August - What's happening in your garden?

We came from here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1017238/

Ric – Love the garden tour!
Celia – Pretty sky shot
Pepper – nice to hear of perfect weather!
Bernie – Congrats on the rain!!
Celia – The GH is looking great! Love that picture LOL!
Ric - Looking forward to updates!

76.8 °F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 89%
Dew Point: 73 °F
Wind: Calm
Wind Gust: 0.0 mph
Pressure: 30.18 in (Rising)
Heat Index: 78 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 2 out of 16
Clouds: Few 3000 ft
Scattered Clouds 8000 ft
Mostly Cloudy 15000 ft
Mostly Cloudy 25000 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 18 ft

Today
Partly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms early in the morning...then mostly cloudy with showers and thunderstorms likely by afternoon. Highs around 90. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.

Cosmos

Good morning!

It's a long weekend here, the last big travel weekend of the summer ..... then it's all downhill from there ...... Sunny today, only 54°F at noon and breezy. The garden is sheltered enough so I will be soaking up some sun today :-) It's starting to get dark at night again, the darkness brings mixed feelings of calm and a bit of sadness that summer will soon be over.

Hope you all have a great day!

Rann

Rann, don't remind us ...not yet!LOL
Ric, I've seen all the pics from your tour...so beautiful! Is there you got the idea of the deck? I also got an idea of a new project...a short cascade and a pond! I have a place where the rain always pours down through the dirt and it already made a ditch.Of course, I'd need some help from you!LOL
Kelli, loved the videos! It's great to make a journey with you !
Sharon, thanks for starting a new thread! Loved the pics with Boo! My orange cosmos will bloom soon too.
Mau, great pics, thanks for the tour! The rainbow is so beautiful!Love the path and flower bed with the bricks.
Celia, the GH looks great! Is it done yet?
Marylyn, free swimming, wow!
Dyson, sorry you had so much rain! I hope you can get some good fall crops.
I didn't have time to go elsewhere but I make daily tours of my garden...inside and outside!LOL The plants are bursting out...first ones are the spaghetti squash vines!

Same vine flowers between the orange Klondike Cosmos plants.

Near the Spherical Zinnias.

This is the whole thing so you can get a better picture of how much spaghetti squash vine has spread all over and is taking over the garden!LOL

Front garden, where daturas are taking over!

Sunflower.

Zinnias.
Sorry, I forgot the picture...

This message was edited Aug 1, 2009 12:30 PM

Trying again.

Snapdragons.

These daturas are getting out through the fence too!

4 o'clocks in the morning!

View from the front gate.

Another 4 o'clocks bush.

Ric, the hills are still green because they are chaparral and oak woodlands, which stay green all year. As for the poison oak, it is incredible how much there is out here.

Van Nuys, California (Airport)
Updated: 1:51 PM PDT on August 01, 2009
87 °F
Clear
Humidity: 40%
Dew Point: 60 °F
Wind: 6 mph from the SE
Pressure: 29.93 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 87 °F
Visibility: 7.0 miles
UV: 12 out of 16
Clouds: Clear -
(Above Ground Level)

Horsetail jungle at the Santa Clara River estuary

grebes - I think these are young ones

This message was edited Aug 1, 2009 4:46 PM

I am glad I wore my water sandals because we had to do some wading in the swamp, though not through anything quite like this.

Here's another video. This stretch of road is called the Conejo Grade. Ric probably knows it. The light green on the hills are cacti, thousands and thousands of cacti. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmBqYH1MWnw

GH not done yet! Saturday is usually quiet around here but not today. It is on the base and we just need to attach the guy-wires and it's complete.

Freestanding, Ric. Pretty neat and went together fairly well.

Hot again today. 90º. Again.

Pretty decent today. Started out raining then was cloudy til early afternoon then the sun came out. Humidity went up some but still pretty tolerable with the low temps.

Ok, now I need your all's help. We thought I had a volunteer cuke growing in my garden. Turns out it's not a cuke but I have no clue what it is. Here's a pic. Next post will show the leaves more.

Here's the vine. My watermelon on the right is gone. A turtle ate it. I lost another one to him too. And a cantelope rotted in there also. Grrrrrrr......

Your mystery plant looks like it has some butternut squash ancestry. Did you grow any of those last year.

I don't grow melons because the critters get them.

My thought too Kelli. Squash have a tendency to reappear.

Adina your yard is looking better w/ each week.
Did you plant the Devil's Trumpet?
If so you will have hundreds by next year.
We get heavy gloves and nippers to get rid of all but a few seed pods.

Kelly we went that way to SB but I didn't know the name of the Grade.
I put the Moniter on HD Full and it's like being there. COOL!
Love the music BTW.
Didn't hear much Bluegrass out there.
Try WNKU streaming audio... (Northern KY University) Sunday nights they do a great Hills of Home Bluegrass show. Katie Lauer hosts it.
http://www.wnku.org/page_wnku.asp
I was driving so Robyn had me pull off to see all the Cactus.
By the time we got to SB they were like a lawn along the roads.

We finished the Deck addition about 4:45 this afternoon.
Would have been done sooner but our neighbors, Jon and Terri came over to see how we were getting along and stayed to chat for a bit.
We needed the break anyway so.....

Tomorrow we'll do a little final tweaking and dress it.
The dressing is the whole reason for the project.

Ric

The deck looks great! How often do you think you will have to refinish it? The music you hear on any of my videos is whatever is playing on my iPod at the time. I'll check out your web site. There used to be a radio station out of CSUN that played bluegrass but they changed format ages ago.

