June Garden Journal

June is over and it was one of the hottest Junes on record here. I know 119 was the official high one day this June, but I can tell you I heard reports of plenty of people saying their cars were registering 123 and up, one said 128! In the summer here, I often get cabin fever. It usually sets in about August but I already have it this summer. Glad our monsoon rains will be starting soon.


 My plants could tell you with out a thermometer that is has been really hot. Mostly though, things are not looking too bad. My roses look like they are dying but that happens every summer. I have pulled out all the calendula as they were heavily infested with spider mites. Heat gets them too. The kale in my horse trough finally gave up to the heat. I had hoped it would go to seed but it didn't. June and July there is not much happening in my garden. I only do a quick walk around to make sure the water system is working and to see if anything needs my attention. 

Here's a pic of the cotton plant. I isn't very big, maybe 12 inches. But I have cotton! Also I see more new blooms so maybe it will continue to grow.
  

My artichoke decided to bloom while we were on vacation. My good neighbor took pics for me though. It was still blooming when we got back, blooms as large as my hand. I didn't get a pic of it with all 3 blooms. It has now died and will come back this winter. 



I planted a snail vine over by Papa's work shop area the beginning of the month. It's happy. 

I had only a few sun flowers bloom. 

I found that the oregano seeds finally sprouted! Like what, 6 weeks after planting?!

Asparagus is looking great!

So glad my super tomato is growing and has little fruits. It's a bit leggy and I think maybe it's not getting enough sun. I checked on my daughters mother plant and it is still going though the fruiting has slowed in the heat.

Plantain looking good.

Front bed is looking overgrown and tired. I pulled out the calendula and seeding lettuce after this pic. Mystery plant is still growing.

This bed is just awful. It was a waste of time and effort. I will try again this fall.

Sweet potatoes have not taken off as I had expected. Maybe they will soon.

I came home from vacation in Cabo on the 9th, found these sweet little pattie pans growing away. A week later something had eaten every last one of them right down to the stem! Arghhh!!! Not a watermelon in sight either, all eaten up.

I found the little devils that ate it all though with a flash light. The rest of the story is not for the squeamish, just warning you! One night we came home later than normal and as I got out of the car I could hear a rustling noise, the sound of thousands of little feet running over dried leaves......it was sewer roaches by the hundreds maybe thousands! 

We have a city sewer clean out a few feet from our property line and the city had sprayed in there several months ago. Roaches pour out when they spray. I had seen a few out back but didn't think anything about it as there always seem to be a few around. I'm mostly organic with my gardening and I don't mind bugs as long as they don't bother us. Apparently the roaches found my open compost, aka roach buffet, and decided to stay permanently and start their families.  

As soon as I realized I was feeding them I buried the compost and sprayed a little insecticide in a couple places hoping they would just leave with no dinner around. Wrong thing to do because with out a food source they began eating all my veggies! They ate all those little squash and all the little watermelons in one night!  On the yellow squash, they found soft spots and nibbled their way inside and hollowed out the shells. The next night finding no squash left to eat they munched on the squash vines. The vines couldn't take the damage and died in one days time with our heat.

I declared war on them then! The thing is though, I don't want chemicals that would harm bees since we hardly have any of them around already. And of course I don't want the kids to be exposed. The good news is the kids are not going outside now anyway because it's just too hot. We started with diatomaceous earth; other bugs disappeared, still lots of roaches. I am now using a boric acid that I got at home depot and being very selective where it is put. Hoping that will do it.

My loofah vine has grown nicely, lots of flowers but only one loofah so far. It's the first time I have grown one so I'm not sure if thats normal. I am wondering if the roaches also ate all the little ones off. 

Raised bed full of watermelon vines. I should have had enough watermelons to feed the whole neighborhood with all those vines but no, however.......

I found 2 of these little cuties. Maybe the boric acid has gotten rid of the roaches! Tonight I will go out and see if I find any scurrying around.

The mullein is doing good.

Holly Hocks are done for the summer. The other two I planted never grew flowers, just leaves. Time to cut it back.

I link at these parties.

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