June in the Midwest!

Hallelujah come on Thursday. Curtis and John on KCCI are the best weather guys. At WU she watches Mason City and that dude can't articulate weather forcasts for sour owl compost. It turns out meaningless and irrelevant to me.

Man, is it ever hot! 102 today!! hey, Cindylou, if you have Netflix, they have McGyver....a couple of seasons worth.

Well, my tomato and cukes are dead, and my peppers are not happy. Not growing at all, and losing leaves. Everything else is OK. Peas are flowering, and strawberries are fruiting and ripening...YUM!!

Well, today is supposed to be a high of 63*. My garden will welcome the change! Monday was 104* and yesterday was 92* - cooler but 30+ mph winds did more damage drying out my seedlings than the 104* did the day before. I think I lost 2 tomato seedlings, but I have extras to replace them. My kohlrabi is not happy, but the overnight temps (currently 56*) may have revived them!

GG

Goosegirl wrote:Well, today is supposed to be a high of 63*. My garden will welcome the change! Monday was 104* and yesterday was 92* - cooler but 30+ mph winds did more damage drying out my seedlings than the 104* did the day before. I think I lost 2 tomato seedlings, but I have extras to replace them. My kohlrabi is not happy, but the overnight temps (currently 56*) may have revived them!

GG

I am so glad we didnt have a long hot spell. And that wind was crazy! My cabbage did not like the hot windy weather. They would wilt in the hot afternoon so I would run out and water them, then they would perk back up. Thinking of getting some sort of shade cloth for them.

Ann

Glad to see you guys are getting relief up there. I don't think we are going to quite get it here. Looks like things will stall out/wash out in northern Missouri. I didn't check Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio, but I imagine if you drew a line eastward, it would amount to about the same.

Be sure to tell me what a high in the low 70s feels like when I am still sitting in the low 90s on Monday. Our "cool down" will amount to the weekend being the in the mid80s.

This week's update...

Peppers blooming and setting fruits like crazy in this heat!




Overall shot of tomato bed with peppers in front row and cucumbers starting to climb.


Everything else looks pretty much the same. Lettuces and such are still doing well in the heat. Carrots newly planted are starting to appear. And, my broccoli and cauliflower still need to be pulled....I'm just lazy in this heat!

Happy Gardening!

Looking good BBG! You'll be eating roasted peppers before you know it!

Here is the 7-day forecast for the Cincinnati-area:



A bit of a relief from the 100+ temperatures from earlier this week, but they've been forecasting rain since last Thursday and we haven't seen any yet. It's either feast or famine, floods or drought. Sigh!

Now you guys are just making me want to figure out how you are posting those graphics!

I can tell you, though, that starting with tomorrow, my highs are: 94, 92, 86, 83, 90, 92, and 92. And, my highest "chance" of rain is 40%. In other words, not gonna rain. Crud...

LOL! Piece of cake BBG. I just googled one of the local station's "7-day weather forecast", opened the link, right-clicked on the image I wanted, and saved it to my computer. Then I just posted the picture as usual on the forum.

Try to stay cool! "Crud" is right!

I have to do it a little different. My station uses flash so I have to do a print screen then open and crop in a graphics program. I usually just use Paint since it is easiest to open.

It's raining! I hate to say it but WE needed it. Most of Iowa does as long as it is not along the Missouri River!

Thats a lot more like what June weather should be. Hope the plants will also remember what Jone should be like.

Ok...2" now..it can stop for a couple of days then come back! It is going to just start running off now!

Here is the best I could do to get a picture of the whole garden area. I still have my hoop frames up. I don't think I'll take them down at all. We'll see.


Here is one of the 5 tri-pod trellises I build the other day. I actually did these myself! My husband had to show me how to use the drill. I have spaghetti squash planted at the base. I'll add more 'rungs' for them to climb as they get bigger. Elsewhere I have trellises for cukes, honeydew melon, & water melon.


Here is a trellis for a couple of pumpkins. I don't know if pumpkins will climb - we'll see.


My brocoli is doing well. The back edges of this bed are indet. toms. No blossoms yet, but they are growing well. I'll trellis them with string today or tomorrow.


One of my potato containers. This one I'm using straw for the 'hilling'. I have other containers I'm using mm, so I'll be able to compare which produces better for me.


One of 4 determinate toms I have in containers.


A few containers of butternut squash - seeds taken from a squash used for dinner last week purchased at the store. I'll have them climb up adjacent sides of my tri-pod trellises.


I will plant a few more containers of lettuce since I'm out of squares. Next spring I'll need a few more beds to keep up with our salad needs.

The day I built my trellises it got upt to 100*! Today it is 59* - nights are back to the 40s. It seems we'll have one extreem or the other.

CindiLou wrote:I have to do it a little different. My station uses flash so I have to do a print screen then open and crop in a graphics program. I usually just use Paint since it is easiest to open.

This is how I'd do it, too. A lot of work some times.

jbh, your garden looks awesome. And, yes, regarding the weather....welcome to the midwest region!!

Thanks, BBG. I feel like a little kid - so proud of my projects! :drunken: I've never had so much fun gardening!!!

Jenny - Fantastic garden! Looks like a lot a cool projects going on there (teepees) and your plants seems to be responding well. Keep having fun with it!

We had about 2 1/2" of rain in about 1/2 hour last night. This morning I spent some time cleaning off my tomato, bean and pepper plants because they were covered in garden mud. The heavy rain shredded the flowers on my petunias too.

