The official report says 99F now, we have like 101F on our thermometer.
We have no lawn; it's hard, bare dirt with plant debris all over it that crunches when you walk on it. Even the plantain is dead.
I walked outside, barefoot, to see how the garden was wilting, and literally burnt my feet on the ground in the sun!
It's July, and so far, all the garden has yielded has been 1 small cabbage (softball size) that split and had to be picked. The stump is putting out "sprouts" now. The one from last year went to seed, as it lived all winter. I have been collecting them, to see if they'll sprout. It's a Jersey-something? I also had a cabbage about the size of my head. The cabbage was very heavy for its size, and tightly grown. It weighed like 2.5 lbs. according to my old scale. The other cabbages have stopped increasing in size, but are alive, with no signs of burn of the outer head leaves.
The pepper plants are dying, and the tomatoes are stalled.
The old man has had some potatoes, but the sweet potatoes all died. Even the heirloom ones I started off of tips in water early this spring. Even the ones in pots. The container crops aren't growing either. We have had 1 successful sunflower come and go. I got a handful of seed from it before the wild yellow canary found it. One other sunflower is in bloom now, and gets 1/2 gallon of water/day.
Most of my volunteer "foundling" tomatoes that I moved from the garbage dump in March and into pots have succeeded. Most are fruiting, but not really growing. My Japanese cucumber is coming along nicely, doubling in size each day. The old man's cucumbers are doing fine, but I'd say they'll suddenly die in about 2 more weeks, as they always do, once production begins.
I have many "mystery vines" from seed I saved from last year, but no idea what they are. I lost about 20 plants of mini-pumpkins, despite watering. I started with about 50 pepper plants, and only about half of them are still alive.
The cilantro plants bushed out nicely in early June, with heavy watering, then shot up and went to seed and died when the heat hit. Even those in partial shade. The melon plants are not growing. The vines are about 6" long, and blooming but not setting fruit. With the lawn clover gone, and all the flowers dead, the bees have gone. We did have a lot of bees this year in the lawn clover, when we HAD a lawn.
The artichoke crop has all but died out. There are like 2 of them left. Even the feral day lilies have died back. Most of the hosta are gone, but the bearded tall iris seem to tolerate it. The blackberry crop is a total loss.
The lilac hedge has gone brown and begun dropping leaves. We're about to lose another young pine tree, despite watering. The big blue spruce has shed almost all of its needles, except for this year's new growth. Same with the one next door, and many that I see around this area. Spruce and sugar pines and white cedars are dying like mad around here. The feral junipers seem to be doing OK.
All of the apple trees have dropped their fruit, as have the wild persimmons and feral nut trees.
In the field below us, and across the way, the soybeans are about half dead. There are whole sections of brown in the fields.
I guess that can of 59¢ green beans is going to be 99¢ very soon.
Over the recent era of global warming, our SouthWest monsoonal weather has increased. This is humid air that comes in South of Arizona and comes west dropping thunderstorms.
Rather then our June Gloom being marine air, it is now monsoonal air. Hard on reactive lungs.
And I thought doctors told lungers to go west to get rid of them.
Temp. Low 70's. The further from the coast the more sun one might encounter.
My
moi621 (imported) wrote: Fri Apr 20, 2012 5:34 pm
boysenberries and black berries
do not care. They ripen sweet anyway and my bloomin' sunflower is over ten feet tall.
MacWolf, how is the monsoonal stuff effecting you? Precipitation?
The temp finally broke, it started to rain a bit earlier this evening and thunder showers later tonight. no more 100+ deg days, tomorrow its back in the 80's. thank the gods all of them don't leave any out, would not want to piss any of them off and have it start all over.
the monsoon air is due to return Monday & Tuesday along with a dash of heat.