Southern Heat Wave

Well, moving to South Louisiana from Southern California and trying to garden in the summer has been an experience. We tried so hard, all the way through July, hoping to finally get a garden going in the backyard of our new home. And not all hope is lost, I just hope the tomatoes hold up through the heat, and maybe produce come September. My poor tomato garden, hang in there!

Today's weather, and its only noon: 93°F - Feels Like 104°F

...and that's nothing! Yesterday it hit "Feels Like" 118. And yeah, that's fahrenheit. Its so hot, even our prickly pear cactus started to produce a flower, and it was killed by mildew. Mildew and mold on so many plants. Lots of the tomato blossoms succumbed to this as well, the pollen clumps and molds and the blossoms rot right off. And let's not forget it is hurricane season.

So I have given up on anything in the yard for now. Our spacemaster cucumber vines did rather well, we got roughly a dozen cucumbers, some really large for a half size compact vine. And I did sprout three pumpkin seeds and put them in the back of the yard and holy bejeezus. These vines are almost the thickness of a quarter in some parts, and they have grown oh a good 10-15 feet out of the little fenced in corner of the yard I put them in. It was a mole ridden little garden area that I figured why not, hoping the vines would even survive. And we already have some little tiny pumpkins on them. Just amazing.

This is our first year learning, officially, so I haven't documented everything just yet to spare myself some embarrassment in the garden blog realm. But hey, up against 110 degree weather we're not doing too bad. Unfortunately, we were not able to start anything in terms of gardening until mid June because we were too busy with house upgrades having just got here at the end of 2006. So I can't wait til the weather cools off!

I have also recently planted more seeds, indoors, in the back of our nice sunny breezeway which gets sunlight nearly all day. Not quite enough to make the basil go crazy, but enough to sprout some baby plants. I did some health kick tomatoes, and some creole tomatoes yesterday. Outside we have several heirloom tomato plants, even about 10 in the ground, and the poor guys are just dying in the heat. It seems like only the vines enjoy the insane heat, and they go crazy.

I hope it rains today!

Walmart Flower Seeds & Mail Order Cactus Seeds

Today was a lovely Monday and I picked up some cheap flower seeds at Walmart. It looked like the seed display was rained on, so lots of the packs of seeds were sort of dried and stuck together. And of course, the cheap seeds being the American Seed brand were the ones mostly stuck together. However I managed to find some packs that were not ruined and will be starting some seeds indoors soon to plant outdoors and in pots later this year. This being our first year gardening in our new home in South Louisiana, I figure I will be testing the waters with what flowers will make it through the cold season and the wet mud as well. Being from Southern California, I am realizing the plants here have to be way more hardy to get through the storms if they are going to survive outdoors on their own.

Here is a webcam shot of the flower seeds:



In total I bought: Zinnia Thumbelina, Zinnia Lilliput, Zinnia Candy Cane Mix, Marigold Petite Orange, Marigold Lemon Drop, Marigold French Double Dwarf Mixed Colors, Cosmos Bright Lights Mix, Lobelia Crystal Palace, Bachelor Buttons Cyanus Double Mixed Colors, Snapdragon Dwarf Magic Carpet, Hummingbord Wildflower Mix, and Cinnamon Basil.

And after we got back from grocery and seed shopping, the mail arrived and the cactus seeds we ordered finally got here! That's right, growing cactus in the swamp. Just keep them out of the rain and they do alright. So far, so good. I'll post some pics of our cactus soon too. Here are the exciting cactus seeds:



Cactus seed packets from top left clockwise: Saguaro Cactus, Barrel Cactus, Golden Barrel Cactus, Dish Garden Mixed Cactus Seeds, and Organ Pipe Cactus Seeds.

More about these interesting plants when they sprout and I get them growing!

Better hurry and get the saguaros in the ground! I wonder how long it takes til you get a bloom?