July 2011 Dry and Hot!

It now so dry and hot ~ drought! I has to keep water at noon for 2 days and it will water again today later on...

Got 4 tomatoes yesterday and still wait for turnips and beets so slowly... Also got baby squashes grow good I hope it won't get rot again or mold on squashes' leafs...

Yesterday, my step son took me with my van to Springfield and try to get apply for house rent so it not bad to live in Springfield but I am not planning to move there quickly so I stay in Joplin and thinking about moving some place near city like farm something...So I drove back home and there is big accident on West I-44 that I don't want sit and wait to move like march ants to ants so I drive to back way road to short cut road to next I-44 again so it made clear than traffic waiting so long way back! So, I don't want heard about happen on I-44 accident...

Block raised bed - tomatoes, carrot and squashes...

WOW Rusty ..... there have been quite a few accidents on I-44 lately. There were 2 semi's involved in an accident yesterday or day before. Saw on the new the traffic all backed up. I wonder if that was the one.

Springfield is a nice town. When I lived in Dora I dated a guy in Springfield. It was about 2 hours from my place to his.

Maybe you can find a small town in your general area and move there. You can always move to Noel and become a river bum. lol. I'll be down there in a few weeks for a weekend camping and hanging in the river.

I have several baby squash growing like crazy and baby cukes almost ready to be picked. Hope my dad doesn't eat them first!! Especially since he ate the first one! lol. Been picking strawberries regularly too. Eating them straight off the vine. Sooo good!!

One of these days I will get my pics on here. I tried last night but it didn't work. I'll try again later.

Happ, I get to rushing around and usually forget to check the B'days :o(

Awesome gifts! I think I have your turtle! Mine was also a gift!. It's spo neat I can't bear to put it outside to be stolen. Altho, no one has taken anything yet.

Awww on losing the lilies. That's too bad :o(

I have the trumpets and need to separate them this fall and spread them over the yard. Same with all my lilies. They need fresh fertile dirt. I seee I've lost Oriental Girl :o( I had two bulbs and struggled to keep them going. They just got smaller and smaller. I also have Sumatra and the Phlox is burying it. My poor poor lilies. They all need care!

Will, if you have time, you will have to correct his mistakes, or catch him. Set him up with a bunch of one's or sevens and watch him. If he goes to the wrong pile stop him! I know easier said than done. Is he a new hire too?

Birder, it's funny how people will stay in an area when there are cooler places to live. We get hot and humid, but I would hate to move to another state!

I do envy your Purple Martins.

Pepper, I have Mona Lisa and she just opened. I have to bend down to sniff, but I do, daily! I also have StarGazer. She's a bit taller. Casa Blanca looks me in the eye, LOL!

Crit, July and August are hot, and dry, for us.

http://www.ladybuglady.com/goldenbeetle.html

Bernie, I have volunteer allysum. I'll have to watch for the bees. I know I have tiny ones on the bugbane flowers.

Birder, I wonder if you have a Martagon Lily. I have Black Beauty and it likes shade.

Will, we used to go boating on the Mississippi all the time when I was a kid. I can still hear the water lapping the boat landing.

AHA! It was a flower after all! Very nice!

Thanks Rusty! I have beets and am waiting on the tomatoes, LOL! My turnips petered out.

You had quite a day on the road. I hope the rent assistance requeast goes thru!

Nice raised bed and I love the marigolds planted there too!

Pepper, river bum, LOL!! YUM on the strawberries and I hope you get a cuke!!

DH is fogging the yard and I am so glad. We've never fogged before. It works!

Here's an overview of our market just before opening on Saturday. Nearly full of vendors.

billy ... thanks for the link. That is neat. I'd never seen one of them.

Love that market .... would like to be there.

Still hot and humid. Ugh!!!!!!! But it was tolerable this morning and now it's tolerable again. I even weeded a bit earlier. lol

Still don't have pics downloaded. I think I'm just lazy. LOL

My hollyhock opened the other day!! I like the contrast against the house.

Close up

I cleaned out 3 flower beds and planted my hosta. They look so nice. Was getting cloudy and not good to take pics, so will do them and post tomorrow. It was 105* here today, but I worked in the shade, drank my gatorade and jumped in the pool every once in a while to cool down. Wasn't bad at all doing all that. Came inside a time or two also. My DH thinks I'm nuts.

Hope everyone else had a great day too!

Bernie, that is a lot of vendors!

Crit, I've had one myself, but no more. They are beautiful!

Pepper, LOL over being lazy :o)

Wow, is that a gorgeous hollyhock! And I wasn't sure I would like doubles.

Crit, 105!!! That is way too hot!

I don't have the pool, but I do mostly what you do. Popsicle break, cool off and go back out. I hate to waste a single day if it isn't raining.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th everyone! Stay safe!

