Summer Thoughts

Yellow Lily

You know, as the heat is settling in for the summer, My yearning to garden drops down to 0%. It's weird how it works. When it's winter, I can't wait to get to planting and watching them grow. Now, I find myself groaning as I lug around gallons of water on a daily basis to make sure they stay alive. It's a real pain in the butt to see plants falling over and dying from thirst.

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't humid. My friend tells me that it gets up to 105 in Nevada but because there's no humidity, it isn't bad. It only needs to get 80 here before the air smothers you. As I glance to Weather.com, it's 63% humidity here and it hasn't rained in a week. Where is it all coming from? Oh yes, swampy areas nearby. That's where the overwhelming amount of bugs come from too. I know, enough complaining!

Despite a few disagreements, I lugged out the two remaining thanksgiving cacti and put them on the porch where they'll get shade. I think the air conditioning is causing the plants to shrivel up and not grow. They started to grow in spring during that time when neither the heater or AC was being used but now the AC is on almost 24/7 and the plants just aren't thriving. Hopefully being exposed to heat and minimal sunlight outside will get them back on track.

I'm surprised that my other thanksgiving cacti are growing. They're being exposed to sunlight for the same period as the jade plants are and they're doing wonderful. I wonder if they'll bloom when I move them inside for the winter.


Vegetable Garden

The vegetables are kinda growing. There's Zucchini, Cucumbers, and Squash. They're not vining out as much but I suppose that's a good thing. It won't be demanding so much water but we'll see how far long it gets in July or August... or September. From what I remember, Zucchini is on the far left but only because I see a vegetable growing from it. Cucumber may be on the far right. There's two random pots between the three vegetable pots. One has elephant ears and the other has several Amaryllis.


Amaryllis Seed Pods

Speaking of Amaryllis, It's discouraging that out of several attempts, only these two are hanging on. I wonder what causes a pod to be pollinated and then aborted. These two are of the pink/white one.

I could be horribly wrong but I believe the pod on the left was also partially pollinated by the pollen from the red amaryllis. If the pod does mature and give me seeds, I guess I'll know in due time.

The biggest one is starting to approach the size of the ones my friend sent me so at least I'm happy about that. At least two successful pods is better than none.