Anyone want to hear me go on about gardening? No? Too bad.

I’m going to the grocery as soon as Lin is gone in the morning, and then I am working in the garden until I get some things done, no matter how hot it gets. This heat has kept me from getting some things done, because it’s hot from before the sun comes up to well after it sets … and at night. It’s still in the 90’s out there right now. This is not conducive to gardening work.

I want to get the carrots and scallions out of the ground and into the freezer, and since the cucumbers don’t seem to be setting any fruit at all, they might as well get tossed in the trash. All they are doing is harboring aphids and making more work for me killing said aphids. Waste of time, energy, and bed space. I might leave the largest one, in hopes something comes of it, but I doubt that will happen. Getting these things done will open up half of Bed One to be prepped for fall stuff.

The second planting of bush beans has been blooming, but not one bean. I’m guessing it’s too damn hot. They have about another week to produce a bean. Yes, I will leave the entire section of bean plants if just one of them manages to create a bean in the next week. I am a kind god in that way. That would leave the recently planted okra seeds, the dill, and the marigolds. I have no attachment to the marigolds, the okra will probably getting eaten off as soon as it sprouts just like the squash seedlings, and the dill can be frozen. Therefore, there is nothing at all keeping me from emptying out the whole of Bed One.

I have additionally been looking at the Three Sisters Mounds with a critical eye. The corn was a total wash. We had some squash, but then plants were destroyed in various ways (critters, pests, and my own stupidity), and the pole beans are blooming but also not producing but the odd bean now and then. At the moment, those mounds only still have plants growing on them due to those few lone beans. I suspect that once I have accumulated enough bean seeds to replace what I planted, I may cease being the kind god and tear all the plants out of the mounds. So there’s half my garden empty.

The potatoes have begun dying back. This is a normal part of the process, and it’s happening about when I expected it to happen, but I do still worry that it’s a disease issue. I don’t have a clue if there are any actual edible potatoes under those plants. As soon as a few more of the stems die back, I’ll be cutting them all back, waiting two weeks for any potential potatoes to harden their skins, and then digging them up. But, you may ask, what about the peanuts growing around the potatoes?!

Yes, well, let’s talk about the peanuts. Last week, I went out to the garden set on pulling up the peanuts. I am sick of looking at their sickly little forms, and as far as I could tell, there were no peanuts being produced. I pulled up one plant, and it had two baby peanuts on it. Ugh. I now suspect there are at least a couple of peanuts on each plant, so they get to stay until they die back as well. I’ll dig the potatoes out around them as carefully as possible, but it won’t break my heart if I lose a few peanuts. They should start dying back in a couple of weeks too, so with the potatoes and peanuts about to be “harvested” there’s another quarter of my garden open and empty shortly.

That leaves me with the surviving tomatoes, peppers, basil, and some carrots. This sucks, but there’s no point keeping stuff around just to have something to do. At Casa de Orb, plants either produce something useful, or they don’t exist in my garden. I am a kind god and a merciful god, but I do have my limits. All gods do, you know. Besides, this really is the time to be getting ready for the fall garden. I’d expected the transition to have more overlap, but I didn’t anticipate such extreme heat, and there were some planting location errors made (as far as plants not getting enough sun).

It’s pointless to fight the inevitable end of the “spring” garden. Therefore, it must be time to sit down with my notebook and plan the late summer garden and order seeds! Things I can plant right now (which I already have seeds for) are corn, cucumbers, okra, peppers, and tomatoes. So I guess I will start with those. How I will protect the seedlings from the oppressive heat and starving critters, I do not know, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out … like starting them all in my starter tray (outside) and bringing them into the house every night.

I like the planning part, and it will take the sting off having to pull up so many plants (and having a really empty garden for a few weeks). I’m going to get out the graph paper, ruler, and other planning tools, so they will be ready tomorrow when I have to come in from being out in the heat. I’d love to start working on it tonight, but I do have to get up and get moving early in the morning, and it’s getting late. Time to go dream about how great my garden will be in early fall!

Yes, I am ever the optimist. The next garden is ALWAYS going to be great.