently we have been way below average rainfall every month since January.
The new Lettuce House!
Hubby built it out of some old gazebo supports we had kept around and some old bamboo fencing. I can just roll the fencing out of the way to get in. I sowed some more greens, hoping to get some summer lettuces, it's normally too hot but I keep trying new things to get that summer salad.
I pretty much only worked in the center fenced garden today. Below, I trimmed up all the Amish Paste tomatoes so none of the branches touch the soil and sprayed a few aphids in there. This should make it much easier to water without getting any on the leaves.
And much easier to see all those paste tomatoes!
The remaining bed of snap peas were pulled and in its place I sowed Edamame and another succession planting of Dragon's Tongue and Golden Wax beans. Also transplanted some peanut and sunflower seedlings into the "extra" space I was talking about a couple of weeks ago. It will be the "snack" bed, I guess! I put bird netting over those for the time being since they always go in and dig up the seedlings when they are young.
We could have kept on working but really wanted to enjoy the evening, this was definitely a day to remember weather-wise, we might not see temps this cool again this summer.
Off to dinner!
Lettuce House Builder Guy deserved a brew.
Chesapeake Bay yummies...
Tomorrow is supposed to be more in the 80's but with low humidity again I think, so I will be moving on to the side garden, where most of the tomatoes are and get back to work! Hubby is working for "Clean the Bay Day" so I'll be on my own, but hopefully I won't need any special strange things built tomorrow :)
What a great idea to go out to a nice dinner after a hard day's labor in the garden. Sounds like a PERFECT day to me.
ReplyDeleteIf it's any consolation, even up here I have to provide shade for my lettuces in the height of the summer sun. Otherwise they bolt and get all leggy on me.
Love it! We've been in the upper 90's for a while. It was 85 today by 10:00 AM. Completely unAmerican if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteRibbit
That Lettuce House looks great!
ReplyDelete:) What a great day for you! That's awesome, and your gardens all look great!
ReplyDeleteI want your carrots. I really want your carrots. And while I'm at it, I want your tomatoes. If I were 35 years younger, I'd want your husband. Just to build me a lettuce house, then you could have him back :-D
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks great, drought and all, yes I also agree I want your carrots too! I like your lettuce house, if hubby wasn't busy building the new pond I'd ask for one.
ReplyDeleteThat's the best looking drought garden I've every seen! Oh, those carrots look good. There is nothing better than fresh carrots.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling our lettuces are getting ready to bolt as well. Your tomatoes look amazing! I really like how you trimmed up the leaves. It makes the vines look ultra neat.
ReplyDeleteOh, I like the idea of the lettuce hut. I was thinking of making a little of of my own.
So glad you had a wonderful weather day! Things are certainly looking good, except yes, you could use some rain :( Any forcasted soon? Glad you guys enjoyed that brew!
ReplyDeleteGran, LOL!
ReplyDeleteTo everyone, I hope this nice weather we have for a few days is universal - I see there are some others out there enjoying it too! We supposedly have until Wednesday morning before the 90+ heat and humidity return.
Stopping by from A Diva's Garden. You have a new follower. I'm a newbie garden and looking forward to learning from you. You have quite a resume, lol.
ReplyDeletermgales, welcome! I was exactly in your shoes just a few short years ago, you will find so many great bloggers out there to swap advice and laugh with just as I did. I look forward to jumping over to your blog soon!
ReplyDeleteGreat looking carrots, cool new lettuce house, dinner on the sea- what is there not to love!?!?!
ReplyDeleteI have one leaf exactly like yours on my grapes. You get any answer from anyone in the know? Your garden looks super! Deb
ReplyDeletezrcon@aol.com
Hi Deb! When I was researching it, I found it was most likely "foliar phylloxera" see link here: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2600.html , according to some stuff I also read on a NC State site it doesn't necessarily take over the whole crop, and luckily I never treated or worried about it and I don't have any more signs of it!
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