Climate Does anyone have a thriving garden in this heat?

[alpha]

Gee, I wonder who these will be for?

Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Globally accessible seed bank on Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure backup facility for the world's crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen

 

[ioujc]

Well, after I started watering EVERY morning, things are going a bit better in the garden. And, I leave the water on a slow-slow-slow soak on the grapes and elderberries. Have LOTS of grapes and elderberries!!

I also have quite a few cantaloupes looking like they are going to ripen, which is ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL!! The tomatoes are coming along, but slowly. They are on the plants, but I have yet to get a ripe one!! My peppers look stunted and are just sitting there. The cucumbers are going like gangbusters and myself and the adolescent chicks are enjoying them!!

I am WANTING to get some Red and Idaho potatoes in, but I have to get the bed ready, and need to work in a LOT of mulch and rabbit manure.

My pear trees, which were growing magnificently, appear to have died from the heat....they were watered daily, but ended up withering and dying. I do have one left that is doing well, but I have it in full sun only about 6 hours a day.

This has been a VERY hard summer, quite unlike any I have experienced since moving to this area....
And the heat has almost done me in, after working in the garden and my core temperature getting pretty UP THERE, I go into the RV, but along about 3PM, the temp in there goes up to about 80-85. Hard to restore energy and strength when there is little relief from the heat. I REALLY DON'T SEE how our ancestors did it?? I suppose if you have never lived in air conditioning, you don't miss it. As a kid, we had no A/C......not at home or school and we just "dealt with it." My Dad, worked in A/C at Boeing, and came home every night to our VERY HOT house....but he was an AWESOME man anyway. My mother had no quarter from the heat....doing all the housework, cooking and hanging out the clothes!! I must say, my respect for both of them has gone up since I became an OLD FART myself!!

 

[Wildwood]

Well, after I started watering EVERY morning, things are going a bit better in the garden. And, I leave the water on a slow-slow-slow soak on the grapes and elderberries. Have LOTS of grapes and elderberries!!

I also have quite a few cantaloupes looking like they are going to ripen, which is ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL!! The tomatoes are coming along, but slowly. They are on the plants, but I have yet to get a ripe one!! My peppers look stunted and are just sitting there. The cucumbers are going like gangbusters and myself and the adolescent chicks are enjoying them!!

I am WANTING to get some Red and Idaho potatoes in, but I have to get the bed ready, and need to work in a LOT of mulch and rabbit manure.

My pear trees, which were growing magnificently, appear to have died from the heat....they were watered daily, but ended up withering and dying. I do have one left that is doing well, but I have it in full sun only about 6 hours a day.

This has been a VERY hard summer, quite unlike any I have experienced since moving to this area....
And the heat has almost done me in, after working in the garden and my core temperature getting pretty UP THERE, I go into the RV, but along about 3PM, the temp in there goes up to about 80-85. Hard to restore energy and strength when there is little relief from the heat. I REALLY DON'T SEE how our ancestors did it?? I suppose if you have never lived in air conditioning, you don't miss it. As a kid, we had no A/C......not at home or school and we just "dealt with it." My Dad, worked in A/C at Boeing, and came home every night to our VERY HOT house....but he was an AWESOME man anyway. My mother had no quarter from the heat....doing all the housework, cooking and hanging out the clothes!! I must say, my respect for both of them has gone up since I became an OLD FART myself!!

That's great news that your garden is doing better. Mine is too but it's only because of the watering. I've wondered the same thing about my ancestors when they didn't even have electricity.

I managed to get 14 tomato seedlings out of my sweet potato bed several weeks ago from the compost I'd added before I planted the sweet potatoes. I put them in solo cups, planning to plant them when the heat broke...I got them in the ground yesterday and they were about a foot and a half tall but spindley. The only way I could keep them alive was in the shade. I also got some bell pepper starts I bought a while back in the ground. I pulled all my cucumbers from the raised bed, one thing that did fair, but they were spent. I replaced them with greasy grit beans that are beginning to sprout. I planted more cucumbers in the garden and they are in various stages. I have two big rows of greasy grits I planted the first of May and haven't got a single pod out of them yet. By now, I'm usually on my second planting with a ton canned.

The tomatoes that survived the flood and then faced the heat are doing ok, not as productive as usual but we've ate some and I made a half gallon of fermented salsa plus a handful of pints canned.

The purple hulls are producing. I've cooked about a gallon of them for a family get together and six pints for this winter with enough shelled to do another six pints and still slowly producing. It's the same with the okra. It's produced me several pints, slowly but surely. My melons were like the cucumbers, they did great for a few weeks and then done. My DIL just picked up the last of them to make jelly. I do have more that came up volunteer in the potato bed that got washed away. and no potatoes to replant it with..another gift from the compost pile.

