It’s just so hot here right now. Working out in the yard becomes more of an ordeal than anything fun. It’s been so hot it’s hard to focus on art. I did some of the tidy-up yard chores today, the ones I do before the rain starts….and optimistically, our summer rainy season should be here in a week or two.
First, trim the out of control mesquite behind my cistern. I put a plywood board and a tarp over the top, so no branches would fall inside.
My mom loaned me this cool tool, it’s a telescoping saw/clipper you can use to trim tree branches high up:
I checked my tomatoes, usually something I do twice a day since I’ve put netting up, just in case a lizard gets stuck. To my surprise, the top branches of my tomato plant was stripped! I was surprised, and looked a bit closer and found….
Yuck. Tomato hornworms. So I guess I have finally had success at growing tomatoes if the worms are here. I’d totally forgotten about this threat. I’m sorry to say the worms are no longer with us. I have a natural insect spray with pyrethrin so I’ll try that tomorrow.
Even with the heat, I have some color in the yard, thanks to lots of cedar and rock mulch and a slightly higher water bill; here there’s creeping verbena, Greg’s mist flower, a native grass of the Catalina Mountains, some hollyhocks (though dwarf versions, it’s so hot), a yellowbells that’s not’s blooming yet.
It’s optimistic to see even a tiny bit of green this time of year!
one never sees little worms…they always just seem to be there and big!
They were big and fat. I sprayed my plants w/Neem oil, that seems to have worked.
Rain in a few days yay!!!!
You seem like you are happy to see the rainy season come.
How nice to hear from you. Yes, I am happy, though I haven’t gotten the rain I’d like here at my house; other parts of Tucson have received more rainfall. It also gets humid when the rain comes…..in fact, the trend here seems to be more summer time humidity and less rain.