Still hot................

The heat continues............................................



.......and the boys are drawn to the "cooler" concrete of the garage floor. These hot days are interspersed with heavy downpours and thunderstorms. After the storms abate the heat gets worse due to the humidity. This really is an awful time of the year.

I had a new visitor in the back garden the other afternoon.....................



.........in the form of a Groundhog, a pretty big one too.

I also picked my first...............



.............Brandywine Tomato and treated myself to a Cheese and Tomato roll for lunch.

This year I made a concerted effort and got to the Peaches before the birds and squirrels.



This is the first year that I have got any sort of decent crop. Saying that, the tree didn't get the best start in life when a huge limb broke off one of the Black Locust trees during the ice storm in December 2007........



....and split the little tree in half.



The severe damage to the lower trunk seems to have healed well after treatment with sealing tar. Two and a half years on and it now looks like this...................



A little misshapen yes but it has survived.

Here's the Fuji Tree after the same storm................



and here it is.......................


.....now.

This will be it's fifth year in the ground and we got our first decent crop of apples.


And very tasty they are too.

Evening skies of wonder..................


..................and the promise of more storms to come.

I think it's here..............................................




Dinner tonight is......................

Amalfi-Style Shrimp

Full recipe here................

http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2009/06/amalfi-style-shrimp.html

Enough!!

Sun and Rain

Plenty of both sun and rain at the moment.

Light show courtesy of Mother Nature.

Yes, July has started out both hot and wet. We have had some pretty high temperatures but not as bad as some years. Many thunderstorms have passed over us too................

.....forcing Alvin to take shelter on the kitchen windowsill at short notice a few times.
Wilson..................................

....prefers somewhere with a little more leg room. The roof of my wife's car proves to be ideal.

High winds have buffeted the region too.

I hope the occupants of this home had vacated the premises before it was blown from the tree?
Anyroad, here's how things are in Oklahomegrownvegland at the moment.....................

Peaches look fine but are still not ready to be picked. Nice looking but "brickish".
Kind of like eating a fruity potato.

The birds and squirrels seem to agree and have not started attacking or stealing them yet.

The same goes for the Fuji apples although I think these may be ready before the peaches.

I've tried a couple and although small they are definitely sweetening up.

This is the Black Cherry tree at the front of the property

I have never seen as much fruit on this tree since we moved here. I did trim off quite a few low hanging branches last year so perhaps it's done it some good. The birds in the area are just loving these and are continuously feeding. Perhaps thats why they are leaving the two other fruit trees alone?

More fruit has been discovered too................

............in the form of Wild Blackberries. I stumbled upon these whilst clearing some creepers around the back of the shed. There were only a few and they had gone by the weekend so I presume that they too have been on the birds menu.

Here's why I was clearing that area..................

...........I was making room for the second Rotating Composter I constructed a couple of weeks ago. I can now stop adding to one barrel when enough material has been collected and start adding to the other.This will allow the contents of the first to break down fully.

Yummy looking stuff, eh?

The Fingerling Potatoes...................................

......I got nothing.
Those magnificent plants which I carefully tendered all those weeks were all I got.
Another Potato crop failure to add to my ever increasing list of Potato crop failures.
One day..............................................................

Better news from the Yolo Bell Peppers.

Here's my first two of the season. They came from the smallest of the four plants too.
It broke at ground level in the high winds shortly after being planted out and had to grow again from scratch. The whole plant is only around 12 inches high.
The rest of the plants have plenty of peppers coming along so it looks like I'll have some success.

The White Onions are about ready.

Plenty of good sized ones too. I will soon be pulling most of them and allowing them to dry in the plots but I want to wait a little longer to make sure the thunderstorms are over.

Most of the eight Tomato plants have set fruit but not as abundantly as I had hoped. I keep reminding myself that I was very late getting these started and not to worry......

.....but I worry. I always worry.
Above picture shows a Brandywine and the hand of the Happy (but worried) Gardener

Stage one of the weekend mowing......................................

