A Break In The Rain

Today started out warm and completely overcast, 73F and 93% humidity. 50% chance of a “torrential downpour” around 2pm.  We decided to trim weeds and mow the lawn early enough to beat that.  Around 11am it looked like it was trying to clear up but it turned out it was just organizing itself enough to rain which it did moments after the lawnmower was put away and before I had finished some of my other garden chores.  It was one of those times when I was already soaked through from humidity so I just finished up in the rain.  A little bit ago the sun finally came out and it looked like we were going to get an hour or so of nice weather so I went out to enjoy it while it lasts.  It is hot and muggy.  We already have the air conditioning on in the house just for humidity.  We had been enjoying cool nights with the windows open but this morning even the tile floors felt sticky.

Things are starting to turn around.  The peppers and tomatoes are starting to recover.  Below the dwarf tomatoes are about a tenth of size they were last year at this time.  Next week they are predicting a heat wave so I will be breaking out the shade cloth again.

Things are evening out but I am still facing a few challenges.  Pole beans is the current one.  Something is eating the Seychelles green beans as soon as they spout.  I only have a few plants.  When I plant my row of pole beans I start at each end, plant a total of a third row of Monte Gusto and two thirds row of Seychelles but I do it in two stages, from outer ends towards the center.  That way I get a longer harvest and when they start dying out they die out from the ends and I can pull those first.  At first I thought it was birds pulling the sprouts.  So I covered them with row cover but whatever it was, it wasn't birds.

1.  First planting of Monte Gusto yellow beans with no problem
2  Seychelles planted at the same time and now eaten down twice.
3.  Second planting of Monte Gusto today with mouse cover pushed down into the soil
4.  Where the second planting of Seychelles goes.

In case its mice I will add dryer sheets this evening after it gets done raining again.  As a backup, I planted Seychelles in a 6 pack cell and put it up on the potting bench.  I also have a pot of eggplants up on top where I am "hiding" them from flea beetles.

There were a few flea beetles on them last week, but I squished them and sprinkled diatomaceous earth around the soil for whatever ones dropped and hid in the roots.  These two little plants have quadrupled in size this week.  Just a little hail damage and some flea bites.

These two eggplants are a backup for the one I have in the garden which is not doing anywhere near as well.  I am about ready to pull that one and transplant the ones in the black pot over to the larger pot but since they are happy I am leaving them for now.  Apparently it's not just house plants that sulk if transplanted into a much bigger pot.  Next year I will have to plant them up slower and let them graduate through more sizes of containers.

And finally, if it ever stops raining long enough, I need to finish cleaning up the daffodils out of the perennial beds.  I have some annuals set aside, and the Heuchera from the firepit whiskey barrels to plant in the area below.  But I want to remove the Daffodil foliage at the same time so I don't end up planting the Heuchera on top of the Daffodil bulbs again.

I am going to put one of the Heuchera next to the deck too.  I was smart enough to check that there is room for a wire cloche over the plant in the winter to protect the evergreen foliage from the deer and rabbits!

And with that... the break in the rain is over.