Supposed to be Creme de Cassis. It doesn't quite match the description but I still like it.

Here's a shot of the whole plant. Not very big yet but working on it.

No, billyp, he isn't a new hire. I don't know how long he's been there but prolly less than 6 mos. Thanks, I may do something like that you suggested, but they haven't said thats happened in a couple of weeks, if it has, they haven't said. Here is my planter today, but it was getting kinda dark tonite so it's not very bright in the photo, even with the flash. Yes, nice Hollyhock there, Pepper. My Hollyhock seedlings have leaves like that but no flowers yet. I have Black ones and some called 'Summer Carnival', yet to plant.
Will

Moving to another state, I am sure, has it's plus and minuses. There's always good and bad in every area.

Martagon lily...hmm. Maybe so, I ordered them from some catalog, but I can't remember which one, and I don't seem to have kept any info about this lily. I will try to take a picture of it when it blooms and see if someone can ID it for me. I do remember it is suppose to be the last lily to bloom in the season. I think it blooms a rosy pink color.
I put human hair around my lily. I thought it was the 'Casa Blanca'. But the deer have left a few blooms and it is a Stargazer lily. Although I really like the Stargazer Lily, I know I had planted the 'Casa Blanca' there also. I have lost it twice now. I keep buying it and trying to find a place that it will live, but it disappears each year.

The Farmer's Mkt. looks really neat. I like Farmer's Markets. I went to one this evening. They had tomatoes for 2.00/#. They also had Mo. Sugar Maple Syrup! Cabbages 12" wide.

I don't have any tomatoes yet. We have lots of yummy cucumbers. The yellow squash and zucchinis are doing well. We slice lengthwise and grill them. Very tasty

I pull up my hollyhocks that come up. They get rust on them. :(

Pepper, be glad the plant is short right now, LOL! I've seen common ones over 10' tall!

What color was it supposed to be?

Will, love the wet look in the planter box, LOL! It's growing nicely!

Maybe he's taking a better look even tho they thought it was you. I'd keep my eyes open and don't let him slip up!

Birder, I've had good luck with Casa Blanca. I lost Muscadet, and this year, Oriental Girl. Oriental was always a small spindly plant so I'm not suprised. Muscadet was a real loss with huge strong smelling blooms.

I got spray for the Hollyhock rust, but haven't had to use it yet.

I've been working outside. Still pulling weeds and even moving a few things around. I walked the length of my property on the road and took notes of what I didn't like. I fixed a couple things and will have to wait on some of the others.

What I really need to do is dig ALL the Oriental Lilies, find a better place and replant with better dirt I mixed up last year! If I don't a few are going to dwindle to nothing!

Well, we are going to have a cool down from triple digets to mid 90's for about 3 days starting tomorrow. Sure wish we could get some heat induced showers since nothing in the weather scape is giving us anything.

Planter box looks great Will.

Well, back to work today. I'd better get going. Have a great day everyone!

Hi everyone. Boy was I a busy girl over the holiday like you Crit. I went nonstop cleaning and weeding. It was embarrsing how many weeds I pulled out of those gardens. Hate taking pictures of the gardens, cause I see all the stuff sitting around from me working on them, I seem to never get it put away, rakes, hoses, and just stuff! rolf.

Hollyhocks will reseed and it goes back to the parent color, not the beautiful color you planted. I don't mind so much cause I have them in a cottage wild garden area. Didn't plan that garden that way it is just turning out that way...rofl. Other than the hosta bed I don't think I have planned anything....altho I am thinking the area around my pond I am going to turn into lily hill... ;) Sounds like a good name, I must have a ton of daylilies to get planted and I was looking at the earth berm on the west side of the house and I think it would make a great lily hill...rofl. Either the temps are perfect for my daylilies, but they are blooming so much better this year and seems like they have been blooming forever. I took pics and will have to post some. I have 3 daylilies I have the tags to but I am telling you they are sooooo hard to tell apart it is making me crazy.

Well have a great day guys and gals!

I plan on cutting off the stalk when it's done blooming and before it sets seed so that I don't get any coming up right there. I have one other hollyhock there that's the same and a another one next to my switchgrass that won't bloom this year. Too small. I need to mulch it again too so I don't have to worry about anyone mowing it over. I want the hollyhocks I have now to get bigger before I allow seeds to form. Then I can put the seedlings where I want them.

Merienge Coneflower.

Got not much rain this morning then become hot so I notice one of my squashes that was yellow neck crook grow good and other hybrid zucchinis still growing then rot!

