Our Plants Don’t Mind the Heat

 

[ Our big water tank ]

June 16 – This week has been a hot one, really hot with high humidity and no breeze. A rain would have been welcome, and for a while it seemed like we might have one, for there was a lot of mild thunder and darkish clouds and then the sky cleared again.

If we don’t have rain quite soon I am going to have to water our garden. I got out our small electric pump this week and hooked it up to our 1100 gallon water tank that catches water off the barn roof, and filled a 40-gallon blue plastic barrel from which I will dip buckets or watering cans to carry to the garden. Whenever things get so dry that the whole garden needs a good watering, I will have to get out the garden hose and bring water down from the outdoor house faucet and run it through our sprayers.

[ Fresh garden produce ]

Right now we are picking Romaine lettuce and assorted cabbages and turnips and giant German Parat radishes. Twice I have planted a row of calico lima beans but the seed must be too old as only three or four plants came up. On the other side of the wire trellis is a row of peas that rabbits ate off, so this trellis is a waste of time this year.

Our cucumber plants are growing rapidly and a second batch seemed to be in order, so I hoed up a row and put in fertilizer and then got several packages of seeds and got down on my knees and planted quite a few. To hold in moisture, I laid down a layer of straw and then watered the row. Cucumbers and tomatoes are two of our favorite vegetables.

[The iris bed, before and after ]

Chris decided to mow our big bed of iris, as they were badly overgrown with weeds. It was really too hot for that but at least the iris are in a shady area, so she was able to mow in slightly cooler conditions. While they are blooming the shade is sparse but once the tree leaves overhead come out in full, the blooming period is over. Chris mowed and mowed and at last the job was done and she was glad to come in and cool off and rest a bit.

I also have on the list to go out and pick more of our sour cherries. We have quite a few bags of them already in the freezer, plus lots more from last year. The worst thing about sour cherries is having to remove their seeds and check for worms. From the house we can see the glint of ripe cherries on the trees, and know there are still one or two more pickings.

[ Chestnuts for the squirrels ]

I continue to put out a bunch of elderly chestnuts from the freezer for the squirrels to eat. We have had those nuts too long and they have lost their quality, so the squirrels are benefiting. Our two chestnut trees are blooming now and the fragrance blows clear across the yard at times. We hope to get a fresh supply of chestnuts come October, and we will just have to eat more of them. Most of our friends and neighbors are not very keen on chestnuts.

For a short while on Sunday all the lights went out in the house. The internet connection was still alive, and so was the TV, but no lights. Just the lights in a couple of rooms went off, so I headed downstairs to the fuse box and take a look. I turned off the appropriate switch and back on, and presto, the lights were back on again. A minor mystery but all seems to be okay now!

Harvey came over on Monday and installed the two new belts I got for our rototiller. The one seems a bit too loose, but it’s the same number as was there before. All the slackness has been taken up by the adjustments, so I just hope the one snug belt and the other one slightly less snug can handle the load. These two belts are just 21 and 22 inches in circumference, but cost $38 for the two. I expect them to earn their cost.

We are looking for some rain hopefully this week according to the weather forecast, and we hope the forecaster is not just guessing. – DALE

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