In Central Oklahoma, that isn't really news worthy. We have hot summers to begin with. The low will only reach 75. At least it isn't like last year where the lows were in the 90s at night. Then the plants, the animals, your cooling system--they never get a break. No down time!
Right now, the sweat is rolling off of me like water. I just spent the morning cleaning out my henhouse. I was going to mow the lawn this morning, but the belt slipped off the clutch and I have to wait til the other half gets home to fix that.
I also tore out some dead tomato plants in my second garden and replaced them with yellow squash.
MMMMMMMM.
What I really wanted was Okra, but for whatever reason, no sprouts appeared. But the pumpkins, melons and squash--as predicted are going crazy.
I have discovered a new trick--perhaps it's not new to some of you, but I have yet to see this practiced in other gardens.
I have raised beds in cinderblocks, so each block has 2 holes. I threw sunflowers in them. The sunflowers grow slow in the spring so that the plants in the main beds flourish and grow to their full height.
This red sunflower, I planted in a tall tomato cage in the center, and then planted scarlet runner beans and baby Boo pumpkins to use the cage as a trellis.
By the time the heat of the summer is here, the sunflowers are 4 to 6 ft tall, offering dappled shade during the hottest dog days, allowing my plants to not be burnt to a crisp.
I also like to put my tomatoes under a sprawling Oak. The branches are high enough that the shade doesn't kick in until 12 to 3 pm. Which is the hottest part of the day. And even then it's only dappled shade. The sunflowers and the oak also offer a wind break to the plants when they are smaller. I have even used the sunflower stalks to support tarps when we expected hail.
And as long as you don't break the stalks off, they pop right back up after you remove the tarp.
Right now though I need to get in there with a weed-eater and a lawn mower. The other weeds are just too high all around everything and I want to get at my tomatoes, but they are tangled in a mess of wildflowers and black widow webs, which are then patrolled by various large wasps. YIKES!
Here is a lovely picture of a very large Spider Wasp that patrols the area. This is one of at least 2 of them that occupy my chicken pen/garden area.
This one I believe is in the Pompilidae family. I thought perhaps it was a Tarantula Hawk at first, because it is quite large, even for a wasp. But the Tarantula Hawk has orange wings.
In the photo above, this wasp, decided it needs to keep an eye on me as I worked in the garden and the chicken pen. So it made sure to fly about 2 to 3 feet ahead and perch on various items and then stare at me in a manner that was most disconcerting. Today, while cleaning the henhouse this wasp decided to fly around my ankles several times while I was hefting a bale of straw. I was wearing cutoffs and flip flops [not funny at all!]
But I am a bee Keeper--I am supposed to be immune to those scare tactics you say!
HA!
Not likely!
Wasp stings hurt way worse in my opinion and because they don't have a barbed stinger, they can and will nail you many times over! Most of the time they sort of ignore us, but I suspect that like bees, these are patrolling for mates. Which would explain why they are so pushy about certain areas of the yard. I know that most male bees cannot sting. I have no idea if the same rule is true for male wasps!
Basically when bees exhibit this behavior, the males will stake out an area and perch on various flowers or leaves and wait for females to visit. But during the course of that wait, the male bee will often chase off any other organism he perceives to be an intruder. Which is basically anything larger than a pill-bug, humans included.
In addition to this lovely black wasp, there are also a variety of yellow jackets, mahogany wasps, typhid wasps and hornets. Tis the season!
Other interesting critters in the garden, Robber Flies!
These things are huge! They hunt and consume bees, in much the same way that dragon flies capture and consume mosquitoes.Some even have markings that mimic bumble bees! I have seen them, but the damn things are so cagey, that I haven't yet been able to photograph one.
I figure if I have those in the yard, then the bug-ecosystem must be pretty robust to support predators like robber flies. They eat more than bees. The photo linked to at What'sThatBug shows a robber fly eating a Japanese Beetle. A google image search will show them eating bees and dragonflies too, and spiders.
Well I am off to fill up the water jugs for the animals outside and turn on the misters for the chickens
It's going to be very hot today, and it appears more of the same, for the rest of the week.
If you plan on being outside in the heat, cover up, or use sunscreen! You don't want a bad burn. Hats are your friend!
Drink fluids before you go outside and take some with you.
Take plenty of breaks and make sure your animal friends have adequate water sources, and a place to get out of the sun and cool off too.
Check on elderly or disabled neighbors and make sure they have a cool place to hang out etc.,