Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Too Hot, Too Dry

I haven't talked about our garden much lately, but I think the photos below might explain why.


The spinach has all bolted.


 Zucchini leaves are wilting.


The popcorn doesn't look completely awful, but when you look a bit closer, you can see that all the leaves are curled. That's the plant's attempt to try and limit water loss when temperatures are high. My grandfather used to say that he could predict the temperature based on how tightly the corn leaves were curled, but my farming experience isn't good enough to do that.



The cucumbers look pitiful,


and the poor tomatoes are just terrible.


There is one seemingly heat-resistant volunteer plant in the bean row, so I'm trying to take especially good care of it. 


Worst of all are the splayed out Napa cabbages. The heads are still usable, but I don't know how long that will be the case. 

We've been watering early in the morning and again late at night to reduce evaporation, but I took these photos at mid-day
 and they show how stressed most of the plants are after several days of our high heat, despite twice daily watering. 


There is one thing in the garden that isn't painful and sad to look at - the purple coneflowers. There are
 also some black-eyed susans among them, and I hope they fare well enough to bloom. 

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow ~ Audrey Hepburn
(along with the possibility of lower temperatures and a drenching thunderstorm or two!)

12 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry your garden is suffering in the heat. Stressed plants are susceptible to so much more than heat. Here's too cooler days and hardy plants! Triple digit heat comes our way tomorrow and we're hoping it's not around for more than the weekend.

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  2. Oh, Bonny, I am so sorry your garden is suffering. We are also suffering terribly from too much heat and very little rain. We have been lucky with a few pop up showers, but that's about it. It's somewhat early days yet, so maybe things will rebound if the weather turns. I have given up on that down here in the South. We are destined to have a very bad summer with a continuation of what we are having now. Sorry to have been absent from the blog, but I had a root canal and things have not been going well. But things are beginning to look up. Hopefully your garden will as well!

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  3. Oh, my, that is sad indeed. I'm so sorry!! I hope you get some relief soon (and blooming black-eyed susans).

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  4. I'm so sorry to see this Bonny. :-( The heat really is crazy right now. Here's to some serious soaking in the near future. xo

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  5. Oh Bonny! That is just so sad. It sure has been a rough summer so far. Hoping for rain...despite the heavy rains a week or so ago, everything is dried out.

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  6. Those poor plants! The photos make me sad! We're watering a lot and, while the dill and cilantro went to seed, everything else is (mostly) okay.

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  7. That is so sad! I asked my husband if there was anything you could do about the corn, and he said no. He is a retired corn breeder. In the future, though, you can try adding lots of nitrogen to the soil early in the season.

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  8. There is nothing sadder than a sun-baked garden. One year, when we had an especially hot, dry summer, I "stitched" together some burlap with zip ties and we put up some shade for the plants and surprisingly most of them came back and we got a good harvest!

    May it rain soon!

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  9. So sad. Well, WE definitely got the thunderstorms this afternoon. For a moment there I thought I was back in Orlando. YIKES! (Knocked out the traffic lights on 611.)

    Hope you can salvage some of the veggies.

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  10. Oh no ... I wish I could send some of our wet your way. Marc got an email this morning from the golf club that they recorded so much rain in the last two weeks that there is black mold growing on the greens...

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  11. this weather is not good, we didn't plant a garden, we have some volunteers (tomatoes and I hope basil) but he hasn't been out there to tend to it and I won't be out there to tend to it :)

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  12. I am trying very hard to water. We have had intense heat and humidity. At least the storms have kept the trees and clematis wet enough to be looking ok yet.

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