A beautiful overcast day with lower humidity. The weather reporter mentioned a cold front moving in with a chance of thunderstorms. The low was 71°F and the high reached 91°F.
Before I could log any of my garden time, my grandson and I were out shopping for his school supplies during the tax‑free weekend. We were still working through our list when, just like the report predicted, a thunderstorm rolled in around 3 p.m. It came down hard for a while. Luckily, we were still inside the store finishing up, and it ended up taking us two hours to find all the supplies.
By the time we left the store, the storm had already passed, and I’m hoping it brought some rain to the gardens. I’m taking Saturday off to recharge since I’ve been going every day, and I’m counting on that storm to give the direct‑sowed seeds what they need. I know what I will be working on, as I picked a lot of peppers and a bunch of okra, so probably canning, and maybe if I have the energy I will also slice the okra up for the dehydrator. The good news is I have all my supplies and can get started whenever I wake up, say around 5‑ish.
Since okra is the main thing producing right now, I’ll start my log backwards. If I do say so myself, it looks pretty good.
Up until five years ago, I didn’t even know what an okra plant looked like, let alone how to grow it. I remember relying on Chris, who was born in the South. Yes, I am the damn Yankee that won’t go home — at least according to one gardener out there who used to say that to me. It wasn’t very nice, especially considering I’ve been here twenty years. I guess once a Yankee, always a Yankee when you live in the southern states, or at least here. Maybe my comeback should have been asking where his southern hospitality was. He finally got the hint that I didn’t appreciate what he kept saying.
Other chores I did today included spraying the July tomatoes with copper fungicide, along with the eggplant and peppers. I have to say that my July transplants are looking good. I think my shade contraptions are giving the much‑needed shade to my little babies — or should I say toddlers.
After spraying, I worked on direct sowing the zucchini and yellow squash. I also had to go to the learning plot to take some of the extras that came up and transplant them into the holes I created for them in RRR. Yesterday I watched a video that said the best time to sow butternut squash was in July. I think I will have enough time for the butternut squash to harvest. I decided to give it a go, as mine were fizzly — puny — and the vines were already dying back. I moved some of the mounds around to create four planting holes just for butternut squash — we love butternut squash, especially soup. I’ll let you know if I harvest any.
Anyway, I thought you might like to see how the squash is sometimes in between a tomato plant, and you can see my tomato toddler in the background.
Well, I think I accomplished a lot today, and I’m definitely looking forward to a recharge day. I really do work better after a good charge — I bet you do too. I’ll be back out there on Sunday, so don’t miss me too much. 😉
