Today's forecasted high was 78 degrees. It was 53 when I got up this morning and by noon it had hit 83 degrees in the shade and it stayed there all day. It is currently, at 5pm, 81 on the north wall of the house. For several days I debated whether to change the broccoli and cauliflowers to the insect mesh but since tomorrow is supposed to return to more reasonable weather, I decided instead to just run their pant legs up. I didn't want them to cook in their little greenhouse.
The cold frame was another challenge. I have several trays of young seedlings in there. I can't just open it up the because the polycarbonate panels do block some of the sun and experience tells me I can easily scorch them. With one panel down, a 50% shade cloth, and a fan running the air temp was 95 and the soil surface temp was 103. I think everyone is OK
There was at least a nice stiff breeze today and we got another chunk of the mulching done around the house. It was actually sort of pleasant because I had already cleaned, raked out and weeded the beds earlier in the week and we just had to cut some edging and do a lot of shoveling of new material. Then we turned on the fridge in the garden shed and stocked it with water, sweet tea and beer. Then the lawn was mowed for the first time.
I went around taking photos of daffodils to keep track of where they are for the next time I decide I must need a whole bunch more. Which I don't.
I might add some yellow with deep orange centers. They are a real stand out. Most of mine are the giant mix for naturalizing and over time, the standard all yellow or white with yellow tend to take over. I have only ever singled out the all white Mount Hood or the white with peach Salome. But I am seeing a whole lot of the Ice Follies with their wide open pale yellow centers. I was so sad last week when we got the eight inches of snow because I was afraid they would all have been crushed, but the two cold and lightly snowy days before hand had made all of the flowers close back up so when the heavier snow came on Tuesday they were less vulnerable and very few bent over.
It is a banner year for daffodils
What a wild weather climate you live in! We could go all summer without having the high temps today. You went from snow a week ago to hot as Hades today. How do plants manage to survive that fluctuation? It was warm here today, too. We hit 47°! ;o)
ReplyDeleteIt is supposed to be 47 and snowy again on Wednesday. This is the third year in a row with these extreme and repetitive swings and I am just about over the whole cold frame routine.
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