Enjoying the Harvest

Garden Fresh

I just finished a tasty little salad earlier; with fresh tomatoes, peppers, radishes, parsley and mint from my garden.  The cucumbers, feta cheese and olives were courtesy of Dillons.  But since most of the ingredients were from my garden, it was a great feeling to sit down to a meal of fresh stuff I'd grown, and had just picked minutes before.

I'm hoping to have even more variety coming in soon.  The green beans, cucumbers and cantaloupe vines are all blooming, and the sweet corn is growing fast.

Gardening in a Heat Wave

Moss rose thrives in hot summers

The high temperature here today was 107. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 106.  The forecast for the next week shows highs of 100 or above every day.  Well, that's summer in Kansas -- thank God for air conditioning!

Heat like this, especially over an extended period, is really hard on the garden (as well as people, animals, utilities budgets, etc.)  There are a few things a gardener can do to help their plants make it through this kind of weather.

Fertilizing

I'm waiting inside, doing some computer work, until it cools down a bit so that I can get out in the garden again.  I spent about 3 hours this morning before church time, getting some weeding and clean-up done, plus feeding my plants.  The last several years, I've used a range of fertilizers: primarily compost, supplemented with organic fertilizers.  Some you dig in as you plant; some you add to the watering can, and this morning I was using foliar feeding--fertilizer sprayed onto the leaves of the plants.

Got Weeds?

The weather has been so lovely recently; cool, often sunny, but enough rain so that everything outside is incredibly green and lush.  It's a great time to be outdoors, and I treasure my garden time.  So what do I spend my time doing?  Weeding!  I avoid using synthetic products on my lawn, like weed killers or weed and feed products, and so my yard gets lots of weeds.  Weed pollens tend to be a major allergy issue, so I need to eliminate them.  Result?  I spend a lot of time pulling weeds.

There are a few things I can do to try to prevent weeds in the first place. 

Spring Allergies

Spring is such a great time in the garden, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  However, it's also a time when my allergies kick in, so there are things that I do to keep them from taking all the fun out of the season.

There are lots of suggestions out there of ways to prevent or lessen allergic reactions.  I've collected a lot of them from my allergist, books, articles and websites.  From these, I've found those that help me the most.  Which approaches are best for a particular person depends on exactly what things you are allergic to, and  how you are exposed to them--by inhaling, touching or ingesting the allergens. In gardening, allergens include pollen from plants, mold spores, and contact reactions from plant sap.

May showers

We had some good rain showers over the weekend, so the new rain barrel now has water to draw on.  I used some of it this evening for the container plants on the front porch.  It was great not to have to go clear around the house, and lug heavy watering cans so far.  I think it will prove to be a good investment for saving water and time.

Rain Barrels

I got my new rain barrel installed this evening; all ready for the possible rain showers later this week.  I already had two, but have been dreaming of getting several more.  I like to, as much as possible, use the chlorine-free rainwater for my garden, plus avoid the high summer water bills.