Good morning, and Happy September! Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Last week I expressed hope that the summer heat was abating here in Denver.
I spoke too soon.
After a week with highs staying in the 80s, last Sunday the highs went back into the upper zone of the 90s.
Because of persistent cloud cover at night, the overnight lows stayed in the 60s.
Overall, we ended August with the average daily temperatures 10° higher than usual.
Oh, and no rain. It's so dry here even the purslane is wilting in the unwatered areas of the garden.
At least I've kept the beds with the gladiolas moist enough to get some late-season blooms. That's one of the nice things about glads — if you spread out planting them over several weeks in late spring and early summer, you'll be rewarded with weeks of blooms later in the season.
If I could get pictures that showed the actuality, I'd be featuring the wonder of the Texas Tomato Cages I bought this year.
But I can't get decent pictures, because my yard is too small, and the tomato plants too tall and lush.
I bought the large size, because I grow large size tomato vines. Tomatoes love the sandy-loam soil in my yard. In previous years the tomato cages I used were unable to sustain the height and weight of my massive vines — I'd have at least one toppled plant, and escaped stems sprawling everywhere.
This year — I'm guessing the vines are about 9 feet tall and filling the cages, which are bearing up readily.
My one beef with the Texas Tomato Cages is that you have to order them in lots of 6; and I only have room for 3 tomato plants. But, since I had extra cages, I decided to see if they'd help with containing the massiveness that is a zucchetta vine.
Yup. They do the job for that, too. The zucchetta has been funneled up and over the fence, and I've been able to tuck the few vines that tried to escape back into the tomato cage.
The other two cages are being used with the green nutmeg melon vines — and are doing that job very well, too.
So the Texas Tomato Cages are a winner. Yes, yes, I know, I could build my own tomato cages more inexpensively with materials from a hardware store — but beyond the hassle, I fear that anything that would be flexible enough for me to work with wouldn't be strong enough to hold up my plants — plus, did I mention that my tomato vines are nine fucking feet tall?
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens?