Flooded

The work area where I set up containers got flooded, so I moved everything to the higher ground by my shop building.  So of course the rain quit and it's been dry ever since.  We don't seem to get those afternoon rains as we did in years past, the climate has changed in some way.  The winds always came from the southeast in the warmer months, now they're predominantly westerly.

But I try to adjust to things.  This morning the air reeked of chemicals that stung my nostrils, so I waited for a breeze before going outside to do my morning gardening.  It was hot of course, due to the late start, but I kept on.  I finished ferrying nearly all of a big heap of potting soil to the shop in the wheelbarrow and turned a compost pile.  By then I felt close to collapse, literally...so time to quit for the day. Lately the heat index has been between 100 and 110 during most of the daylight hours.  I got that from the TV weather report, which is all in Fahrenheit.  In Celsius that would be 38 to 43 degrees.

I would much rather go back to my old schedule of starting work around 0600 hours, but that just gives me asthma attacks now with all this pollution.

I've noticed that the boniato aka Cuban sweet potato are outgrowing all the other sweet potatoes.  That reinforces my view that to do well at subtropical gardening you have to grow subtropical varieties. Seems obvious, doesn't it?  Yet nobody seems to follow this path. Instead they grow cold-adapted varieties in a brief window of cool weather between December and March and tell everyone you can't grow vegetables in "the summer" here.

People are so strange, I'll never understand them.  I keep hoping they'll wake up and realize that there is no "summer" or "winter" at this latitude and wearing woolen jackets with ties is just plain dumb when you live in a subtropical climate.  Oh well, you can't fix stupid, can you?

Personally I like the warm-climate veggies better.  They taste better and they're easier on my digestion.  Last night I used my molokhia with a little vegetable amaranth for soup greens.  It made a great soup, much better than a soup made with cabbage or kale...and much more nutritious as well.

The cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) are really going crazy out there. The first picking is about due, and I'm anxious to see how this variety, Ologwe, is going to taste.  They had better be good, I'm going to have a lot of them to eat.

I know, I should take more pictures.  This heat discourages me from doing that.  I'm having trouble keeping up with things around here, the grass is knee deep in spots again.  When the heat index is over forty degrees Celsius, it's actually a little dangerous for me to go out in the sun.  I don't deal with heat well anymore.

As the teachers used to say in school when I was a kid..."Little by little all things are done."

I finally got around to snapping a pic of my peas (Vigna unguiculata).  That bush in the left center background is a Thai eggplant.  The vines haven't started bearing peas yet, I think they're still growing.  It was a lot of work to blend all that soil with compost and rock powder in the wheelbarrow, but obviously the tactic works, so I'll likely be doing more of it.

Lately I've been focusing on my containers.  Some of my favorite warm-season crops like okra and sweet potatoes produce much more reliably in potting soil.  For the past few days, I've been yanking out unproductive plants and dumping the soil on plastic sheets for storage and fallowing.  I also cover with agricultural plastic for moisture conservation.  Plant pests like RKN, root-knot nematodes, go dormant in dry soil.  I want them to stay active with no plant roots to feed on.  This simple tactic seems to be the best nematode control I've used.

I just might give up growing carrots.  They tend to grow slowly and get infested with RKN.  I had one really good crop in the South Garden, nothing really worthwhile since then.  I've tried about a dozen different varieties, but carrots might just be a crop better suited to higher latitudes or higher elevations.  I don't believe in working against the grain, so to speak...not without good reason. Carrots aren't my favorite vegetable anyway, they tend to bother my teeth with all that sugar.  I just use them sparingly in soup now.

Sweet potatoes are a much better root crop under the conditions in my area.  They grow like weeds here.  This year I'm growing three different varieties...Sumor, Liberty, and Porto Rico.  I know how to spell Puerto Rico, that's the name the variety goes by...no "e".  I like Porto Rico, but it's exceptionally sweet, so it bothers my teeth if I eat too much of it.  I'm pinning my hopes on Liberty, which is a variety of boniato, a Cuban sweet potato.  It's been growing like mad, very healthy vines...haven't tried digging out any tubers yet.

My next-door neighbor ripped out everything in his veggie garden and rolled up the fencing.  That's customary here.  I've always grown year-round, however, and had no trouble with crop failures.  In fact I much prefer the warm-season crops like okra and long bean to the cool-season crops like kale and mustard.  My neighbor likes to grow tomatoes and melons mostly...I don't grow either one of those anymore. Tomatoes are toxic to me and melons are too sweet.

It's not easy to garden this time of year, I'll give you that.  This afternoon it's been hanging at 35 degrees Celsius for hours, and it's as muggy as a sauna.  That's 95 in Fahrenheit for those who cling to obsolete ways of doing things.  If I do anything outside in the evening, I wait until the sun nears the horizon. Otherwise I just give myself a headache.  Wouldn't be much point to gardening if I die of heat stroke and can't eat any of it. 

I've been cooking my veggies from the garden in soups mostly.  I do love a good soup made from okra, green onion, molokhia, sweet potato, and long bean picked fresh from the garden.  I use a wide variety of things in my soups so they're never quite the same.  This time of year soups keep me hydrated.  After the first liter or so, water loses its charm...when it's 35 degrees you need a lot of water each day.