Sunday, July 11, 2010

Back to Basics

I took a few days hiatus from gardening posts, mostly because it was too hot to do anything outside, but also because the heat has taken its toll on the garden in a mean, mean way inspite of my attempts to salvage it.

The peppers are a bust this year and the tomatoes and okra don't seem to like that location much better.

The Kentucky Wonder pole beans produced a little, but not as I was hoping, but they're surely dying back and will come out in two weeks regardless to make room for peas.

The cucumbers in the new garden are a bit wilty and just aren't making pretty looking cucumbers. I think they'll come out in a few weeks too and either more cukes will go in or more peas.
The only thing that seemingly laughs at the heat has been the lima beans. They reach for the sky and stay spry even in the hottest parts of the day.
There are, however, these little dark copper almost triangluar bugs EVERYWHERE on them.
I'm not sure what they are, but they don't seem to be affecting the production, yet.
Although I haven't harvested anything from them yet, they look like they're going to do wonderfully!
I took y'all's advice and made changes to the Keychains page and also took advice to include purple ribbon keychains. Purple is the color that signifies awareness for all types of cancer. Another reader suggested I make half length ones for smaller key chains, men or to keep all of those pesty cupon/discount cards that clutter up your everyday key chains. I think they're great! Here's a picture of the purple half length:
I'm so happy to say we've already gotten several orders and the first batch will go out in the mail on Monday. This is all very exciting.
The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

8 comments:

  1. My garden is looking quite wilted today, and so am I. It's really hard to get much enthusiasm going when it's this hot. My pruned out raspberry canes are still sitting in a pile on the back lawn, probably killing the grass. I guess we do what we can do, and hope for the best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The heat is giving our plants a beating too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like the short keychains, they are awesome!

    Can't get over the wilting in your garden, that must be tough to watch. :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Granny I always get a kick out of the weather for you and Dan. We southerners think we have the market on hot weather and don't think y'all have it as well!

    Meemsnyc, I'm honestly thinking I'm just going to let things go to make a graceful exit so I don't feel bad about ripping them out to do fall crops.

    Kelly, I like them also! I didn't know how they'd do, but I was impressed. They're a good length for a decorative accent to an already well loved key chain accessory or for those discount cards which is how my neighbor is planning on using hers.

    The wilting is tough, but I'm tired of watching it all do nothing, so it's going to all go on Tuesday, most likely.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I laughed at that first picture, but I'm not laughing AT you, just WITH you, I have some that look just like it, but there's not much we can do about it. The heat and humidity is killer out there. I wasn't able to enlarge the photo with the bugs, so I couldn't see the little devils! Hope you get a few hours of relief soon, it seems to be doled out only in increments of hours, LOL

    ReplyDelete
  6. Erin, I can say with impunity that it was nice outside from 7:30ish -8:05 AM when I was out this morning. When it started getting hard to breathe with the humidity, I came inside.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Now I feel guilty because I was complaining to my husband that it was too hot when we were hiking in the park today, it to be all of 78 or 79 out there . . . I'm a weather wimp for sure. No way could I live in the weather you get.

    I feel so sad about your poor veggies. Hope you fall garden in a huge success

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh dear Ribbit... those are some sad looking plants!

    I hope they are able to come back to life!

    Been hot here a couple days too.

    ReplyDelete