Hot again

[patinagle16]

We're back to dry weather for a couple of days.  More rain later in the week, maybe.  I think the true monsoons haven't quite started yet.

Pumpkins have sprouted, and the peas have just finished.  I like planting peas at the spring equinox and pumpkins at the summer solstice.  May do that again next year.

The cilantro has all bolted, but I did harvest a few leaves for pico de gallo on Saturday.  I really like growing the cilantro in patio pots.  Love the smell of it, which you get just by handling it.

I put the last two tomato plants into patio pots after realizing that I wasn't going to make the upside-down planters work this season.  Maybe next year.

Things they don't tell you about those upside-down planters:  They take a LOT of potting soil and are consequently FREAKING HEAVY!  They will bend a normal garden hook.  Can't just hang them anywhere.  I did put a plant in one early in the year and then it got taken out by a freeze.  It's just too much work to figure out where to hang it and get the thing set up.  

Lavender is blooming, and the roses are settling in nicely.  This morning I turned the cock on one of the water barrels halfway to water the rhubarb for a while.  When I went back to shut it off, I stupidly turned it full on instead.  So the rhubarb got an unexpectedly large drink (i.e., the entire contents of a nearly-full barrel).  We better have nice rhubarb, that's all I can say.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Over on another blog, someone who works at a Lowe's-type store said that the upside-down planters don't work for anyone. The only one they were able to get to work needed to be babied--carefully watered, kept out of the wind. I think they've developed one or two types of tomatoes that can fruit in one of those things, but from what I've read, as a whole they're pretty much a non-starter.

I have a deck planter with holes for tomatoes to grow out the bottom. Of the four plants that I tried to grow, two sprouted a lot of greenery, and each produced one tomato. I think the plant knows it isn't oriented properly and therefore won't fruit. I also read that the water running down the stalks and leaves after watering can kill them.

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

Ditto what Kristine said about upside-down planters. Between my neighbor and I we have tried all possible sun exposures, varieties, soil, and none have been worth the trouble. And how come the tomato-loaded plants they show on television haven't tried to climb up the side of the pot like ours do? We even tried weighting down the tips by tying rocks. That sorta works, but the side branches just climb back up.

I keep basil in my pots for smell touch the way you do cilantro. I love the garden.

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

I mean "between my neighbor and me...) but you knew that!

[patinagle.livejournal.com]

Sigh. So those ads are pure lies. What a rip.

Thanks, guys. I guess I won't bother trying again.

Yanno, with the one plant I successfully got into one of those (and that alone is a pain in the ass), my immediate feeling was that it was silently screaming that it wanted to be right side up. I should have listened.