Hot! hot! hot!

Here in my neck of the woods, we have had only one soaking rain since the tornadoes plowed through in late April. We can't even say we've had sprinkles more than a handful of times and to top it off, our temps have hovered in the mid to upper 90's for about 2 weeks. The heat is stifling after about 11 am and working in the garden becomes an exercise in timing when exactly you would like to have your heat stroke. I am consistently watering using the "city water" as we call it here, which I don't like to do for any number of environmental and financial reasons, but also just because the plants don't like it as well as rain water. I think the has been scrubbed and augmented w/ fluoride, chlorine and other chemicals to within an inch of being able to to consume it and the the plants just don't like it. There are some bright spots, the heat lovers are having a hay day. Tomatoes and peppers are flourishing, squashes are doing well but temporarily wilt in the afternoon heat, and the Mediterranean herbs are in heaven. I have several projects I want to finish, but there's only so much I can do in a weekend and by the time I get home from my work in the afternoon, I could bake bread on the sidewalk. Oh well, such is the life of a gardener, maybe this high will eventually let go and move somewhere they would really like to see it. I also made chow chow this weekend. For the uninitiated, chow chow is a ubiquitous southern relish that can have a variety of ingredients, but focuses around cabbage, peppers and onions. I'll try to post a recipe and pics later in the week. Also cherries are in my local supermarket and they are not something we see a lot of around here, so I bought about 3 lbs and made Cherry Almond Preserves. I'll also post on this one. I'm working on finishing my planning for starting my seeds for the fall beds and will post when all decisions have been made, but some of the fall cabbages will have to be started very soon. I'll start harvesting blackberries within the week and the list just keeps growing, so I'll stop this post before I think of something else I need to do. Happy gardening!