Yellow squash


This message was edited Jul 7, 2011 7:24 PM

Hehe.. The wet look was I had just watered it! I can't post a photo of a dry planter box!
Thanks Crit. The plants in that box are getting quite sparse and leggy looking. I am afraid to prune it, I just know I'd go overboard! Boy, the rain came down in torrents here last nite.
I was doing my thing at Fedex and it was storming like crazy! I kidded some of the drivers, I said, "I hope you're windows are up!"! Of course they're windows are up, they're trucks are INSIDE of the building! Hehe.. I sometimes don't get rakes and stuff put away either, you're not alone happ!

Thanks billyp. But, I don't think they're really as worried about those kind of mis-stacks as I thought. We had 3,600 packages (between about 8 or 10 people) to sort and stack in 4 hours last nite, it's nonstop packages from the beginning to the end of the shift. Its unfortunate, but they are more concerned with quantity at Fedex I think. My shirt is completely soaked in sweat there. Sweat just covers my face, and even gets in my eyes. I tell you, before insurance kicks in, I might be in a bad way! I have a couple cavities I'd like filled! Tonite will be my one month anniversary there, yippee!

I have a white mini-blind if anybody wants it to make plant labels. It was knocked down by cats yesterday, it had several bad slats so we're not gonna use it as a mini-blind anymore.

I thought Hollyhocks were biennials. I guess they can come back as perennials.

No rain here. We are over cast, so hope we get some rain.

I took a bucket of soapy water and made the rounds to get Jap. Beetles off of my roses. I bet I have killed 400 in two days. I put them down the garbage disposal. They are so yucky. I have made a big dent in them. There's not as many as there were previously. They are desiccating the leaves.

Hollyhocks can be perennials as well. I've seen some monster ones. That is what I am aiming for. Plus the regular ones from seed. I will be saving seed, just not planting them just yet. Plus that is a good spot for elephant ears too. lol

My messy garden. Finally got a soaker hose in there yesterday before it rained. Now that it's rained I won't have to water for a couple days. LOL

Nice. Are those tomato plants? We haven't any red ones yet.

Tomatoes- Beefsteak and Mr. Stripey, bell peppers, crook neck squash, cucumbers, sweet potato vine, potatoes, Black Pearl pepper, Chilly Chilli pepper, and everbearing strawberries. lol. I've got it packed full. Cucumbers are already producing and the squash is working on it. Same for all others. I've had problems with blossom end rot so now have a soaker hose wound thru there to hopefully help with that.

Wow! You are going to have some good eating! I love to get produce straight out of the garden. You are making very good use of your garden. I am not familiar with your peppers There are so many.

Here's a bell pepper.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cHQwaP10lAw/THUtQ9hZryI/AAAAAAAACuM/Hdhws96N0Ew/s1600/6403_tn_green%2Bpepper.jpg&imgrefurl=http://smithbakeaholic.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-10-foodie-essentials.html&usg=__A-QMjXLkm0UQR5rCueZ4f8n0zA4=&h=533&w=512&sz=14&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=6zrd5qTiAA-TMM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=126&ei=gEkWTuujAsn40gGb8YlH&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbell%2Bpepper%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1440%26bih%3D763%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divnse&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=882&vpy=112&dur=22&hovh=229&hovw=220&tx=139&ty=124&page=1&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0&biw=1440&bih=763

Will, I wear a sweat band when I am working outside to keep the sweat out of my eyes when I am working.
You probably should do some "pinching" on your plants to make them bushier and not so leggy. Just do a little at a time until you get it to where you like it. The thing is it is like hair, if you pinch too much, it will grow back. ^_^

happ, I'm with you and leaving stuff around. I'm so excited when I get finished with something, I just move it out of the way of the picture so I can take it, or crop it out after taking. lol

Veggie gardens sound great everyone!

Thanks Crit, I wore a sweat-band 2 days ago at work. I dunno, it worked but I felt kinda cheesy like I was going to break out in a tennis serve or something! I wear glasses so the sweat getting in my vision stinks, but there's not much else to do other than wipe it off and keep going! I wear it when I mow, heck I wear a Sombrero when I mow, I don't really care what strangers think!
I have an Aunt and a cousin (Mother and Son) who did that, they're thing was: "I did the work somebody else can put away the tools", nobody ever put away tools for them.
They left tools out all the time and they ruined countless tools! A friend feeds Japanese Beetles to the fish in his pond, they gobble them up!

Most of the time I put the tools up at night, usually really late...rofl. But it is amazing when I take a pic here is potting soil, a pot, a this, a that...rofl. Guess we are just always working in the daylight hours in the garden so there is always stuff out...rofl. Yeah I spend quite a bit of time cropping pictures...rofl, so that weed doesn't show, or that, or this isn't showing...rofl.

We had good rain yesterday so like you pepper it gave me a break from watering. The rains are coming at the right moment for me the last couple of weeks, before that we were really dry.

