104° today, welcome to a Redding summer! The mild beginning with its thunderclouds and cool weather has certainly changed to the blistering heat we all know so well.
Watch those potted plants, it doesn’t take long for them to dry out. As root temperatures get to be around 90°, they start to die, so any added stress from lack of water will only make damage worse. I usually do not use straight potting soil for my outdoor pots. I mix my own soil out of 50% loam and 50% potting soil for added water retention and insulating abilities.
My compost experiment is doing well. I have a blanket of compost/mulch from two to four inches deep composed of lawn clippings, garden waste, leaves, barn cleanings and anything else of plant origin.
Underneath the soil is still moist, and that is from the last rain we had! The bottom layer is starting to darken and decompose.
You can see one of the compost beds, with bonus volunteer pumpkin plants, with the other one hidden behind the cauliflower. The walkways are covered with pine shavings that my neighbor brought over from next door. You can see his pile just peeking over the fence in the background. I’ve grown better overall gardens, but what I am growing is doing better than it ever has before, thanks to deep soil preparation and utilizing organic fertilizer and soil from the barn floors that has been drenched in animal droppings.
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I am trying something new this year. Rather than spraying my apples with pesticides to control codling moth, I bought a bag of ‘footies’ just for fruit. These are little nylon socks that fit over the developing fruit to prevent apple maggots and codling moth infestations. They were something of a pain to put on (nearly 300 of them!) but it will be interesting to see how the fruits come out–bug free!
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Another non-pesticide method of insect control I am utilizing this year is Tangle-Trap spray on yellow surfaces. I have been using these yellow Solo plastic cups, but they are impossible to find in town, now. I did order some on the internet, however. Yellow is the color that attracts many insects, and after it has been sprayed and set out in the garden you will see it fill up with bugs, fast. I am also experimenting with yellow paper plates. Above are some of my dry beans with a sticky cup. Below is a close up of a buggy cup tucked under the squash.
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These photos are for someone we know who loves bees! They make tricky subjects but I have so many at least some of the shots come out. First a honey bee on sedum:
This one is on allium:
And this one is a carpenter bee, often mistaken for bumble bees. This lazy bee pierces tubular flowers (shown here on a wild pea) at the neck to extract nectar without having to climb into the flower! I worry about the injury and disease propagation that this sort of circumvention causes.
Bees must have been special, indeed. With no sugar available, honey must have been a prize to have back ‘in the day’.
If you are using the Ro-tape drip system, make sure you go out and drench your rows with a spray head on occasion, especially in this heat. The water will tend to drop down and not move to the sides, and by rewetting your row tops, capillary action will tend to draw the moisture out more than just down!
Yirmeyahu 9:23-24
23 ‘Thus says YHWH, “Let not the wise boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty boast in his might, nor let the rich boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am YHWH, doing kindness, right-ruling, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” declares YHWH.’
Oh, my, look what followed me home! Honest!
The cauliflower seedlings are doing much better after their little styrofoam cup protectors went on, as you can see.
My potatoes are coming up through their thick compost layer. They’ve been frost bit a few times, even just a couple of nights ago, but they’ll be back. I am going to grow them under cloth insect barrier this summer as an experiment.
But, for now, I am trying to get some cauliflower going out in the garden. I put the tiny plants in very early, discouraged at the news of no water, and thinking perhaps they can mature before the hot, dry weather sets in. Then, freezing temperatures and pounding rain took its toll, although they’ve been under row covers and the little plants are stressed and haggard, so today, I took the covers off and put the styrofoam cups around them. 
If you have a screen handy to screen out chunks and lumps to make germination more even, you might want to do so.
If you want to get ahead of your cold spring season, you might want to invest in row covers until the nights are safe from killing frost.
Another handy trick for protecting some of your larger seedlings is by taking small styrofoam cups, cutting out the bottoms and placing them large end down around your plant. Hill up the soil around the outside to hold them fast and the cups will protect your tender seedling from rain, insect and wind damage. Just pull off the cup after the plants have established themselves.
I was disappointed though in that many of this patch ended up as little ‘thumb’ size carrots, perhaps from not thinning enough. It may be the variety, too, because the other main season carrot, Bolero, did not do this. To make sure the carrots have optimum room to put down their 8 to 9″ roots this year, I am going overboard with the soil preparation. You will not need this sort of dedication to soil prep for your other vegetables!
Here is a yard of the Ferti-mulch I spoke about. It is available at Gold Leaf Nursery at 6186 Churn Creek Road, close to Anderson, by Tucker Oaks. Their number is 365-5383, but all you will get is a recording. I paid about $26 for the yard. This is a super soil amendment I recommend, highly. It lasts years in the soil and will break up heavy soil very well! Personally, I don’t think you can add too much organic matter to your soil, load it on! 