................is complete.

Enough!!

Downpour

Quite a heavy downpour today in Oklahomegrownvegland and there's a chance of a further 7 inches of rain heading our way.



This, as you can see, seems to have put a dent in Tommy's hunting plans for the evening and he's not too pleased.

OK, a look around the back garden first to see how things are coming along.



The Yolo Bell Peppers are starting to make some progress after a slow start. This was due to me not getting them out sooner (because of unfavourable weather conditions) and them getting a pretty rough time of it once they did get out there. What with the high winds, blistering temperatures and getting a good chomping from various bugs they didn't get an ideal start.



The same goes for the Tomato plants but they too seem to be getting along nicely now.
At the rear and to the right of this plant you can see one of the Spicy Globe Basil plants

To the left, the White Onions are filling out.



Here's a closer shot.

The Fingerling potatoes which I'm trying out in the container look to be strong plants on the surface and don't seem to be affected by any wilt or bug attacks up to now.



I just wonder what's growing on under the surface but I'm going to be patient and wait a while before having a sneek peek.

Two new additions to the veggie plots this year are.................



Peppermint and...............................



Bee Balm.

Both have settled in well.

Now a quick update on some of the colour around the front.

I scattered a few handfuls of wild flower seed in this area early on and the birds really went to town on them. I didn't expect to see anything for our efforts but I was wrong.



This and............................



.....this look a little like tiny Snapdragons and I was wondering if they were Toad flax or something similar.

And this lovely specimen......................



.........has the appearance of a Marigold. But I'm probably wrong on all three.

Here's one I think I do know......................



Queen Anne's Lace?
Wrong! I've been reliably informed it's Poison Hemlock

And finally, here's a couple of shots of the blooms which are now on the two young Dogwood trees I planted a couple of years ago.






Cool, huh?

Enough!

Time for dinner.




Parmesan crusted Cod and a glass of Chablis.

Heating up

The temperatures are rising and so is the grass.

Thankfully, Herbie is repaired and back in action.

Replacement wheels, axles and bearings are fitted and two belts purchased as a back up.
So, it's time to mow..............................


..................................



................................



Upon completion I discovered this little fellow trotting around the garden. Thankfully, he was small enough to pass under the blades without being injured.......

.........so I placed him under one of the conifers.

Things are coming along in the garden too, despite my terribly late start.

Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Onions and a volunteer Potato all seem to be standing up to these sudden increases in heat which have hit the area. Also in there are Bee Balm (to replace the unobtainable African Blue Basil), Mint, Spicy Globe Basil and a whole load of Dill which has made an almighty comeback despite being "dug back in" at the end of last season.

Once again, the Mesclun has been impressive.......................................


These fresh and spicy tasting greens make an excellent side salad and the more you crop them back, the more they grow. Sadly, now that the temperatures are on the rise, the plants are starting to bolt so these handy greens are about at an end.

My experiment with the Fingerling Potatoes looks good up to now........................

They started off in around 3 to 4 inches of soil at the bottom and I've gradually topped it up as the plants have grown. A couple of weeks ago I reached the top of the barrel so that's as far as I can go. The plants are forming flowers now so it's important for me to keep them moist from now until a couple of weeks before harvesting. This is the period of most tuber development and allowing them to dry out can seriously affect any crop I manage to get.

Around the front of the house the tiny Rosebush, sent to me by a friend in Canada, has had lots of lovely small blooms.


Sadly it also had a whole lot of Aphids too. I doused them with Diatomacious Earth and the bugs have gone. A close inspection earlier this week revealed a lot more buds are forming so there could well be more colour to come.

Both fruit trees have set plenty of fruit. The last two years have seen next to nothing develope due to late frosts

The Fuji Apple...................................



............and the Peach..........................



.....may well supply a modest harvest later in the season. I'm planning on adorning them both with some kind of glittery bird deterrent in an attempt to improve my chances.