Heatwave

Today was the second day of upper 90-degree weather. My tomatoes are already showing heat stress by wilting. I spent a good hour this morning trying to find materials to shade my raised beds that have sprouting beans. My cool-weather beets, cabbage and lettuce are even more vulnerable now.

Temps in the upper 90s

We have a heat wave, with temps in Tucson reaching the triple digits. It was 90F when I left the house at 11:30am. It was so hot I let the dogs stay indoors with the back porch door open.

Most of my green beans are now sprouting and in another month every other bean I've planted will be ready for harvest. So far the cool-weather veggies like beets and cabbage are still growing, but I worry about their progress after this heat wave, which is to linger until Thursday. I placed an old wooden futon frame over the beets and cabbage.

The rest of the garden is looking great. The sunflower heliopsis are in full bloom and it looks like my asters will soon pop open.

The Bugman

He lectured our class today, Carl Olson, on bugs, a UA assistant researcher out of Tucson. "There is no such thing as a bad bug" he said, and repeatedly stressed the importance of staying away from chemical pesticides. Stomp on bugs, keep a clean habitat (prevent the bug's habitat) and don't provide food and water and you shouldn't have a bug problem, he added.

Although he came across at first as overly-biased, in the end I understood Olson's passion and actually agree with him 100% on how to best manage a bug problem. His idea about pesticides is similiar to my idea of pharmaceuticals: the majority are unneccessary and only profit for the drug-makers.

Olson was very animated throughout the class. He was gracious enough to stay an extra 30 minutes to answer questions about ants, termites and spiders.


http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/columnists/113192.php

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds make the Southwestern garden. They show up in mid April and stay until just before the first frost in the fall.

My garden is a regular stop-over for hungry hummers. I have several feeders for them filled with sugar water, and many more plants in the front yard just for them. They appreciate the agastaches, pestemons, Cape Honeysuckles, jasmins, bee balm and pineapple sage I got just for them.

I enjoy watching the hummingbirds. This morning one little bird flew around the sprinkler water as I misted the front yard after sunrise. The little bird never stopped, but it was apparent that it was refreshing itself in the mist as it flew from flower to flower.

I also have a two-gallon "pond" between two euliopsis and another terra cotta tray that I fill up with fresh water every day for the other birds that come by every day. I also have various seeds out for the hungry finches, thrashers, doves, Gambel Quails, ravens and wrens that I have spotted in the yard.

This MG course is addicting

I always seem to head straight to Lowe's after class to get more plants for the gardens. Today I spent over $103 on MORE young peppers (not the sweet bell kind, but hotter ones grown for salsa and chile!) and some bee balm, coneflowers, and four bags of soil.

Kevin agreed to help with the container construction, and we also agreed on getting 4x4 boxes that would make gardening easier rather than using long rows. I have a list of close to 20 vegetables I plan on trying out, from the usual beans, tomatoes, peppers and peas that are already growing in small boxes, to lettuce, spinach, cabbage, beets and squash for the latter months. The west end of the back yard will be utilized for the garden, still allowing the dogs their run area, but allowing the plants some shade from the tall hedge shrubs along the west fence. Our summers are too hot for the plants to survive without some afternoon shade.

Today we talked about garden pests. Mel, the woman I worked with last Earth Day, brought in a few pests for us to identify. Next week we talk fruit and nut trees.

My fruit trees aren't looking too good right now. The Santa Rose plum looks like it's dying from the top down. None of the trees remaining in the back yard have sprouted new branches this year except my apricot.

BUSY!!!

I seem to spend four to five solid hours in the gardens lately. The weeds are as pulled as they will be so far, but lately it's been my little vegetable garden that has been keeping me busy. I moved all the pots closer to the Italian Stone Pine, which offers shade for my transplants in the afternoon. The sun's already too hot for the plants to thrive in without shade every day.

Today at the Earth Day/Farmer's Market I picked up several packets of free seeds, including bee balm and chaste tree that I have been looking for, along with desert and firecracker penstemons, desert marigolds and a few others I've not heard of before. Free seeds are such a great deal!

My bell peppers that I planted from seed in early April are now coming up as seedlings. We have various types of tomatoes and won't need any more, but this year I am also trying various beans and peas to go with the toms and peps.

I really enjoy gardening and don't know how the garden will thrive once I go back to work.

A busy day in the garden...

I worked almost non-stop for six hours planting, weeding, uprooting, transplanting around the
garden. Most of the plants that Mom gave me yesteday now have a place in the yard. She brought me a Lisbon Lemon and Bearss Lime; now I have five citrus trees which should be enough. My big love are the small Keylimes for margaritas and spicy dishes.

I also found a stray Parry's Penstemon hiding in the junipers. How long had that thing beed there? I uprooted it and planted it in the front yard.

I also watered the palo verde to the point of saturating it, drowing out a scorpion and several cockroaches around the stem. (Scorps eat roaches).

I found some Greek oregano that had survived all these years with neglect, so together with some sweet basil and cilantro that has a new home.

I don't have much more work to do in the front yard. What is planted there now will have to survive.

It's the back yard that still seems to be a weedy mess no matter how much I till. Three ant hills don't make my job there any easier.