Early Summer Heat

Today is hot. At 9:00 am it was already 87 degrees F. Now a mere hour later, it is over 90 with a high of 108 expected. After letting the chickens out earlier, they roamed around their run as usual. But after a short while, they found the cool spot. We left a sprinkler on overnight and it watered the inside edge of the run. The chickens found it an piled up in the moist dirt trying to cool off.

Now, if I could only find a cool patch of dirt of my own...

Introducing Our Peppers

Our Purple Beauty. This is purely a guess based on the purple color of the skin. It was part of a mixed pack of seeds, so I have a 1/5 chance of being correct. Seven of the bell pepper plants survived the rough ride from seedlings to transplants. The other possible varieties that may emerge are Orange Sun, Autumn Bell, Canary Bell, and California Wonder.

This is our Bella Hot pepper. It was also started as a seedling. I am hoping that we like this pepper because we have 8 plants of this variety.

Saving the strangest for last, the wax pepper. I was surprised to find that these peppers grow upward then will fall downward when they get bigger. They have a much different growth habit then the Bella Hots. We only have 4 of this variety (yeah, only 4).

Seeing Orange

It seems too soon for the pumpkins to be turning orange. Just the other day they were a nice spring green, now they are showing signs of orange. I have strong suspicion that I may have started them a tad too early (I was just too eager to get things planted!). Now, instead of Halloween pumpkins, looks like we will have Labor Day pumpkins. I guess I could always plant some more so we will have some for Halloween too! According to Pumpkin Nook (a cool site with lots of info about pumpkins), I have another week to get the miniature pumpkins in the ground for a Fall harvest. Now, I just need to find a place to plant them.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2009

Last month I discovered a site that participated in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. After checking it out, I thought what a lovely idea. Every month on the 15th, capture what is blooming in the garden. Last month, I unknowingly wrote an entry about flowers in the garden. Here is my first official chronicle of the garden.


First up are the Marigolds. This year I planted two different seed mixes: Burpee's Mixed Colors and the Flower Power Mix. Overall they have been performing well, with the exception of a few plants that were attacked by earwigs.


Next up are the Nasturtiums (Cornucopia: Tall Single Mixed Colors, Tropaeolum majus). These little beauties are flourishing. I grew them from seed and transplanted the seedlings as companions. They are blooming all over the garden and are a nice complement to the squash plants.


Speaking of squash plants, they are healthy and strong. The yellow flowers above are from one of our Cornucopia Table Queen plants. The flowers have a ruffle along the edges and are a little fancier then the zucchini flowers. Also in the photo is the lovely California Poppy that just showed up the in garden. The upper right is the fiery red bloom of our Wonderful Pomegranate tree.

I know there are a lot of reds, oranges, and yellows out there. However, there are a few cooler colored flowers. The lavender bloom is from a wild garlic that found a home in the shade of an oak tree. The pink bell shaped flowers are from an unidentified plant that is growing near the wild garlic. If anyone knows what this is, please let me know. Last, is the white bloom from our garlic. I planted garlic and onions in a little patch early this year.

To see other blogger's June Blooms, head over to May Dreams Gardens.

Fewer skeletons in the garden

After Friday night's investigation, we went out Saturday to buy some Sluggo Plus. While at the nursery, we asked about the various options. In the end, we decided on the Sluggo Plus because it was certified organic. I applied it to garden that evening. Five days have passed and the amount of earwig damage seems to have subsided. There are still some skeleton leaves from the previous infestation, but not any new ones.


This is a marigold plant. The leaves wrapped around the bottom were a poor attempt of keeping the bugs off. They are sage, which hadn't been touched by the earwigs.

Despite the earwigs attacking the leaves, the zucchini plants are thriving. I picked our first fruit today. It is about 10 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.


I wonder if this will become zucchini soup or zucchini bread. I suspect that I will be able to make both many times over this summer.