One thing I'm noticing is the plants that survived the heat and even managed to produce aren't lasting nearly as long as usual. They seem to produce a small burst of stuff for a month or so and they are done. Unlike most years when I have an abundance, I'm putting up everything I can get my hands on...very little, if any, goes to waste.

I will never take a normal summer for granted again when it comes to my garden. This is the hardest gardening I've ever done with failure after failure. I've replanted so many times but I have raised food when everyone around me has given up. Nothing like a stubborn old woman lol.

 

[Wildwood]

Gee, I wonder who these will be for?

Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Globally accessible seed bank on Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure backup facility for the world's crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen

I'm sure the elite will end up with them if things turn truly nasty.

I'm hearing so many rumors of seed shortages for next year that I'm saving all I can. I'm considering selling them locally if I have a huge abundance and times are normal. They'd probably be good barter items if things aren't normal.

 

[lonestar09]

It has been too hot here and no rwin has no helped matters here either. Getting plans together for hopefully a big one in the fall. Son wants to really get into it now.

 

[ioujc]

Sometimes STUBBORN is what it takes to get things done!! Yes, everyone who has persisted in the face of this summer's heat, and the difficult growing conditions deserves a MAJOR COMPLIMENT!! And Wildwood especially, with her first garden almost completely washed away in floodwaters!!!

I can only remember one other time it was so hot and humid around here, and I was in a valley that got more rain. Only about 30 miles away, but very different growing conditions! That was a moist very fertile valley, that had DEEP top soil..... WONDERFUL place, but the front part, where the house was flooded a LOT!!

Well, I wonder what this Fall will be like??? And winter???

 

[barbarossa58]

Weeds...

 

[Border Collie Dad]

My garden has produced very little.
I can count on one hand what I've harvested.
Haven't had a tomato yet and got a couple scrawny peppers.
A few green beans, some broccoli and undersized cabbage.

My well isn't strong enough to water.
Oh, well.

 

[Wildwood]

My garden has produced very little.
I can count on one hand what I've harvested.
Haven't had a tomato yet and got a couple scrawny peppers.
A few green beans, some broccoli and undersized cabbage.

My well isn't strong enough to water.
Oh, well.

That's the story for most folks here too. My situation is what you would call a mixed blessing. Because I live where two creeks meet, I'm at a higher than average risk for flood. I lost all but three of twenty something chicks and the garden in June, not to mention the stuff that floated away. We hadn't had a flood like it in 32 years and it was unexpected. On the other hand, I live where the water table must be pretty high because there are several springs on my property and my well has never gone dry in 35 years. It depends on which day you ask me if all that water is a blessing. It can save my garden or wash it away but that heat was the deal breaker.

 

[Wildwood]

Sometimes STUBBORN is what it takes to get things done!! Yes, everyone who has persisted in the face of this summer's heat, and the difficult growing conditions deserves a MAJOR COMPLIMENT!! And Wildwood especially, with her first garden almost completely washed away in floodwaters!!!

I can only remember one other time it was so hot and humid around here, and I was in a valley that got more rain. Only about 30 miles away, but very different growing conditions! That was a moist very fertile valley, that had DEEP top soil..... WONDERFUL place, but the front part, where the house was flooded a LOT!!

Well, I wonder what this Fall will be like??? And winter???

Thank you ioujc, that's very kind of you.

That's kind if the way our property is. If I lived on a river, it would be almost like a delta but it's in the hills. Everything around us is rocky but the only rocks in our yard, we brought up from the creek. The whole creek bed is nothing but rocks of varying sizes.

 

[dioptase]

This past week we harvested the first 4 tomatoes. I planted late, because I wasn't planning on growing anything at all this season (mobility issues and drought watering restrictions), but DH has to have his homegrown tomatoes! I picked all earlier-producing varieties, especially as my kitchen garden area gets a lot of shade. I'm hoping that later this month we'll start getting a better crop, because up until now it's been uninspiring.

 

[Wildwood]

This past week we harvested the first 4 tomatoes. I planted late, because I wasn't planning on growing anything at all this season (mobility issues and drought watering restrictions), but DH has to have his homegrown tomatoes! I picked all earlier-producing varieties, especially as my kitchen garden area gets a lot of shade. I'm hoping that later this month we'll start getting a better crop, because up until now it's been uninspiring.

I bet you will. They will keep going til frost and it's finally getting back down to more normal temps. I was giving tomatoes away in November last year. Our first frost was late.