I cut some lettuce this morning so here is the picture of it after I washed it off. This is the first time we have had lettuce. It was planted on May 3rd.



I have beans in both gardens and I have been kind of worried about them because they are turning yellow. My cucumbers are turning yellow too. Do you think they need something? I was thinking not enough water so we increased the amount of water they were getting but there has not been any real change in them in the past 7-10 days.




Here is the resident woodpecker. Last year there was 4 babies following behind. Haven't seen any babies this year.






Ann

My snap peas are getting to be about 3 ft tall. They'd probably be taller if they would climb the trellis instead of tangle around each other. I tried tying them to the trellis, but the wind blows them off when I'm not looking. I've picked a few pods, but they don't seem to be producing much and the bottoms are turning yellow -- leaves and stems. The regular peas next to them are only about 18 in tall, but are green and covered in pods. Go figure.

All my tomato, cuke, and pepper seedlings died, so I bought replacements from the nursery, and so far they are doing well. I'm getting impatient to harvest the first crop of carrots. Planted more last week and they are not up yet. I may have forgotten to put in more compost after harvesting the spinach that was in those squares....

I haven't transplanted my melon seedlings yet because they are refusing to grow to more than three inches tall. Maybe transplanting them will help them grow taller.

Hope everybody else is having more luck than I am!

YAY for the lettuce! Boo for the yellow plants. You will have to wait for another to jump in on that one. I wish I could suggest the right thing, but I'm not plant doctor....not even close (but, I did stay at a HolidayInn Express last night....lol...couldn't resist that old one.)

As for the bird, that is a Northern Flicker. Sort of a woodpecker, but not really. They love ants. That is likely what he is looking for. Hope you don't have a metal chimney...he'll find it at 5am. We have them all over here, too. I kind of like them. They do the strangest mating dance if you ever get to see it. It's like something off of NatGeo from a jungle.

AllAboutBirds.com is a great source for learning the basics about whatever bird you find in your yard. Great site.

And, great garden. Keep it up!

laurainwinona wrote:My snap peas are getting to be about 3 ft tall. They'd probably be taller if they would climb the trellis instead of tangle around each other. I tried tying them to the trellis, but the wind blows them off when I'm not looking. I've picked a few pods, but they don't seem to be producing much and the bottoms are turning yellow -- leaves and stems. The regular peas next to them are only about 18 in tall, but are green and covered in pods. Go figure.

My sugar snap peas started out the same way, then over the last week, they have grown 3 feet, now higher than the 6' trellis I setup, and have more pods growing than we are sure what to do with. I honestly don't know if this is just how snap peas do, or if it was the weather, act of god, or maybe I just had freak of nature peas.

Peas are gardeners' crack. Get 'em while you can because when they stop producing, you will start stealing from the neighbors.

Someone earlier today just made mention of freezing them. You could also give a couple handfuls to a neighbor with a note saying, "Seriously, Joe, just trust me." Joe will be knocking on your door in a couple days.

So glad everyone's peas are doing well. I, personally, can't wait for fall now.

Lots going on in the garden this week.

I love mint tea!

chocolate mint (second year)...I have orange calendula I will plant around it.


Planted this week:

Spearmint....I also have a tub just like this I planted with peppermint but forgot to take a pic!


Orange Mint


I have tomatoes!


My daughter's pasta pot..blooms but no tomatoes yet


Main beds growing well..I see I need to harvest more broccoli and get my netting up!



I have peas ready to pick, lots of mowing to do when it stops raining long enough, and flowers to plant still.
Zucchini are blooming and everything is growing fast!

New lillies I planted last fall! (And I HATE lillies! but love my hubby who likes them)

CanCun Asiatic lilly 36"


Lillian Asiatic lilly 30" (Shhh don't tell anyone but I think I like this one!)


The ones I detest the most...day lillies (I really don't like the color orange so trying other lillies to see if that helps)


I have three other lillies almost to bloom so I can't wait to see what I get! One is supposed to be a deep burgundy!

And my favorite rose bush is going strong! (rofl..I really am not a rose fan either! I love carnations)



I have herb perennial beds to weed and grandkids to raise.
And school work and a million other things to do YESTERDAY!
And I am SUPPOSED to be on vacation!

But Cindi, I want to see trains! Don't you let hubby run some of his trains amongst your SFGs?!

boffer wrote:But Cindi, I want to see trains! Don't you let hubby run some of his trains amongst your SFGs?!

No No AND NO!!! I have to fight for my garden area lol..I don't think the train will mix with my beds!
Rofl..boffer I am going to put some pictures of our last train club meeting on our site soon and you will love Kidman Farms! They have a beautiful layout!

Here is a couple of ours. We have just started the landscaping so it really looks like it is bare!




And a warehouse Ben built and photographed at night.

We have had about 6" of rain this past week! Today we have sun, sun, sun!

My peas have gone crazy this past week! They are blooming now and have grown about 8". We had to add on to the pea trellis today.




The carrots are starting to grow taller.


The potatoes are really crazy! They are about ready to bloom in the red bucket!


The cucumber plants are finally growing. They are transplants from the greenhouse and I was worried about them. They didnt do anything for the longest time.

The cabbage is getting out of control. I keep trimming the bottom leaves because they are invading other squares and getting hoggish! I also had to do battle with the cabbage moth and its eggs. Havn't seen any more for almost a week now.

We have had our second cutting of lettuce today. YEAH! I used 2 onions from the garden for supper last night.

All in all eveything is going GOOD!!

And my clematis is blooming!