Saturday, July 25, 2015

Hot & Safety

In this part of Oklahoma, temperatures are in the high 90’s with a heat index, bringing the actual temperature up to 109+ degrees.  In order to do any work out on the property, or in the garden, we find ourselves getting up early in the morning, or waiting until after dinner when the sun starts to go down, to actually do any outside work.

I was up early, weeding my garden, just as the sun was starting to rise.  I finished relatively early, and didn’t run into any snakes, scorpions, or spiders. 


Here’s a picture of the garden when done weeding, it doesn’t look bad.  I did think to myself, “I should have placed brick all around the entire garden instead of just the front and sides”.  Having fencing on the back side isn’t a solid base to prevent the grass from growing into the garden bed.


Before Weeding
After Weeding
















As you know from one of my previous posts, I’ve been trying to prevent worms from eating all of my red cabbage.  To do this, I’ve been spraying each plant with a water, alcohol, and dawn soap mixture.  Only 3 cabbage plants survived out of 4 planted.

Here’s a brief look at them, notice several of the leaves have been cut off.  The leaves cut were those eaten by the moth worm, making them look like pieces of Swiss cheese.  Daily, when I go out to my garden, I check the 3 remaining cabbage plants for worms; so far, knock on wood……. they’ve stopped eating my cabbage.


The Third Cabbage Had To Be Pulled Because The Only Thing Left Was A Short Stump,
Here's The Fourth Cabbage.


My cucumber plants have started to grow, and climb the feedlot panel turned vertically to be used as a trellis.



My first harvest of potatoes was of Yukon Gold potatoes; my second planting was with red potatoes.  Notice they’re starting to grow seedlings nicely.  


I’ve sprayed the leaves of the new red potato plants with an alcohol, water, and a dawn soap mixture to help keep the bugs from eating the leaves off of the plant.  Also, since potatoes don’t like extreme heat, I make sure to provide the roots and the leaves with enough water to help keep it cool, and to help it grow.

Here’s a first at our homestead, the growing of Tomatillo’s.  The seeds took off really nice, here are a few plants……notice I have a blossom already formed.  The feedlot trellis was placed here to help keep the birds away from the bed when the plants were small.  I’ll need to remove it before the fruit of the Tomatillo appears.



I planted Dwarf sun flowers along with giant sun flowers.  The Dwarf sun flower is so full and pretty, I thought I would share a picture of the flower with you.


And finally, just some friendly advice; when working in temperatures over 90 degree’s please remember to drink plenty of fluids, wear a hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, and take plenty of shaded breaks. 




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22 comments

  1. Awesome job! Sorry about the cabbage, those dang bugs. You have more than one tomatillo growing, right? We planted just one last year and I found later than it sometimes takes two or more to mix and set fruit. But when they do, boy they can be prolific! It's on our list for next year for sure. Tomatillo salsa is SO good..

    Yes, stay cool, it's dangerously hot!

    And we still have August to survive...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1st Man,

      Thank you friend! I lost one cabbage, trying to keep the remaining three alive. Bugs.....you just want to squish them, lol......
      Yes, I have approximately 7 Tomatillo's growing. Two are producing blooms right now. I'm hoping they produce vegetables :-)
      I want to make some delicious salsa with tomatillo's.

      And...........August, it's just around the corner!!! Keep Cool!!!

      Delete
  2. Glad your spray is working.

    Every thing looks great. I am a fan of Yukon Gold. The Idaho white potatoes have tasted strange to me. I've even converted Hubby to gold!

    When I was on my snake revenge mow the other day I almost mowed one of Marcy's tomatillos. If not for the pod I would have missed it. She plants things every where and amazingly, they produce...Queen of Green Thumb.

    We have cucumbers, tomatoes, egg plants,wax beans and several peppers. This time of year I could just graze!

    The heat is horrible here, too. Stay safe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gail,

      The spray is really working well. For anyone interested it's 1 part alcohol, 4 parts water, and 2 tablespoons of dawn soap.

      We already harvested our Yukon Gold and put them up to use over the next couple of months. Now it's time for the reds to grow :-)

      Good think you didn't mow down Marcy's tomatillo plant! It's good to have a green thumb grower on your property. They can grow anything, anywhere :-)

      I'm glad to hear you're producing all kinds of veggies, and peppers. My regular green, yellow, and red peppers are not growing this year. I may have to pull those which are an inch in size and restart. I'm not sure what's going on with them.

      We will stay safe, you too my friend.
      Hugs,
      Sandy

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  3. Looking good Sandy. I have had very poor luck with Tomatillos up here. I have had some grow huge but the fruit has always been so small as to be impossible to really get anything picked.

    That's a very neat looking sunflower. All one fluffy color eh?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PP,

      Thanks Bud! This is the first year growing tomatillo's here on the homestead. I can't wait to harvest some fruit. We have blossoms now!

      Yes, this dwarf sunflower will only be one fluffy color.....yellow :-)

      Delete
  4. We're finally starting to get a blast of hot weather up here and so I'm up at 3 am doing the days baking and whatever cooking needs to be done. We don't have AC, so once the windows get shut up around 8 am, that's it for cooking, etc. Lots of lovely salads and sandwiches.
    Sorry about the bugs bothering your cabbages. I've had incredible luck with Agribon fabric covering.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sue,

      Very smart to get up real early and get your baking done before the sun comes up and produces heat.

