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Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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Consistently wrong since 2002

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Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Fighting Back

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Fighting Back

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From commentor LaPassionara:

The Sunday morning garden posts have been a welcomed diversion from the horrible news and unrelenting heat here in the St. Louis area, 108 today, per our thermostat. I am sending these in case you don’t get others. I always prefer to look at gardens other than my own.

Someone last Sunday remarked that his/her yard was a jungle. Well, this shows my jungly shrubbery beds, which I am in the long slow process of reclaiming. The beds were supposed to be winter creeper euonymus, but there is also honeysuckle (both vine and shrub), wild grape vine, blackberry, some poison ivy, nutsedge, violet, crab grass, Johnson grass, and morning glory vining weed, just to name the ones I know. Each requires a method of control, mainly digging a shovel-full at a time.

If the weeds involved have no woody stems, I have been known to simply lay down opened corrugated cardboard boxes on top, weigh the edges down with bricks or stones, and add mulch. The first photo at the top of the post shows one bed treated this way, which became the happy home of some hydrangeas several months later. I did sprinkle a pre-emergent on top of the mulch, to keep away the expected crab grass, etc. and every few days I have to pull out the beginning of a morning glory weed vine, as there is no barrier I have found that will prevent them from popping up from time to time.

The third and fourth photos show the better parts of my yard, where the reclaimed beds get put to use. The half barrel planter was in the front yard. I was finally able to get it turned on its side and rolled into the backyard, where it is serving as the focal point of what I hope to be a nice little pot cemetery some day. I am hoping my oak leaf hydrangeas and Virginia Sweetspire survive this heat.

***********

It hasn’t, praise all the gods, been quite as hot here in New England… but it’s been so humid I’ve done an even worse upkeep job than usual on my poor garden. On the other hand, we’ve just harvested the first few ripe cherry tomatoes, and most of the plants have lovely green fruit swelling, so that’s something to Keep Hope Alive for me!
.

What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    It’s brutal here in Georgia, it’s supposed to rain some this week so here’s hoping. Ac has been down since Friday and the emergency weekend visit by a tech yesterday did nothing. I’ll call again today but I’m not paying anything on top of the $175 it cost yesterday.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The heat has been relentless. Been in the 100s all week. Thunderstorms moving thru right now, mostly dry with lots of wind. Sat outside and watched them for about an hour. Nothing quite like a t-storm at night. Gonna reach only 95 today, 91 tomorrow, then right back into the upper 90s until the wkend.

    Everything is as dry as a bone around here. We haven’t had a decent rain since before I went up to MN at the beginning of June. The clay on my place is like concrete so any rain that does fall just runs off. The corn around here is all stunted, stands about 4′. Farmers are gonna get creamed this year, thank the imperious, freedom stealing, jackbooted thug of a US govt for crop insurance.

    So 90% of my gardening for the past week has consisted of watering. I am however harvesting a wee bit here and there: green and wax beans (gonna be canning today), zucchini (Romanesco) and a scallop (Patisson Panache Blanc Et Vert) and we are enjoying both very much, the Kamo Kamo (out of New Zealand) have not been producing (I see one down in there) so that is a disappointment. I can see a few pumpkins, sweet dumplings, and Delicatas down in the foliage so I haven’t wasted that garden space. We’ll see what the squash bugs allow me to have. My hot peppers (none of them death defying hot) are all setting fruit but so far all I’ve picked is a few jalapenos. My lone surviving sweet pepper is a Topepo but I can not say if it is the yellow or red yet. Either way it is at least a new one for me to try. And of course, the tomatoes. The Costoluto Genovese have been by far the best producing, with the Black Vernisage a close 2nd, both new varieties for me that I will be growing again. All the others are way down from what I usually get. I blame the new fertilizer regimen I used this spring. I also blame it for the horn worms which are just insane this year attacking my weaker than normal plants. Won’t use that again. Somehow or other I have managed to keep all my zinnias, cosmos, nasturtiums, etc alive so I still have some color about the place, or at least where the rabbits haven’t gotten to them.

    That’s about it for my garden.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Sucks to be you. I had to buy a new window unit for our place as the old one shot craps. I really need to figure out a way to get more insulation in our lids. This Chinese hoax is getting out of hand.

  4. 4.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: The girl has been watering so most of the flowers are ok. One of the fig trees fell in the 4th microburst but it seems to be alive so she wants to wait until the fruit ripens to cut it up.

  5. 5.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well, the central unit is probably 20 years old. It’s one thing we debated during the addition work but didn’t do because of the added cost and that our contractor felt it was still ok. I’m tempted to buy a window unit for the bedroom but she’d have a fit. The windows are so high up that I wouldn’t be able to brace it from the outside without taking my life in my hands.

