A one day break from the high 90's, that is!
I set out to tackle the worst of it today and didn't even make a dent.
First up was to pick beans.
I brought it on myself, with my 50 bean plants per bed, LOL. Promptly after picking all these I got a little crazy and just ripped all the bush beans out. That's right, perfectly good bean plants, gone. They were starting to have that crispy bottom look with little stink bugs setting up outposts so out they went. Such satisfaction in stuffing plants covered in stinkbugs into a big plastic bag to cook in the sunshine, heeheehee! Not to worry, I have pole beans that are just starting to really come into production, as you can see from the top left.
Onto the jungle - I really needed a machete for this job but had to settle for hands and pruners. Take a good look at these photos, they are taken from the same exact spot, you can tell by the PVC hoop in the background LOL - can you believe that I was bushwhacking my way to the garden the past month or so? That's a path, or is supposed to be!
before...
after...
We had some wild weather last night. The temps dropped from the 90's down to about 75 in a matter of minutes, and the wind was gusting to around 60 mph! The below photo doesn't really do it justice, but over the yard these two sets of clouds were moving in opposite directions towards each other and swirling around, pretty creepy for awhile - we decided to head into our imaginary basement for a while.
But what was bad for us must have been awful for Loch up at Camp Hailstormflashflood -
Check out these radar images for his area, apparently there was quarter size hail too, and they were supposed to go tubing yesterday down the James River, I have a feeling that didn't happen and they spent the afternoon picking ticks off of each other. Now that's fun times.
Speaking of weather, I was sitting here watching the chaos unfold on tv when I actually started really listening to our meteorologist, and this is what I heard:
"We have some storms here and then they're done."
and this gem...
"Tropical Storm Debby may move south, east or west, but basically will move."
Um, what?!
And.... I picked the first Brandywine of the year!
yeah, can you hear Mother Nature laughing at me?
I snapped this one today at the dentist's office, just thought it was cool the way the morning sun was thrown across the floor and Finn :)
Tomorrow it's back to 90º with 100º forecast for Thursday through the weekend, oh goody. I think I overdid it today, I just realized I can't get up from the couch...
My Brandywine is the only plant that didn't even get one tomato on it. Bloomed lots but just never produced. So happy and sorry for youat the same time. It looks beautiful from the top....
ReplyDeleteDFW, from what I've heard I'm in the minority as the Brandywines are the majority of my tomato harvest and most of my canning - right now I have about 50 green tomatoes hanging off of 8 plants and that's about the same every year, BUT this year I don't think that I'll actually see more than a dozen ripen since the blight is really taking its toll on the the plants. I will say that it always holds up to disease longer than even the resistant varieties. Everyone has to find that one variety that works the best for their garden, apparently these really like it here and I'm glad :)
DeleteI cut hay in the cool weather this morning, it was nice working the scythe in cool weather for a change.
ReplyDeleteI like the dentist office photo, real artsy.
We didn't get any of the nasty weather over here along the blue ridge.
Sunnybrook Farm, I can almost smell that cut hay from here! Glad you were sheltered from that awful weather, the wind sure can do a lot of damage.
DeleteGlad your weather didn't get worse. We are experiencing flooding and lots of roads washing out and mud slides. Rainfall warnings for today and tonight and then I hope it starts to dry out.
ReplyDeleteYour beans look yummy! Our garden is pretty much under water and I'm not sure if it will survive.
Rain, oh, how I long for some rain. Feast or famine, flood or drought, hugh?
ReplyDeleteThose beans look wonderful, and I have to admit, I love the idea of all those bugs cooking themselves a slow death in that bag in the sun.
I'd have the photo of Finn enlarged and framed, it's that good.
ReplyDeleteYikes, I picked my first beans last night, and here you're already ripping them out. We should be having weather in the 80s-90s now, and I've been huddled here in a sweater all day! We're probably 20 degrees below our average temp :-(
My Brandywine didn't produce even 1 tomato, I won't be growing them again. I am so ready to rip everything out. It is really hot here and I am just waiting for the last tomatoes to ripen and out come the clippers. Sorry about the BER, I had that happen a few years ago with some beautiful, huge, tomatoes, so sad.
ReplyDelete50 bean plants per bed? That is a lot of potential beans! Roasted stink bugs... He he he.....
ReplyDeleteThat has to be the CRUELEST joke on a tomato lover. Ah, brandywines-the worlds finest tomato. I am crying inside!
ReplyDeleteI am sick of summer. We have been having the mid 90's for weeks too and this is just too hot for this time of year. When does fall get here? Sorry about the tomato. That is just insult to injury.
ReplyDeleteErin, you're not the only one "roasting"... It has been incredibly hot and dry here as well and we have temps in the low 100's in the forecast - and no rain. Gosh it's brittle down here, the grass (if one can still call it that) crunches when you walk. Mama N. does seem to be a bit cruel this year, lots of our tomatoes suffer from blossom end rot. :-(
ReplyDeleteEven though things are not going as well as I'd like to have in my garden, I guess I should be very (let's say that again: VERY) thankful for our weather. Touching into the 80s for a high point each day, lots of sunshine after our way-too-much rain last week and an occasional breeze. The house is still staying cool (no air conditioning up here) and feels wonderful when coming in from outside. My sincere wishes for adequate rain for all of you living through a drought. You simply can't water enough in those conditions.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks like a jungle, Erin. Mine looks like seedlings struggling on a barren, wind swept plain!
That picture you captured of Finn is truly award winning!
The first think I thought was - now that's a tall ceiling! Frying stink bugs in a garbage bag - brilliant!
ReplyDeleteOh Erin, we FINALLY sold our house. Closing date is in two weeks. And it only took 8 grueling months and a lot of money lost. :)