      I'll have to check out the agribon fabric covering for the garden. Since spraying (homemade organic mix), and manually taking off the moth worms my cabbage is really growing nicely.

      Thanks for following my blog!!!

      Delete
  5. Sandy, everything looks great! You are so wise to avoid the sun and the heat of the day this time of year. Now I need to go look up your bug recipe. My broccoli is in sore need of it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leigh,

      Thank you so very much. I have to avoid the extreme heat, and sun. If I don't I get bad headaches or pass out because I didn't have enough fluids in my body.

      Bug spray recipe is 1 part alcohol, 4 parts water, and 2 tablespoons dawn soap. Place in a bottle, shake lightly, and spray plants (not directly in the sun).

      Delete
  6. Wow that is hot we could use that heat here hay does not dry under cool rain:). I am having trouble with them eating my kale darn things. I will try your mix. Hug B

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buttons,

      I will ship you our heat, okay and you ship me your rain :-)
      Give the mix a shot, spray when the sun goes down. It should help!!!

      Delete
  7. Sandy,

    We've had those temps here for the past week or so. The heat index was 119 last weekend in the country. Your garden looks great, sorry about the cabbage worms. Also, love that pic of the sunflower, absolutely beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DFW,

      The heat is terrible, not as bad as we had it four years ago. The temperature back then was 118, not including the heat index. 119 is high, be safe with this weather!!! Isn't that dwarf sunflower gorgeous? It's so fluffy too.

      Delete
  8. The last issue of Survivalist Magazine had a long article on the different insect pests that get into people's gardens, and different ways to deal with them. I read it until my eyes glazed over. You have to really be motivated to get out there and battle all that, as well as diseases, weather, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Harry,

      You're eye's glazed over? Ha!!!!! Mine have a tendency of doing that too if the article is long, and boring. I'll check out the article, I'm sure my husband has the magazine. We always get those magazines. My husband and sister always ask me where I get all of my energy from. I'm outside battling those bugs daily, and I think I'm finally winning!!! My energy comes from a good night sleep, lot's of water, and vitamins.............then a good cup of coffee :-)

      Delete
  9. OMG - Sweet Sandy - your temps are crazy! i am sorry about your cabbages but at least your spray is working! i have had such trouble here with all brassicas because of snails and slugs. then i read that you have to wrap your bed in plastic from the top to the bottom and extend it a little and then lay down sand. we tried this, this year and it seems to be working! let me know if you want more details and i will send you a detailed email.

    please, hon, don't be out working in the heat too long. i know that you will keep yourself well-hydrated...but i have a few experiences where i (or jam) didn't realize that we had been sunstroked until we came in! and then suffered!

    other than that - your garden is looking great and i know how hard you are working! that sunflower is beautiful! we are both sending love and hugs, as always! your friend,
    kymber

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sweet Kymber,

      Yes, the temperatures are way out there, lol!!!!!

      This is my first year trying to grow red cabbage. 3 of the cabbage don't look too bad, granted I had to cut away many leaves. I'm still not giving up on them. I like your idea about putting plastic around them, maybe when I try growing them again I'll try your method of protecting them.

      We must always remain hydrated because it's very hot here right now, and because I'm on medicine which causes me to be dehydrated. I need to be very careful. I have felt pretty bad some days working outside, when this happens I'm done working outside for the day.

      You and Jam need to make sure you DON'T Get Dehydrated!!!!! or heat stroke!!!!!

      Thank you my sweet friend, I've been working hard to keep this garden looking good in hopes of large healthy vegetable and fruit harvests.
      Sending hugs, and love to you and Jam.
      Sandy

      Delete
  10. You're having to really battle this year to get good harvests out of your garden. Believe it or not, we've actually turned the corner into "summer" and are having temps in the high 80s during the day . . . which, by the way, feels like a furnace to us up here near the tundra!

    Love that sunflower with it's fuzzy yellow head..

    We're in the midst of painting the house and plan it so we're only working in the shade. Otherwise, we get to feeling wonky real fast!

    Take care of yourself and only do the necessary things out of doors. 'Tis not worth getting sick!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mama Pea,

      Yes, this is the first year I've had to battle daily to get good harvests out of my garden. I wonder what next year will bring??

      You finally have summer there in MN, wooohooo......I know you've been waiting for it :-)

      Isn't that sunflower cool looking, and nice and fluffy. I would love to dry these, I wonder if they would keep there coloring, and fluffiness?

      Yes, you need to paint your house in the shade, or early in the morning before the sun is blaring, or later in the evening when the sun starts to go down. Be careful working out in that heat!!!

      Amen, working outside in our garden isn't worth getting sick!!!
      Hugs,
      Sandy

      Delete
  11. garden looking really good sandy!!

    sorry i haven't been by lately - my bad - but at least you got all the trout!!! ;-)

    hugs to you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jambaloney,

      Thank you my friend, I've been working hard in it.
      Trying to keep things from dying because of the weather.

      That's okay, family, and work takes precedence before blogging.....I totally understand :-). Yes, I see I got all the trout......we love trout in this house. What happened to PP, he didn't like the tire garden, and gave up the trout?

      Hugs to you and Sweet Kymber.

      Delete

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