Good Grief it's Hot

Kevin stepped on a bee and got stung while taking photos,
so there is only one picture :) It's too hot to go out and get more. 

Heat index is over 100 today, it is damn hot.  Brought home a bunch of plants (ferns, hostas, daylilles, iris, and a few others) from Michigan.  Need Little Bobo to verify what they are so I can get them labeled.  I planted them in the shade garden today, hopefully they grow quickly and block out the stilt grass and poison ivy.  Stuck the day lillies in the vegetable garden for now until I get the area by the steps prepared for them.  Also clipped some blackberry stalks and stuck them in a pot of dirt.  We need more berries to compete with the birds.

Going to try to can some dill pickles tomorrow.  Tomatillos are crazy full, I think I will try this Roasted Salsa Verde and see how it goes.  Rick is cleaning and freezing 6 pounds of green beans right now.  That's to go with the other 6+ in the freezer already.  We are going to need a another freezer (because 2 aren't enough) and some more shelves.

Plant Delights Aspidistra elatior 'Okame'

Okame Striped Cast Iron Plant

A few things for next year:

Ornamental grasses are happy, consider adding more extra large ones next year.

Cast Iron Plant would be a good addition to the shade garden.

Blueberries, consider not netting next year and pick off flower to encourage growth.

Use tomato cages on all peppers and tomato plants, they are just too big and being tied to stakes is not enough.

Carrots, do several rows of carrots through out the spring so we can harvest and freeze.

Climbing Beans, if we decide to do again these we are going to need a strong structure.  In a trellised row they broke all the metal support poles.  They had huge leaves and a lot of flowers but not a lot of production.  May want to skip.

Black fabric is torn apart.  Definitely need thicker weed block, but it is working and plants seem happy.

Remove blackberries at edge of garden and replace with herb garden.  Move all blackberries and raspberries to the area behind the elderberries.

Make sure to start artichokes earlier.

Plant onions at the end of the summer for next year.  The leftovers from last year are still tender and tasty.