Melting

Seriously, it's hot. Very hot. I know I can't regulate my body temperature well (Badge thinks I'm like a lizard), but this is bona fide HOT. To prove it, I looked up the weather today...101!! Um, we don't live that far from the coast. If it's 101 here, I can only imagine it being ten degrees hotter inland. Those poor souls.

As a consequence of the heat, many of my plants are showing signs of stress. Curled leaves here, crispy leaves there. In particular, all my mini calla lilies are contracting soft rot, weakened by the extreme heat I'm sure. Sigh. There's only so much you can do. I'm not sure when this heat wave will end since it's been over 90 degrees everyday this week, but Badge and I have come to one undeniable conclusion. We'd like to have a drought resistant garden. No we're not going to convert everything at once (we're not insane). Instead, as plants like the mini calla lily succumb and leave us for plant heaven, we will replace them with succulents and other low water usage plants.

To start, Badge and I went to Home Depot today where we picked up a bed of succulent covers and a bigger succulent plant. Tomorrow, I'll unearth one of the mini calla lilies (maybe the rhizome can be salvaged) and plant the new comers. Additionally, I picked up natural insecticide soap, made of soybean oil, and sprayed down the citrus trees. Hopefully that'll teach the aphids and ants to keep off. We also picked up a kit to convert a sprinkler head to drip irrigation. If it works out well, we'll replace all the heads since drip irrigation is more efficient and wastes less water.


In addition to all this, I made a discovery last night: I'm an idiot. So I was all excited last week that the zucchini plants were producing small green zucchinis. But this week, the zucchinis started turning yellow from the blossom end and then shriveling up and falling off. I thought it was the mold (which seems to be under control now) but after some research I realized that my zucchinis probably weren't pollinated. Maybe that's because I plucked the female flowers off once I saw the veggies (thinking they were already pollinated). DOH! So this morning I ran outside and found two zucchinis still with a female flower attached. I cut a couple male flowers and pollinated them like my life depended on it. Now, all I can do is sit back and cross my fingers.


On the final subject of melting, I went to see Wicked last Wed with Kimbo at the Civic Theatre downtown (she had tickets through work). So good! Granted we missed the first 15 minutes because we were running late and couldn't find parking, but once we got settled it, I was engaged the whole time. Amazing performers, great story. I had read the book a while ago which was also good but a tad long at times. It was nice to see it condensed and sung with catchy melodies.