Rain, Rain, Go Away

Rain, rain, go away, please make today a sunny day!

The last two days have been 90 degree days, too hot to do too much in the garden and the day before that it got to 89. Now it is raining. In addition to this rain just being “wrong” for the fourth of July, it is interfering with my resolve to have something to show for my four day weekend other than “I mowed the grass” and “I bought some new plants”.

Now I know southern gardeners are thinking “That’s a cold wave ‘round these parts”, but it also very humid and I had other things to tend to so I could never find enough time all at once to garden and then get cleaned up afterwards for the non-gardening activities.

There are some items to report, regardless of my lack of doing much these last few days…

My night-blooming cereus is getting closer to blooming. I think it will bloom in the next few nights. Only one of the 7 buds actually made it to the point of flowering, but one is enough.

I am going to harvest the first zucchini later today. I will be harvesting them while still fairly small, which is how I prefer to eat them. When one or two escape my attention and get really big, I’ll have some to use for baking (or to be more accurate, I should say “to give to someone else for baking” since I’m not known as someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen).

My sweet corn is chest high and starting to tassel. The package said 76 days to harvest, so I am planning on harvesting the first ears of corn on August 5th.

My beans are flowering!

I am seeing many more green tomatoes, so I am at least getting good fruit set, finally.

I have a new hoe on order. Yes, I could not resist buying another Rogue hoe. After using my new triangular shaped Rogue hoe, I had to order a more traditional hoe from this company.

There is a cat in my back yard. I don’t “own” a cat (or more correctly, a cat doesn’t “own” me) so I hope it is back there chasing out the rabbits and not using one of my raised beds as an oversized litter box.

The picture above is from my sister’s garden, showing her vegetable garden in the same spot where my Dad had a garden (upper right corner of the picture is the vegetable garden area). She would love some help identifying this fungus that is growing in another part of her back yard (the shady part). You can tell from the picture above that she likes to let flowers grow to their potential and do their thing. It’s very pretty, with lots of butterflies and bees and kids and dogs and fun. The fungus just does not fit in!