Tropical Days Are Here Again

Haven't been doing a lot in the garden lately, just stirring the compost with the fork, watering the plants as needed.  The air quality has been really poor, this is the time of year when landowners burn off dry vegetation to keep their land free of brush.

I have managed to mix some soil for the planting bed I'm preparing. It's been too hot to work in the afternoon, 33 degrees Celsius today again.  Mornings are my best time to work in the garden at this time of year, but with all the smoke around that hasn't been possible.  I start to get really bad headaches and chest pain if I try to work outside when the air quality is poor.  Today the smoke was heavy enough to reduce visibility somewhat.  When you can see air pollution, it's bad.

It's hot in the house, I have no air conditioning.  I tried opening the windows, but I could smell the smoke, so I had to give up on that. At least I got some housecleaning done, and started some seeds in vermiculite...molokhia, two kinds of eggplant, roselle, Burmese okra, and so on...all heat-loving crops.

This time of year I switch from cool-season crops like kale and pac choy to tropicals like okra, sweet potatoes, molokhia, and Malabar spinach.  The kale still looks and tastes good, but the hot sun makes it hard for me to digest.  I had some really bad indigestion last night from the kale and radish greens I put in my soup.  This tropical heat just puts too much stress on non-tropical plants.  I might have to rip the kale out if this heat continues.  I can always plant that section with long beans, they grow even better in the heat than they do in the cool season.  And they're definitely easier on my digestion.

We're supposed to have a chance at some rain later in the week, maybe that will stir up the air and clear the smoke.  Thunderstorms produce vertical mixing and dilute the pollutants that lay near the surface of the earth with cleaner air from higher up in the atmosphere.  The sea breeze in the afternoon clears the air, but I can't do anything strenuous when it's boiling hot outside.

As usual, we'll just have to see how things go.