Crit are you still crispy down there? Boy saw the dust storms in AZ wowzer.

Birder, I thought the samething about hollyhocks being biennials, but I have them every year since I planted the first one....so I don't know, maybe new seeds sprout every year and the parent plant doesn't come back until the next year....just a wild guess.

I used to leave my tools and my little stool after I finished pulling weeds. I'd also leave all the weeds in piles. I would always be so exhausted, I'd just walk (crawl) away. Now, I try to quit a little sooner and put my stuff away and get rid of the pulled weeds. One of my problems is I lay down the trowel etc and then I can't find it. I keep thinking they will multiply out there! I eventually find them, but sometimes it's a long time before I do. I used to get really frustrated trying to hunt down the lost tools. Since then, I have purchased several trowels. If I can't find one after searching, I just go get another. They eventually show up. It works for me.

Birder, that sounds like me...LOL I have I know 5 pair of clippers and right now I can only find ONE! I hope I didn't leave them in the yard cause that sure isn't good for them! I usually end up leaving shovels and everything else under the covered porch.....easy to grab them but not the most decorative things to have hanging around. Hate to come out and see a pile of weeds that I have pulled, but many a time that is what I see. I hate doing things twice, like pulling the weed, laying it down and then go back and pick it up.....usually I am horrible if I don't dispose of them when they are in my hand the first time I don't pick them and DH mows over them and scatters the seeds some more.

Water garden tour this weekend, gonna be warm, but we will have alot of fun.

Rusty, I hate losing garden veggies to rot! Yep, your yellow squash looks good!

Will, smiling over the UPS joke :o)

Wow, a whole month already! That went fast! That also means a month just went by for me too, LOL!

Birder, they say if you start seed in the Spring and get it out early, the Hollyhock will bloom that fall. I think you're right about it being biennial. The re-seeding makes it look perennial.

Ick! I haven't seen any J.B. here yet. I really hope you ARE making a dent in the population!! How could you not?

Pepper, thanks for clearing that up :o) I'd like monster's too!

Ah, so that's all the stuff in the garden. Packed is right!!

Crit, I've got one of those neck bandana's that you soak in cold water, on my grocery list. I'll need it for mowing this month and next.

Will, just keep wearing the sweatband. It beats wiping the eyes or having sweat tickle as it runs down your face.

Man, I feel terrible if I leave my tools out. They're an extension of me and my shovel absolutely has my vibes :o)

Happ, same messy background here too. The worst for me is to photograph a flower and the ground is weedy :o(

Birder, laughing, I carry two buckets with me. I'm not picking weeds twice either! My neighbor does the big piles and they get them with the garden cart later.

Happ, I hope the water tour was a good time!

I've spent my days watering and I think I'll be glad I did. The daylilies are big enough to put on a good show this year!

As I notice on the news about Joplin Tornado there is 159 dead...

Oh my Rusty, gosh 159 people, so very sad. When you think of that many people and everyone who knew, loved, or knew the ones affected by the death, that number is huge. It I guess actually affects us all because it was such a huge disaster and most of us around here won't view storms in the same way.

Warm one, yesterday was a fun day doing the pond tours. We had a new person go with us, so we weren't moving as fast as normal, but we saw alot. Would like to go back out today, but I have so much to do here I hate leaving also....

On July 14 it is my 5 years of living in Joplin, MO when I moved from Southern California in 2006....

Heat will hit up to 107 heat index later on... Yike!

Today, I was driving around the city to see how far to clean up and still long way to clean up and some business lost and found good places for business to know where at!


This message was edited Jul 10, 2011 10:51 AM

I imagine just figuring out where shops went that you liked Rusty, would be a feat in it self. I know it is hotter than the dickens up here! Wowzer, 107 is amazing, not good amazing but amazing. I don't think I have ever sweated this bad. The wind is out of the west south west and the covered porch is on the east so no breeze there, and the west doesn't have any shade so the wind is there but you can't stand to be there. I came in to cool off.

It's a shame how the news people abandon these stories. Never have a follow up on how people are doing.
Japan, Joplin, & Minneapolis, nothing about any of them.

Here's the The Globe newspaper link to read about tornado (see on left side it say Tornado):

http://www.joplinglobe.com/tornadomay2011

Scoll down to bottom - more headline news...

I just not feel well to see all the streets so confusion! I just stay away from where is bad fungus or inhale it!

CG, part of that is we just have too much news that doesn't mean anything trying to keep us entertained instead of informed but I know I have folks in my family who don't watch or listen to the news and maybe there are more of them than us.....

On a lighter side I gotta show you this from the water garden tour, be sure and look at the bears foot, sorry the pic isn't very good. The sign the bear is holding say "please wipe your paws"