Fall is here (supposedly)

It's late September and still blazingly hot....predicted high of 106 today. I wish it would cool off; I'm ready to get some serious work done in the garden!

The picture above shows several fairly healthy summer squash we planted in July. None of the bush beans planted at the same time survived. No squash yet; they have just started to bloom and we'll have to wait and see how the pollination goes. We're still picking several Japanese eggplant and Armenian cucumbers each week. This week I planted two trays of snow peas, spinach, and four kinds of lettuce indoors. Maybe by the time they are ready to transplant it will have cooled down enough for them to survive. I also put out some broccoli and cauliflower transplants. This year I'm trying them in the raised beds instead of in our designated garden area. I haven't had too much luck with these in the past, and think it might be that flowering plants don't get enough sun in that area in the winter.

The peach and nectarine trees look terrible; the plum trees look okay, and the pear and apple trees look fine. We lost one of our newly planted peach trees this summer; you can see it in the foreground. I'm more worried about our mature peach tree by the gazebo- I'd hate to lose it. I'm not sure if it is salt burn or an iron deficiency, or a combination of both, but its leaves are really yellow. (Our deciduous trees don't tend to lose their leaves until sometime in December) It's getting deeply watered once a week, which is supposed to mitigate the salt problem. I gave it a dose of liquid iron supplement this weekend.

There's a nice second crop of zinnias that came up from the seeds of the ones that bloomed in June. An orange variety has been blooming nonstop since spring, and there's a fair amount of color from vinca and portulaca. Three of the older hibiscus planted around the pool may not make it, though. I'm not sure, but I think the drip system that goes to them was malfunctioning and I didn't notice they were in distress until it was too late. However, when I started cutting back the dead branches, I found green wood farther down the plant, so it's possible they could come back.

Mike finished installing the French drain and is now in the process of leveling the area where the new patio will go. He's debating about whether it is necessary to take out the dead, thoroughly scalped remnants of Bermuda grass first, or just put the sand base down on top of it. I don't think it will revive, but as it decomposes, it might cause the patio pavers to sink unevenly.

Patio Progress

Most of the Bermuda grass appears to be dead, so Mike has moved onto the next step- putting in a French drain where the patio will meet the extended raised beds.

I moved onto weeding another raised bed, the one nearest the pool where we planted asparagus plus blueberry and blackberry bushes, rose bushes, and assorted annuals. It's a difficult spot to get into as it's bordered on one side by a thevetia hedge, and there is also a fairly large colony of ants that does not like to be disturbed. I haven't attempted to get rid of it, because (a) I don't like putting poison down where there are things growing I plan to eat and (b) according to the insect experts in my Master Gardener class, ants are beneficial for our heavy clay soils. The lecturer (an entomologist from U of A) cited a study of alfalfa fields that were infested with fire ants. The alfalfa plants nearest the anthills were healthier and produced more than the ones in ant-free areas. However, getting several ant bites on my hands and feet every time I attempt to get some of the bermuda grass and spurge out of the bed does not make for a pleasant experience.

I haven't seen the mother hummingbird yet, but now there are three eggs in the nest!

It's fall, although you wouldn't believe it by the temperature

Fall planting season is officially upon us, but we're in the middle of a heat wave (110 yesterday) and it's still too hot to work in the garden for very long. I worked on getting the bermuda grass out of a couple of the raised beds today, and scattered seeds of larkspur and snapdragon. I'm harvesting a lot of Japanese eggplant and Armenian cucumbers, and that's about it. We didn't get one bean from the lovely tent of pole bean vines- I think that I planted them too late. Likewise the corn was a waste of space and water- poor pollination and some kind of giant black mutated kernels. I won't bother trying corn again.

The only fall veggies I have planted to date are yellow squash and bush beans, which according to my Master Gardener chart, should be planted in August. A disappointing number of beans are up, probably because I used an old seed packet, but there are about a dozen squash plants scattered in the raised beds. We'll see how they produce- this is the first time I've actually tried them in the fall.

Home Depot had a good price on flowering hanging baskets, so I replaced three of the baskets hanging from the gazebo, which were looking pretty sad. I decided to leave the fourth one in place, because when I took it down, there was a hummingbird nest with two tiny eggs! I can put up with ratty-looking annuals for a few more weeks.

We're in the middle of another big project....taking out a 10-foot wide section of lawn on the north side of the house and putting in a pavestone patio, and enlarging the raised beds so they abut the patio. You can see the location above delineated by the two-by-fours and dead Bermuda grass. (Killing the grass was the first step) When completed, it should be a nice shady place to enjoy the garden, with a view of the raised beds and pond waterfall. Mike is doing most of the work...too hot for me to stay out there more than 5 minutes at a time! I don't see how he stands it, but he says it doesn't bother him.