Sunday 6th July
Rising at 7-00am to a wonderful, bright sunny day here in Oklahomegrownvegland
Alvin checks the thermometer and reports that it's a pleasant 78F.
In summer he hunts all night and sleeps in air conditioned comfort during the day.
Alvin is one wise pussycat!
It will get hotter here today. A whole lot hotter!
So I'll check things out in the garden now before the high temps hit.
The Petunia hanging basket requires constant moisture.
After watering I give it a half strength drink of Fish Emulsion liquid fertilizer.
Flower bed 1 below is another area that requires constant monitoring..........
..........as it dries out rapidly in the heat of the summer.
Whereas Flower Bed 2.....................
...................tends to hang onto its moisture a little longer.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............................
..........I really must get this fixed sometime.
I notice strange foliage on the small potted Petunia...................
........and discover a volunteer Tomato plant has moved in there with it.
Moving around the back to the vegetable plots .........................
...........I pick my first vine ripened tomato of 2008.
A Big Red variety and my second generation.
Higher temperatures, of say 85F and upwards, actually slow down the ripening of the fruit. I check thoroughly for any sign of sun scald but they all look OK.
This year I tried a new variety of sweet Bell Pepper called Yolo and boy have they done well.
I've already harvested 12 or more full sized fruits and every plant is back full again.
There must be at least 8 to 10 more ready to be picked right now plus more on the way.
Some will be used in a tomato based mixture which we freeze and use in pasta dishes throughout the year. It's technical name in our house is "Mick's Tomato Gloop"
The second row of potatoes are rallying and have even come into bloom.
I'll water them because this will be the period of most tuber growth and they will need plenty of moisture.
Hey what's this?
The birdseed Sunflower is around 18 inches tall and the first to flower.
These Skyscraper variety are living up to their name and tower over me.
No flowers yet though.
Of the Torch variety I planted, not one seed germinated.
The second cucumber is almost ready.
. 
Constant harvesting of cucumbers encourages more to grow.
This row of onions are all crowning and around three quarters of the onion tops are over....................
........so I pull the whole row......................
....................and leave them out to dry.
On the subject of onions, I discovered Wild Garlic growing on the edge of my small copse....
....so I pulled some to have with a delicious Spaghetti Bolognese I made for dinner last night.
This is a good find and I've saved some bulbils for planting in the fall.
Oh, and the Pole Beans have arrived....................
These were definitely not here yesterday, I checked! Maybe they were hiding?
Things are starting to warm up.
Time for................
3 comments:
Your cats are so adorable. The bell peppers look excellent. I haven't had much luck with them, but hopefully that will change soon. The garlic and onions look great. Why do you leave the onions to dry in the sun? Tomato looks red and delicious too. I always pick them when they are orange because the birds like to poke holes in them!
dp
Thanks for the kind words about the cats.
I leave the onions out in the sun to cure for about a week. They store better that way.
Am jealous of that tomato! YUM. Thanks for the comment on my site!
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