carolyncat353's Blog

The End is Near
Jun 28, 2011 | 7:11 AM PST

My gardening end!  It's been hot and dry-too dry.  My tomatoes did not do well, although I made many (LOTS!), they were small-very small.  Even if I picked several green ones off for the others to get bigger, they turned red very early.  Cucumbers are still making, but they are suffering.  Bell Peppers, too.  I will soon be pulling up all but one tomato and one pepper plant-and give the soil a rest until late August.

This is what it looks like looking over the side fence.

 

In a couple of days, the far garden will be almost blank.  I still have eggplant in there making good-and I will leave it alone.   The heat doesn't seem to bother the zinnias:

 

The daturas love the heat, too, although they do wilt in the middle of the day.  The yellow is blooming this morning:

 

The crinums are blooming, too.  I have neglected them badly-hardly any water these past few weeks.  Lots of blooms, but they are much smaller than usual, and don't last as long.  Love that color though!

We had a tiny bit of rain last week, but none predicted for another week or so.  I am tiring of trying to keep the garden alive, and with the heat and increase in my electric bill AND the water bill, I will be winding it down until I start my fall stuff.  I do want to plant some Asparagus Beans in August and some more squash-I'll wait .

Have a great day! : ~)

Sunny Morning Sunshine
Jun 13, 2011 | 11:32 AM PST

I always plant sunflowers -I really like the Mammoth, but this year I planted some different kinds-Lemon Queen is multi-branched, about 4-5 ft. tall.  Lasts a long time.  Autumn mix is mostly red and again, 4-5 feet tall.  But I just love these big babies-and I only had ONE come up-That's ok-I planted more!

That's cucumbers planted at it's feet and tomatoes and eggplant in the background.  I have so many tomatoes on one plant, they look like grapes!  I am going to cut some of the green ones off, so the others can get big-and spread the sevin cause the stink bugs are B A D!

Its been so awfully hot here, we are in an "Exceptional" drought situation-which is the worst there can be.  My water bill went up $25.00 this month.  I have quit watering the grass and as the annuals get spent, I am not replacing them.  I can't afford the water bill!

There's not much going on in my world.  Our work situation has picked up, but my salary hasn't...not yet.  Hopefully in a month or so I can go up a little! Wish I could sell my dang car-too big and not enough gas mileage!  This is what we do when it gets too hot-notice the name on the Margarita mix:

 

Hope all is well in your part of the world!

 

Hoping for rain
Jun 7, 2011 | 7:25 AM PST

Some thunderstorms came through yesterday evening to the south of Lake Charles-about an inch fell with hail and strong winds.  At my house...slight breeze, cloudy, no rain. :(  I can't afford to keep the grass watered, we're on water restriction anyway, burn ban across the whole state.  We need rain without a hurricane, please!

A lifetime friend of my youngest brother was murdered by her soon to be EX husband Sunday.  Drove up to her house, broke in and shot her with a shotgun.  Took off-cops are still searching.  Her 20 something daugher & her boyfriend and 2 other people were in the house when this happened (7:oo AM)  She had a restraining order against. him.  Just shows how much help that is.  NO one would have thought this would happen.  So sad.

Besides the fact that it hasn't rained in 3 months, the patio is holding it's own.  The hibiscus in the pot is doing real well:

This is a very pretty bush.  The ground is too hard to dig in now, so it will have to live in this pot.  Gets water every day

My white Plumeria is blooming up a storm, and is WAY too big for it's pot, but I don't know what to do with it.  It should go in the ground, too, but it will have to be somewhere close to the patio on the south side of the house-I just haven't determined where, yet.

 

The wind blew it over yesterday, and I thought I would have broken branches, but I didn't.  I guess I'll have to anchor it to the house so that won't happen again. The amazing thing about Plumeria is bugs hardly bother it, and it is amazingly easy to grow.  I have a broken branch from last year laying on an outside shelf, not in dirt, for almost 8 months now.  It has new growth showing.  Astonishing!  Reba, this is what yours will look like!

Our work is picking up *Yay!*  We are considering hiring 2 more people, don't know for how long, but right now, We need them! Maybe in a couple of months my salary can start to go back up!  Whew!  You just don't realize how much money you waste until you don't have any.  I have learned to be very frugal again.  Almost like when I was a starving student. 

It's gonna be another hot one here, today.  High in the upper 90's.  Been 100 & over every day for almost a week, now.  Too hot, too soon.  The Gulf water temp is in the mid 80's already-hate to see hurricane season come. Ugh.

Make it a good one!