Sunshine and highs in the 80's but every night it falls into the 60's so I can open the windows and cool the house off. Great sleeping weather I might add.
The only downside is that it's been dry as a bone out there. Not a good thing for any gardener trying to get plants established. I've been lugging water to the landscaping plants we planted along with hosing down the direct sown veggies in the garden which are trying to get a toe-hold in the dry as concrete ground.
I was out there just this morning with the hose. It's hard to get a good soaking in for these little guys so I spend some time every day giving them a squirt. Rainwater would be SO much better than my puny little efforts with the hose but you can only deal with the cards you've been dealt so we'll see.
So I'm standing out there swishing water back and forth along the row of Asian Long Beans that I planted along with some cucumber's.
SM is standing out there supervising with his morning Cuppa Joe when suddenly he hears his wife shout "Why you Fat Fu@ker" into the peaceful, predawn morning.
SM practically spewed coffee out of his nose and I suppose any neighbor with their own windows open for fresh air got a good wake-up call.
I had just spied a slug with a cucumber sprout in his sluggy little mouth. I suppose the rage I felt warranted my morning potty mouth. Truly...I don't usually talk that way. SM came over to inspect the evidence and reasonably told me to plant more cucumber seeds as I tossed the bastard over the fence into the neighbors yard. I then spent some time lining the plants with more DE.
The raised beds are doing better mostly I suppose because of the loose mushroom compost.
Oddly enough the slugs left the raised beds alone this year. The squash and bean plants have doubled in size this week so I'm not too worried about slug destruction at this point.
We started eating lettuce this week too! So tender and sweet! I rigged up the shade cloth to try and keep it that way. The longest I've been able to keep lettuce from bolting has been around mid June so I expect we'll have a month of good salad eating.
Well, enough of blogging for now.
Back to painting windows.
The dry days are good for something at least!
I sure would have thought those ugly-bugly slugs would be non-existent considering how dry you have it. They usually (knock-knock on wood) don't bother me unless we have really wet conditions. I tell ya, we gardeners just can't count on a thing. Enjoy your lettuce while thee may!
ReplyDeleteFor me it is the cutworms. I kill a few every morning. I know there is at least one left in the carrot bed, probably at least two. But I just can't find them. I don't toss them though. I'm happy to kill them. They have killed half of my carrots already.
ReplyDeleteKnock On Wood, I've killed off all our slugs. We have a lot of RR Ties in our landscape and apparently the spike holes are perfect for slug habitation. About 5 years ago we started extensive slug salting expeditions after every rainstorm. Last year I saw about a dozen slugs. This year I've seen one. I think the year that the baby slugs, three of which could have lined up on a grain of rice, decimated the first planting of cucumbers was the worst. That year I resorted to beer trays. Now I just make it a habit to sprinkle Sluggo in the beds when I plant lettuce or cucumbers and I keep the strawberries sprinkled as well. It's so nice to see a planned and determined war campaign pay off over time!
ReplyDelete