Hot in the City

88, 90, 92, 93, 87, 87.

What do these numbers mean? They are the highs from today through the next 5 days. If it hadn't before hand, Summer has officially announced its presence now.

The good news is that the garden is (mostly) thriving. Knowing that I'll be off my feet for a few weeks after Wednesday has really lit a fire under my ass to get the garden prepared for being semi neglected.

For starters, I now have two fully functioning 55 gallon water barrels hooked up. They are attached to each other with some tubing so that when the main barrel fills up to near the top, the excess drains into the secondary barrel. The second barrel had some leaking issues with the spout not quite fitting right but I put some silicon on it today and mostly stopped it. There are still some leaks that I will try to address tomorrow after things have dried off. It's pretty exciting! I watered my whole garden using my barrels today. And with hot stretches like the one I'm in now, it's really easy to see the benefits of having some water reserves. I also dug out holes below the spouts so a) the watering can can fit underneath them easier and b) there is a spot for the excess water to go rather than making it a muddy mess around the whole area.

My main carrot and beet area is still doing fine after last weeks thinning. I suspect in a week or two they will be ready to pluck as well. That area will next harbor a fall crop of spinach and lettuce and maybe even some Watermelon Radishes which I've heard are better suited as a fall crop.

Speaking of things being better suited as a fall crop, as I mentioned in the last post, my lettuce crop had bolted and went away. However, I have since cleared all of that space of any and all rouge weeds and laid down a layer of my own home made compost. I may have also mentioned that all of my broccoli and cauliflower I planted for the spring grew really really big and then never formed any actual broccoli or cauliflower heads. I have heard it said before that those are both notoriously difficult to grow AND that they are better suited for fall. At least here in Michigan. I've learned my lesson about trying to grow them in spring. SO, what I have done in the space that previously grew my lettuce is planted round two for a fall crop of Early Snowball Cauliflower, Broccoli, Colorful Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts. I also planted this combo on my side bed by my garage. I'm doing a little experiment....

This site gets limited morning sun but full midday and afternoon sun

This site by the garage gets morning sun and some afternoon sun

I want to see which, if either, will grow better this fall.

My peas are winding down and I suspect with this weeks heat wave that they will wither fairly fast.

In their place I think I may plant some beans and carrots. I'm not sure if I'll do pole since the trellis is already set up for their climbing nature or if I'll do bush. 

Speaking of carrots and beans...

Here is my second round of carrots which are a few weeks from being ready. The poles to the right are for my pole beans. The poles themselves seemed to be working fine until I had to pull most of my pole bean plants due to them having Bean Rust. I was pretty sure that is what it was just by looking at them but a quick search confirmed it. So in the garbage they go. Composting will just spread the disease.

Here is one of four of my huge squash plants. I have a feeling I will have a lot of squash soon

This is my miniature acorn squash, also huge. 

Both rows of squash

My dad came today and helped me get my tomatoes staked up. I thought we were just going to tie each plant up to it's own stake. He had other plans which were far more fancy than I thought.

It's my very own tomato corral! 

Now my tomatoes have their very own fence to lean against and grow on. I had to tie a few to the wood just to keep them from falling but the rest seem to have fallen right in line. I think this will do just fine.

My volunteer tomatoes growing from out of one of my compost piles. 

 I was still able to collect some compost from the same pile the tomatoes are growing out of and spread it on the garden today.

My pepper plants seem to be doing just fine. 

More peppers next to some marigolds and my tomato corral.

This is behind my tomatoes. These are my basil plants, Italian and two lime ones as well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be swimming in it soon.

And last but not least, my side bed.

I cleared this bed from the peas and broccoli. Today I laid on some compost and planted beets, Swiss chard and romaine lettuce. So that is the last of it right now.

Here is to hoping that all of my new plantings get off to a healthy start. It should be hot enough to germinate everything pretty quickly. The problem with that is that once they sprout, this heatwave might be enough to wilt them before they even get a chance to get started. Keeping them well watered will be a challenge after Tuesday. May just have to use the hose until then. Either way, I'll try my best to not let the heat of summer kill my crop.