Mid summer

 Technically early July is not mid summer, but it certainly is the mid point for us.  And it has been hot, all of the sudden.  June was very pleasant until the last week, and then the heat and humidity rushed in. We are forecast to top 100 again today, which will be, I think, the 6th day over 100 in the last two weeks.

Fortunately, corn likes the heat.  I hope to pick my first ears by the end of this week.  We have planted three harvests.  The first has ears, the second is about 3' tall, and we planted the third yesterday.

We are still having just enough rain to keep us out of drought, so the flowers are looking pretty good.  Here is a nice bed of daisies.  Many of my perennials have not returned this year, including bee balm, which this bed use to be full of.  I need to do some serious culling of plants and change what is here.  I have a small redbud tree growing in this bed, which in a few years will change the light significantly.

Memorial Day

The unofficial start of summer is always a good time for gardening.  It is already hot here, but the humidity isn't too oppressive yet.  Today we planted our second round of corn.  The first, planted three weeks ago, is about a foot high now.

Many things are in full bloom, quite early.  My gardenia bushes are bent over with blooms.  Daylilies, coreopsis, yarrow, St. John's wort bush are all blooming.  I even have some crinum lilies blooming.
This lantana came back very early this year, and is enjoying the sun.  The concrete rabbit does not concern the real ones I am seeing on a regular basis.

Here  is asclepias (Butterfly weed) looking nice.  I need to do some serious thinning of lots of plants in this bed.

I am delighted to find that a pair of bluebirds have taken up residence in one of our bird houses.  I have seen bluebirds in the neighborhood, but this is the first time they have nested in our yard.  Such beautiful, graceful birds.  They were in and out of the house today, making me think they may have babies to feed.

And corn, again

Here is a picture of the corn.  There are about fourteen stalks up so far.

This evening I planted a squash and a cucumber plant, both of which I grew from seeds.  I also put three beautiful bright red dianthus plants in the front bed, right next to the sidewalk.  

Corn is up

I planted 18 hills of corn last Monday afternoon.  Yesterday evening I saw about ten small stalks shooting up.  We are having several days of rain, everything is looking healthy.  We fertilized the spring blooming shrubs this weekend, and put out several dozen annuals. 

My other two gardenia bushes have started blooming. 

I have a variety of plants in seed cups, in the southern windows, including cucumber, squash, moon flower, sunflower and more herbs.  Ten tomato plants are in the ground, and I plan to put more in seed cups.  I am doing much more food stuff than I normally do.  Last year I had so much fun growing corn, I just had to do more this year.  I think we will have three patches, each planted two weeks apart.

Happenings

 For several years I have had a small gardenia bush in the back yard.  It is next to the wall, in a very protected place.  Twice I thought drought had killed it, but it survived.  It has never grown much, and never bloomed, until this week.  Today it has two blooms and several buds.  It must have liked the mild winter.

My peonies are budding now.  Usually they have lots of flowers, but it looks like it will just be a few this year.  Perhaps they did not like the mild winter?

This week I planted twelve tomato plants, basil, cilantro and parsley.  I also planted half the bed we have reserved for corn.  I hope to plant the rest of that bed this weekend.  We will also put out annuals this weekend.  Squash, cucumbers and more herbs are growing in seed pots inside.

I am uncertain how I will keep the yard tamed this summer.  Everything is growing far faster than I can manage to work with it.  But, is certainly is nice to have plenty of rain.

Challenges

 My Costa Rican adventure resulted in a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder.  I had surgery to repair the tear in late February.  My shoulder  and arm were immobilized for six weeks.

As a result, my spring gardening has been little more that looking and dreaming.  I have managed to pull a few weeds, but I have been ordered to do no pushing, pulling or lifting with any resistance for now, and nothing more than a few pounds for the summer.  That means no digging, hoeing or using the lawn mower.

My yard is showing the effects.  It is rather sad.  But, I have had a couple of surprises.  This beautiful white iris came up this week.  It is a lone one, but perfect.  I also have lovely purple flag iris near the white one.  I like this color combination, and might plan more purple and white in that bed.

Before I injured myself, we dug up part of the front yard and put in two beds of liriope.  It is doing pretty well.  I had planned to have walking paths between them, but we have decided to plant vegetables there.  I am going to try corn again this year.  Last year my eight plants were wonderful.  Unfortunately my tomatoes were a failure last year.  They were in a new bed and the soil was not good.  I have 12 tomato plants growing in seed cups in southern windows.  They can go out soon.

We (that is an editorial we, I just watched) cleaned out the fish pond last weekend, and re-filled it with rain water from the rain barrels.  There were about a dozen good size fish in the pond.  I also found one frog.  They seem happy in the clean home.  In the fall we had thinned out the plant life, so the pond is looking great.