Summer Arrives!

Summer came upon us as suddenly and definitively as ever in SoCal. It's a little late this unusual rainy year, but now it's here. We had a long stretch of pleasant days and cool nights and now we have the pleasant mornings and evenings but midday is approaching killer. Because that's the way it's been for several days, I finally watered my tomatoes and the other plants in the enclosure. They've been drooping midday but they pep up as the evening gets cool. Still, I didn't want to wait until the ground gets entirely dry — it will be too hard to rewet it at that point. So I watered as soon as I got up this morning.

I'm soooo impressed with what a good job of cooling the soil and retaining the moisture the straw mulch is doing! But even so, the beets that were well watered about 8am were looking like fried eggs on a hot griddle at 1:30pm. I had to water them again and I hope it will be enough to rescue them. I probably am being foolish to try to grow them this late in the year but I had hoped the shade of the fruit trees would cool them enough. I'll just have to see how that goes.

All in all, this is the time of year when the shade gardens become a special delight. If I wander in one of them I can feel 10˚ cooler! And the one at the south end of the back fence has a lovely view of the veggies that grow along the fence and also a nice one of the house and the pool. Too bad there isn't room for a seat there...

This weekend is also the time when the Sepulveda Community Garden holds their garden fair. I knew it was about time and so I drove by and there it was! I got several new iris rhizomes. A couple yellows and a purple and an orange. I've got so many muted colors I thought it was time for something that really stood out. It's the SoCal Iris Society that sells them so these are really very nice and I look forward to seeing them fill out and bloom in the front yard.

While I was there I wandered through other people's garden plots. It was nice to see what folks are growing and how they manage those tiny spots. Some people had mature cukes and tomatoes just about ready to ripen! I'm so jealous! Several people also had raspberries and blackberries. Yum! I am definitely putting a couple canes in as soon as find out what the best time of year to do it is. I'll put them on the split rail fence behind the garage.

That's it for today. Wishing everyone a lovely spot to enjoy the birds' songs and growing things!