Some losses

It's been a hot day here in Oklahomegrownvegland. A constant 90F (32C)
Not a good day to be working on repairing the shed floor...........................

But it's done! Another job crossed off from the "to do" list.
Yesterday was a little cooler so I managed to get some gardening done.
My wife got the flower beds knocked into shape.......................

Front flower beds..................

....now have colour added......................

.....and are mulched.

The Mosquito plant is another new arrival, an impulse buy on my part from our local Garden Center.
I've been in tree planting mode and added another 3 yesterday......

.....including this Washington Hawthorn.......

......and Sargent Crab apple.
That's a total of 16 so far this year. Up with trees!
Sadly there's bad news about one of the three Persimmon trees, it appears to have been struck by lightning.

Where last year there was ample growth this year the whole tree is dead.
Examination of the lower truck reveals...................

....huge cracks...............

.....in various places. This is a sad loss indeed as the 3 trees all make one nicely shaped canopy and give the appearance of one large tree. This is one of the reasons that the problem went unseen for so long because, when viewed from the house you only notice a couple of dead branches. It was only when I approached the trees from the creek that I saw the extent of the devastation.
On a more positive note..............

..the Fuji Apples bountiful harvest. .

Well, if I can get to them before the birds that is.
Moving around the back of the house the Tomato plants in the containers..............

.....have doubled in height and are flowering. I'm tending to give these a little extra Fish Emulsion as they have limited growing medium and dry out quickly. Constant watering will probably flush out most of the nutrients from the soil.
Plot 2

Tomato plants look good and are in flower. The parsnip seed aren't doing a thing. I'll check again when I water tonight.
Plot 3

So far so good with the potatoes. These plants have flowered heavily and I've kept up the watering as this is the time of tuber development.
Plot 4

I've harvested one Kohlrabi which came in at around 3 inch diameter, and two small batches of radish. These went in with the Mesclun which is STILL providing and could turn out to be the best new discovery of the season.
Plot 5
Now here's more bad news.................
In two weeks the batch of red potatoes has gone.........................

...........from this...........................

.....to this.
It look suspiciously like Verticillium Wilt to me...................

I dig up one row, which is half the plot, and get 5lb of potatoes. So my hopes for a good harvest of Reds are shattered for this year. Funnily enough, my spell checker wanted to change the word "Verticillium" to "Voodooism". Now there's a thought, maybe I have a Potato Curse?
Plot 6

Sparkler Radishes look good, Yolo Bell peppers are struggling to get off the ground this year in direct contrast to the rapid growth last year. Of the Parsnip seeds I planted there looks to be about 6 or 8 showing through. Oh well, maybe Wal Mart will do better.
The determinate Tomato plants, which is situated in one of the ends of the path...............

....set it's first fruit last weekend and now has quite a few showing. This is the only tomato plant with fruit on to date.
At the opposite end of the path the Cherry tomato plant I grew from organic seed.......

....has taken off after a slow start.
Many things in the garden seem to have been affected by the swings in temperature combined with floods and steaming hot days. But hey, when has it ever been easy?
On a lighter note, I've been combing the Internet these last 2 weeks and asking people in the area where I could get a "Food Grade" 55 gallon plastic drum for an up coming project. My fruitless search comes up in a conversation with our local veterinarian while Alvin is having his shots.
Turns out that Oklahomegrownland, population 1200, has it's very own "Food grade" plastic drum emporium right next to the Garden Centre. I call in and see Gene, the proprietor and............

.....snap one up for $11.00. A bargain.
Ok, enough. It's beer thirty!!