AngelsGarden's Blog

~~My Hour in the Backyard~~
Aug 20, 2007 | 10:07 AM PST
Tags: Fire ants , eggplant , compost , heat

The temps are moderating a little.  I have miss being in the garden, working and feeling strong from the exercise.  Frankly, the garden looks terrible!!!  Since I've not been feeling well, and the heat so intense, I have just stuck mainly to housework.  But when I got up this morning it was only 71F, so by the time I got back from taking my daughter to school it still wasn't too bad. 

I went out to have a look around.  Collected some eggs, eggplant, peppers and the first cucumber from my second planting.  

My compost pile is ok to spread around in the flower beds, even though its not completely broken down, I did find the occasional egg shell.  I even found a banana sticker.  I spread four 4 gal. buckets around in one area.  I will keep at it until the compost bin is empty of usable stuff.  Then I will put in the spent plants that need to be cleaned from the garden.  I can also start adding grass clippings again along with the fall leaves.

I also took the pitch fork and loosened around the eggplants, then pulled them up.  They weren't doing very well anymore.  Fire ants had decided that they liked them.  They were climbing the stems, eating holes here and there.  They especially liked the flowers and the fruits, right were they connected to the plant. 

I set the sprinkler for the peppers and melons then came  inside.  It was good to get back to gardening, but enough for this morning.

If you look really close you can see a couple of fire ants in the center of the black area where they have been chewing.