It is so damn hot, and it has been for the last like, 2 weeks, and another week coming up. I don't care enough about any of my plants to go outside and deal with them. I've let the cherry tomato in the pot just die. It's too far gone, and I've gotten plenty out of it already. The squirrels are going to be the ones disappointed.
The green bean plants have been dead for a long time. I'm not really sure what happened there, because they are technically in the ground. It seemed to happen really quickly. I'm guessing it was some kind of weird green bean thing, like Mike said, if they are touched when they are wet, they can just die instantly and it doesn't make sense.
The other two tomatoes are doing ok. I should probably water them. I actually have not had any issues with these. They do not show any signs of disease or dying from the bottom up from Vertascilium wilt (or whatever it is). And this is the third year growing in the same place. Since I'm not having any issues, I think I should be able to get away with another year in that same place. And I will probably grown the same varieties, since I won't have to buy new seeds.
Of course, if I grow these again, I will be a lot more fastidious with the labeling. Somehow, it seems like everyone ended up with Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. I will certainly grow the Brandy Boy again. I guess I'll grow Sun Golds again, why not. And I'll try to grow the Patio tomato, maybe it will actually make it this time. I think the big tray with 15 cells is a good approach, although I clearly do not need 15 tomato plants, even if I'm going to give away most of them. I started them super early, like end of January, and I would instead aim for mid February.
The soaker hose that I have out there is starting to fall apart. I think it's broken in the middle. I have a new one and I've been meaning to set it up. Of course I'm not going to do that today because it's insane out there. Maybe when the tomatoes die out and I get rid of them, that would be a good time to get the hose out of there.
Most of my herbs have died as well, because of my intense neglect. Same with all the potted plants I got from my coworker when she moved. I basically just left them out on a hot patio to die. And most of them were in pots too small for them to begin with.
The hot peppers are doing quite well. The habenero is pumping out peppers like it's its job. I made a hot sauce yesterday with about 8 peppers. I really need to bring home some gloves from work for the next time I handle those things. The "Salsa" peppers are great, actually. They aren't so hot, so you can roast them or sautee them or whatever. I put one in the hot sauce. Only problem is that the plant is kind of sprawling around and sagging. The Habenero is actually a beautiful plant, it's like a nice little tree with a canopy. Of course I would like to keep them over the winter so I need to really wash them off in the fall before I bring them inside.
And now, of course, I'm starting to think about a fall garden. Those are the things that are more fun to grow, and to eat, and there's more variety of what I want to grow. Some of the longer growing plants, like Radicchio, should probably be going in pretty soon. But of course, the tomatoes still have a lot of time. They ought to be able to go through most of September.
I think I will use the bed where the green beans were to plant some fall veggies that need to go in soon. That means I need to pull out the dead beans of course, but I have a ton of strawberries in there as well. They have never really done anything good as far as I can tell. I could just throw them all out. Or I could try to save them in containers, but then what, plant them somewhere in the spring? Maybe if I get a strawberry pot or something. I guess I will try to put them in containers and keep them, and then throw them out later when they're all dead.
So what do I need to start? Radicchio is the longest growing, it says it needs 90 days, so if I started it now, it wouldn't be ready until November. So, yeah, I guess I should start it really soon. I don't have any seed starting mix at the moment, so I guess I could just use potting mix. Or I could go buy some. Nah, let's start some today, that sounds like a good project. I guess I should start two 6-packs, so 12. Then maybe next week I will start the Kale. Maybe in 2 weeks I will finally get out there and clean out that bed. As soon as these new plants start to grow at all, they should be moved into the ground. Also, I think I should empty the compost bin into that little bed.
Once the heat breaks, I will probably freshen up the soil in the gutter garden, and plant some leaf lettuce. Supposedly that would be good, because the warm temperature will get them growing faster but they will be ready to pick when it starts to get cooler. I also want to grow some Romaine lettuce and some Bok Choy. The Romaine is like, 70 days, so I guess I would start that in September. The Bok Choy should probably be started at the end of September, since it's a 30 day veggie.
You know, for things that are harvested as whole heads, maybe I ought to stagger them a little. Not that they ripen up all at once, but if I am growing 12 Radicchio, I don't really want them all to come within a week.
