What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

I can only imagine! We were in Vegas in June 2017 - they were breaking heat records while we were there. Luckily, we wore our sun gear - the pants/shirts with the light sun protection fabric and they were so helpful, as were the light straw hats we had...friends that saw pics, were like"why long sleeves/pants in the desert?".... but we would have baked if we had not had those on during the outdoor hiking tours.

And, we don't have quite the temp extremes here, in Ohio, yet I was frantic to get up shade cloth last summer as the south side of the run was horrendously hot. Adding the 6' tall shade cloth to the south and SE corner of the run drastically reduced the temps for the girls, so your all-the-time-sunny-summers are certainly hotter than here (but less humid)!

Guess you should begin freezing large chunks of ice for those girls to put into pans of water they can walk through. Last year, we would put a galvanized pan of water with ice under the coop decking. It was placed on some blocks. When I would come into the run, always made me laugh bc there would usually be a chicken standing in the pan, but I could only see their legs... No body.

Any garden food plants that can be grown successfully in that heat and sun (without shade cloth)?

Yeah, you can keep the humidity and any snow you get! I grew up in the midwest, very familiar and no thank you Temps are relative to what you're used to of course so if you think it's hot I'm sure it is. When we moved from SoCal to AZ it was an adjustment believe it or not.

I usually run my hose from 330 to 5 during the hot days and I take the ice the freezer makes out and dump it in the puddle around 4, hottest part of the day here.

The summer sun is brutal so I don't really garden much then, just maintain the trees and shrubs. Corn can be grown for a fall harvest though. Around the time everyone else is finishing their harvests and prepping for winter I'm gearing up for planting again.

 

[Acre4Me]

you can keep the humidity and any snow you get! I grew up in the midwest, very familiar and no thank you

I grew up on the east coat (DC metro area), and the humidity was bad in the summer, but nothing compared to the deep south. But otherwise, it was nice overall bc the winters weren't too bad (a few bad snowstorms here and there), but most of the year was pretty nice, wether systems seemed to move through pretty quick. Personally a bit too wet and a bit too cold for my tastes here, but I mostly dislike the long runs of overcast days.

SoCal to AZ it was an adjustment believe it or not

SoCal has about perfect weather, and still wet enough to be lush (in part due to the long growing season and lack of any real winter weather), but dry enough to be comfortable. So many people and higher cost of living, but the weather there is really great!

 

[WthrLady]

We've done the deep south, and the DEEP DEEP South, and the humidity and heat is worse in Nebraska. Darn close to inland Alabama and Mississippi, but higher humidity due to corn transpiration.

Allergies kicking in.

 

[Acre4Me]

humidity and heat is worse in Nebraska

! Surprised me, but then again, the corn transpiration makes sense....

 

[WthrLady]

! Surprised me, but then again, the corn transpiration makes sense....

It is not uncommon for us to have dewpoints in the low 80s in and near the corn fields and counties......and temps in the upper 90s. Breathing is HARD. Blinking causes sweating! LOL.

 

[Sueby]

Hey gardeners! I've missed you all! I had a very hard time after the back re-injury. Then this COVID stuff hit...

Anyway, I have some catching up to do! I hope you are all well, healthy & gardening!

I doubled the size of my garden this spring & added 4 new pullets. We finally finished fencing in the rest of the yard for the chickens so they're happy. We lost one to a bobcat not too long ago, they're pretty safe now till the bears come by. My garlic is looking good, chives survived the winter & my lettuce is juuuust starting to come up. I waited a couple weeks too long to plant it but I am only able to do what my back says I can.

What'd I miss? LOL

 

[WthrLady]

LOL. About 100 pages.

 

[WthrLady]

Transplanting tomatoes from 6 cell packs to larger packs. I don't plant in the ground until June 1. So they have a 3 more weeks in the seeding house and then a week acclimating in the barn. I want to give those roots roooooom.

Knocked a huge sloppy bird nest out of the barn rafters this morning.

Lovely out. Heading for upper 70s and little wind today. I'll turn the irrigators on in the orchard for the baby trees and do my tree survey.

More bees come next week.

I moved the hives to a protected area near the house.

Divided the peace lily two days ago. I got 12 plants from the one.

Guess I'm just hanging out today. I need to let the broodies free and free-range with the other morons.

Have a great day all.

 

[Sueby]

I'm so defeated... I wrote the last, fairly quick post to you folks while DH was mowing right next to house. Before hitting send my fricking dog went for my little sweet Stormy and killed her right under our noses not 10 feet away from us both. I am beyond sad/mad, I am devastated. This one went straight to the heart as Stormy was my little buddy. We went for car rides together she was so cool and weird, I love that bird... not so much the dog anymore... I'm surprised I did not kill him on the spot i was so mad... There were 11 other chicks right there with her but he singled her out. Well, he did it this time... HE is getting re-homed. Beats being dead. Bye, bye fricken dog. He meets his potential new person tomorrow morning.

So sorry to hear this. But I'm glad to hear he has a great new home!

My dog would do the very same thing if given the chance, he stalks the chickens all day long & it drives me crazy.

 

[BReeder!]

Well, our garden in completely flooded right now... the newly cleaned pond filled up over the top and likely got a bunch of dirt flowing back into it. Fortunately, the chicken run a slightly higher ground so it's wet, but not flooded yet. The rains are not done yet though. We are cloudy all the way through Monday with chances of showers in at night on some days. Tuesday is rain again. I'm hoping the ground can absorb this water. I just might drop the pond pump in the hole I dug around the tree stump in the garden and try to flush out a lot of the water. It's pretty much a sump pump and can handle small solids well. It pumped ~1500 gallons out of the pond in less than an hour. I'm pretty sure it will take most of the surface water out of the garden. Then hopefully things dry up enough by Sunday or even Monday evening (after I finish working) to till. Tilling is just about all that's stopping me from planting. Once I till and rake the dirt into raised rows, it can flood several inches back there and the young plants will stay above the waterline. By late May, the rains should calm down just in time for deeper roots to take hold.