The hill at the end of the video we call Cactus Hill. I don't know if it has a real name. When we go past it (and I'm not making a video), I say, "Yay! Cactus Hill!" and DH cheers. I'm always leading cheers for the plants. Yep, I can be pretty goofy. You gotta get your jollies where you can. ;-) How funny that Robyn wanted you to pull over so she could see the cactus. If you had known, you would have paid more attention to the hill on the the other side of the road, to look for the rare Conejo buckwheat. http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=3223

We have Wild Squirrel sightings.
Not that we don't see them every day here in the yard.
If we see one run across the street, while we are driving, the sighter yells "Wild Squirrel!"
We also do name that road kill.
Squassums, Woodchunks, Wackcoons, of course Sail Rabbit is universal and Oh Deer!

A friend of ours would sing out out "HOLLYWOOD" when he saw a dead Woodchuck or Racoon.
Only the ones looking like they were sitting up w/ their front legs spread out like Al Jolson singing 'Mamie' though.

Whoa that is a rare plant.
Would it have been up or just a brown/tan blur in December?

The pressure treated wood on the deck will need coated about every third year.
It only gets a few hours of sun so won't bleach too badly.
Cedar well have to see.

WNKU is a VERY rare radio station.
An odd mix of styles.
PBS but University owned and operated. Commercial Free.
During the Mon-Thurs eclectic/alternative/singer songwriter/folk.
Friday's till noon listeners choice... always fun!
Weekends
Grateful Dead/Celtic/Bluegrass you name it.
Little Steven's show is a fun time too!
These shows have scheduled times.
And free PODcasts!

WGUC here is a Great Classical Station w/ a Jazz HD side channel.
Again Commercial Free. University owned (U of Cincinnati)

As is WVXU (Xavier University) they are running the Newport (KY) Jazz Festival live.
Pete Seeger was just on a bit ago.

So we do have a bit to chose from.

Pepper, they look like squash to me too. Here is my vine and a small squash.

The deck part is mostly done.
(We're headed out for some support pavers and screws here in a minute.)
But not the 'reason' for the Deck Extension.
That will become clear this afternoon.

I was talking w/ our neighbor Jon yesterday.
He's the one who turned me on to the job I'm on furlough from....
They are starting to move employees back to their original job sites.
The two guys who were doing my job could move back as early as this week.
So he and I are guessing that my time off may be coming to an end.
Frankly I could use another month...LOL!

But our NEXT two projects are not going to be budget friendly so.......

Ric

That's the problem, have job, have money but no time. Don't have a job, have time but no money. I just want to retire and live on Social Security. HAHAHAHAHA, yeah, right.

My gardens are so full of weeds. I've had a really busy summer, and it's been so rainy here, so the weeds just took over. I was out weeding yesterday, and got up again this morning and went right out. Unitl I heard a lot of buzzing and noticed there were yellow jackets swarming around me. Apparently I found a nest. I ran inside, so now my tools are out there until it starts to rain again, which it will shortly. I'll go grab them then, grrrrrr.

Beeeutiful pics!

50*F ~ sunny/w blue skies so far. There's fog lifting off the river at the base of Pioneer Peak and makes a pretty layer of white.
Nice to catch up again~the projects are looking great as well as those underway.
Our friends from the lower 48~they parked at our home for a few days and are now continuing their sight-seeing.

Raining again - the watermelons are a total loss, but the tomatoes and peppers are doing well, the squash and cucumbers did well also but are about played out. I have some broccoli seed planted and hope to get them in soon.

Another sunny day here today, about the same as yesterday .... temp. around 55°F, a bit chilly with the breeze blowing.

Ric - wow the deck looks great! Good news about your job ... although I understand you could use some more time with all these projects going on .... you really keep busy! lol

Kelli - great photos and I loved the video :-) Always interesting!

Adina - you have so many beautiful plants :-)

This is 'Fragrant Cloud'

Have a great day!

Rann

Yea!!!

I'll be setting the flagstone today.

89.6 °F with 94º for the high.
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 17%
Dew Point: 39 °F
Wind: 2.0 mph from the ESE
Wind Gust: 8.0 mph
Pressure: 29.96 in (Steady)
Heat Index: 86 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 5 out of 16
Clouds: Few 11000 ft
Mostly Cloudy 15000 ft
Mostly Cloudy 18000 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 4383 ft

Ooooo, kwanjin, beauty!!!

Thanks. And Welcome, Drumlin. What's the weather like usually in CT?

Ric, the Conejo buckwheat should have at least some leaves all year. Without looking it up, I don't know how to tell it apart from ashy-leafed buckwheat when they are not blooming.

Van Nuys, California (Airport)
Updated: 2:51 PM PDT on August 02, 2009
85 °F
Clear
Humidity: 44%
Dew Point: 61 °F
Wind: Calm
Pressure: 29.91 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 85 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 10 out of 16
Clouds: Clear -
(Above Ground Level)

Picture from yesterday - this is a creek of a sort. It runs parallel to the ocean.

Caspian tern

sea gulls and pelicans

Kwanjin, it's usually hot (80's and 90's) and very humid, but this year we've hit maybe 87 or so, once! It's been BIZARRELY rainy, you'd think this was Florida. The joke is to look outside and say, "Oh look, it's doing somethng different, the rain is falling to the right instead of to the left!" We're still kind of waiting for summer to start before fall.