too hot to do much work

I went out of town for a week, which as a bit concerning, as that left mom in charge of all the watering. I got some brass quick connects that actually worked, which made the whole connecting the hose to different things much easier. I was very pleased to come home and find everything thriving.

My coleus definately needed to be cut back again, but I am currently not having as much luck getting things to root. I've got a bunch of coleus cuttings and hopefully they start rooting soon. I also cut back a ton of basil and made pesto. I've been eating pesto pizza and even having bruschetta made with my pesto and slices of Tom Tomato. I harvested 4 toms this morning. He still have some yellow, but also has a bunch of tomatoes that are still ripening, so I guess things are okay. I am hoping that next week with a bunch of rain again I will see some more blooms. I have also seen my first blooms on the roma, so maybe I am on my way to sauce and salsa. In other salsa news, one of my cayenne peppers looks like it is finally starting to turn red. The jalepenos continue to get bigger, I don't quite know when they will be ripe. My cilantro also put up some funny looking leaves. Don't know if it is trying to bloom, being influenced by the dill that is nearby or what, so I pinched them off. Then my hands smelled like cilantro for quite a while.

Today is the first day since I've been home that it has not rained, so I haven't had much watering to do. The forcast is for no rain tomorrow, then a weeks worth of rain. I decided to try to seed in another area of grass, just past where I have been watering. Figure I would water it today and tomorrow, then let the rain work on it for a week. The area I have been working on is starting to fill in nicely. I do think the pine straw helps.


I did some weeding off and on today. It was very hot and I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitos. I was able to get some really nice flower pictures, which I couldn't resist posting!


Here are before and after shots of the area along the side of the house I call "the tunnel". It is still a work in progress (I would like to replace the fencing, maybe add a gate and grow my Carolina Jessamine on it), but it is a big improvement.

Before

After