Did I Say It Was HOT?

Wow! It's been a while since I last posted here. I've just been so preoccupied with other things lately. I've been getting up around 6:30 - 7am and going out to the garden. I don't use any pesticides so to keep the squash bugs from destroying my plants I have to turn leaves and look for eggs or even bugs which I then squash. It takes a while to turn all those leaves in two beds of squash plants. Then I go for my bike ride. My daughter had measured out a route around town that was two miles long when she was walking during her break every day. I ride this route and usually do two laps. That usually takes me about a half an hour unless I stop to talk to someone along the way. When I get home I cool down in the pool and swim a little, stretch a little and just float. By the time I get in the house it's around noon. With as hot as it's been I usually don't go back outside again till the next morning. This morning I went outside and saw this...
...my poor catnip was all droopy. I had watered it just like had been watering. But...

...my marigolds were droopy, too.

The marigolds on the porch looked sad, but the ones on this side of the step looked good. They are in the same kind of pot with the same soil as the the ones on the other side that looked so bad. Must be the location. The garden is LOOKING really good. But it's not producing very well.

My sunflowers are getting nice and tall. I have one birdhouse gourd, but you can't see it in this picture. It's hiding behind the leaves there at the bottom for the fence.

Below is an earlier picture where you can see the gourd.

My flower bed on the alley side of the studio is looking pretty.

The luffa is blooming.

I love the little yellow 'flowers' within the pink flower. So pretty.

By the time I go back in the the house the catnip and marigolds have rejuvenated. Tonight I'll check to see if they need an evening watering.

I hope everyone is keeping cool out there where it's so hot.

Don't Like the Weather? - Wait a Minute

Did you see my Christmas Day pictures? Did you see that there was no snow on the ground and everyone was outside in jackets? The next day, Dec. 26th the temperature got up to 69°F here, a new high. The following day....
....SNOW! And big fluffy flakes at that.

Since I was needing milk and some other things I headed out to the grocery store.

If you haven't read my blog before, we have a grocery section in our hardware store, but I was needing a little more than what they carry...

...or closest grocery store is just under 16 miles away. I drove to the store...

...with these big pretty flakes pelting my windshield. But when I had finished my shopping and came back out to my car it had stopped and I could see the clouds clearing off. Today as I write, the snow is gone and the weather is warming up again.

A Roof Over Our Heads

25 years ago Terry Horner put nice new shingles on our roof. He was able to put them over the existing layers but told us that it was at the maximum layers allowed. In 25 years we didn't have a problem one with the roof. No wind damage, no hail damage.... nothing.
This last year the hail storms and winds storms took it's toll on roof and we decided it was time to re-roof.

Because we were going to have to have layers removed the hubby decided that we should take it all the way down because the bottom layer was wood shingles, as can be seen below around the edge and...
...as seen looking up from in the attic. The old wood shingles were a potential fire hazard, becoming more flammable as they dry out.

The roofing crew came out Thursday morning and stripped the roof completely down where sun was shining into my attic.
Then they put on plywood and tar-paper.
They got a good start on the shingles but it got dark before they finished up. Tomorrow they'll be out to finish up and I'll post pictures of my pretty new roof. Terry has had crews working all over town this summer and these men do a wonderful job. They do excellent work, they're fast and keep things cleaned up. When they leave, you hardly know they were there.
Turns out my tree in the front yard makes a great stand for a water cooler.

Garden Weather

The weather here has been unbelievably mild and wet for July. Everything is growing like crazy, including my lawn. Today I plan on getting out to mow and trim, it's suppose to be getting hot today.
Our local big city newspaper had an article a couple days back where the reporter talked about her garden in a local community garden project. She lamented that fact that she wasn't a very good gardener and her plot had gone a bit wild with grass and weeds. There was another gardener there that blamed the muddy ground as the reason for not getting in to weed and she thought that sounded like a good excuse. That excuse doesn't work in my bed gardens, I place boards down and always have something solid to walk on...
...a plus to the boards is that I read that squash bugs sleep under them during the day and the best way to fight them is to check under the boards in the morning and kill them. Below is my lettuce and arugula. I have been getting one salad a day off these two rows for the last week.
Here's some natural cooperation. Below are my cucumbers climbing the pallets that I put up for them, the upper plant is giving the lower plant a "hand up", see next picture...

...Looks like they've 'tied the knot', LOL.
Below is a beautiful, big zucchini blossom and an aphid eating lady bug. Every time the kids find lady bugs in the yard I tell them to take them to the garden.
Behind the cucumbers, facing the alley is KP1's pumpkin plant that she proudly shows to anyone she can drag out there to look.
Anita, the trees still appear to be doing well. We'll see how they fare as the weather warms up. Maybe I'll have some nice ones for you by autumn.

HAPPY GARDENING EVERYONE!