Heatwave and gardening

The temperatures here in Sparta are already a few days 36-38 degrees and will go up to 39-40. All this will at least last till Friday. That means for me that I can work till about 10 in the morning outside and after 8 in the evening. So, this morning I started at 7, with the idea of working for 3 hours in the garden. First I started with the Campsis. This is such a lovely climber with beautiful flowers.



But the mess it makes is unbelievable! Every day the path from the   street to the garden is covered with fallen flowers. Now, when I sweep there I have to be very careful, because bees and wasps love the flowers and there are loads of them. It goes bzzz, bzzz, bzz. I like the sound, it gives you a real outside feeling. Twice I've been stung by a wasp. I learned though, that ivy is very good, and as I have it in the garden, I get some leaves, squize them a bit and rub over the swelling. It goes down and the pain subdues rather quickly. There are more campsis lovers, the ants! When I try to get some order in the climber, or pick dead flowers, the ants creep over my arms, try to get into my clothes. You really must love gardening to have a campsis!



Then I turned my attention to the Solanum on the other side of the path, which also needed some pruning. These two climbers grow wild.



Now, on the other side of the house I have a jasmine, honeysuckle and a red climbing rose. The jasmine and rose have been planted by my father-in-law, some 50 years ago. The roots are so strong, that they survive any heat or cold. The honeysuckle is a pain in the neck, because it grows quick and has covered everything. It strangles all new shoots from the other two. I keep postponing to clear this up. I also have no pictures to show you, because it's always a mess. So, today I decided to tackle this job. Excellent idea, 38 degrees! I thought, I just start. But the problem is that when I start I can't stop. So I worked till 1 o'clock lunchtime. I didn't finish, but I can see the change. Happily my husband cooked, so we had our meal and then I had a nice 2-hour siesta. I really needed that, I can tell you.

The petunia's are doing great in this heat.



Time to stop writing and get down again in the garden, to water and do some work in the vegetable garden.

Comments

  1. Het lijkt mij wel heel mooi om zo te wonen en dan met zo'n tuin. Maar zo'n klimaat zal heel andere eisen stellen aan de tuin. Ik denk dat je echt van tuinieren moet houden om het in orde te houden.
    En die jasmijnplant van je schoonvader, dat lijkt me geweldig, 50 jaar.

    Lieve groet,
    Gerry

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  2. Als je een mooie tuin hebt hoort daar onderhoud bij....met die hitte zoals bij jullie valt dat niet altijd mee denk ik....het zal wel erg droog zijn en dan moet je water geven.. Dat was hier niet nodig, het heeft de hele dag geregend. Echt Nederlands weer....Groeten van Willemien en sterkte met de hitte.

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