    It will work for a while and then it overheats and shut down so I’m trying to keep the place as cool as possible.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I would love to put in a couple fig trees. Just not sure how well they would handle our winters.

  8. 8.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: They really flourish here, seems to me they take up way too much room but guess who doesn’t care what I think. The person who insists on having wisteria growing on the porch and who planted a fucking magnolia right next to the house that is now 30 feet high. . .that’s who.

  10. 10.

    raven

    @Baud: Yea, I’ve about had it. My stance has been that it’s going to have to be replaced sooner or later so it may as well be sooner.

  13. 13.

    Gindy51

    Our new geothermal unit is purring like a kitten being powered by our new solar panels. I can finally keep the house at a decent temperature without a $300 power bill.
    Morning glory vine is roundup resistant in my area, thanks farmers!!! I have it in my garden and nothing gets rid of it so I let it grow and get gorgeous blue, pink, purple and white blossoms daily.The bees come and help fertilize my other stuff so we have reached an amicable relationship.

  15. 15.

    satby

    Good morning everyone! LaPassionara, I feel you: my battle with overgrowth here includes English ivy, wild grape vines, and what looks very much like poison ivy on the overgrown fence facing the alley. I made a good start on reclaiming the raised beds in the spring, but the relentless humidity and mosquitoes made me slack off, so now I have to hunt for my plants through the weeds. Next year I put Preen on the beds ASAP. We’ve had rain off and on, but light sprinkles that don’t do much other than keep the humidity unbearable. My tomatoes growing in the boxes where I am smothering weeds are doing insanely well, setting fruit at last. I’m planting another set of blue potatoes today, only because I had a bunch sprout before I could cook them. The others have all flowered but still are lush.
    My shrubs are doing fine, so all I need is enough of a break in the heat and humidity on a day when I have some time to catch up on weeding!

  16. 16.

    Lapassionara

    @OzarkHillbilly: if you find out, let me know. I would like to plant a fig tree, which I remember being more of a bush and a nice climbing tree for the young children.

  18. 18.

    Jeff

    The pumpkin vines are starting to die. I can see 4 pumpkins. The pumpkins are suppose to be around 5 to 7 pounds. They look right about that size. I suppose they should be starting to die back now.

    My neighbor gave me two watermelon vines. I see one small watermelon just forming.

    We had half an inch of rain last night bring some relief to the heatwave in Philadelphia that lasted this past week.

    Today I will cut basil to make pesto over pasta tonight.

  19. 19.

    Mustang Bobby

    It’s been comparatively normal here in South Florida weather-wise; highs in the 90’s, humidity in the 70% range, rain in the afternoon with localized flooding. My AC unit died on the 4th of July, a Tuesday, and by Friday the landlord had brought in a complete new unit inside and out. The old one was 13 years old and never kept the house cool enough; at the height of summer getting down to 80 inside was not possible. Installation of ceiling fans last year helped. Now with the new unit it’s like normal; holding at 78. The old thermostat was programmable; the new one is not, but I have a post-it note by the door to remind me to set it at 82 when I go to work. The new unit also sucks the humidity out of the house much better; I got a carpet shock last night. I hope the new unit will knock a few bucks off the Florida Power & Light bill. And I’m glad I have a very good landlord.

    As for the garden, my chili pepper vanda orchid is in bloom.

  21. 21.

    oldgold

    It is so hot and dry here that yesterday I saw a fire hydrant chasing down a dog.

  23. 23.

    Barbara

    @raven: A few years ago it took several visits for a repair service to diagnose my aging AC unit, and we had to get it tweaked again this year. I can’t remember what it was but it seemed like random parts that failed. Hope you get it fixed soon.

  24. 24.

    bemused

    My sympathies to gardeners dealing with extended dry weather. Watering constantly to keep your plants going is a bitch. We’ve had the opposite issue in NE MN. Spring weather lasted into mid-July, lots of rain and cold, days and days of 50 and 60 deg temps. Very disappointing when our summers are so damn short as it is. Tomato plants not doing well at all. I’m seeing a lot of slugs.

    oth, my hostas and shade plants are going crazy. I’ve never seen them so huge and lush. There’s a big mound of lamium in our large dog kennel that I need to move and I’m finding lamium starts popping up all over the back lawn.

  25. 25.

    satby

    Just checked the weather: high today will be 83 with a heat index making it feel 10 degrees hotter. Mosquito activity is rated “extreme”. But then we’re supposed to get a break in the rain and humidity for a couple of days. By then my grass should be about a foot high!

  26. 26.

    Barbara

    @Gindy51: I would love to hear more about this. We have the chance to do this when the AC unit dies but it really seems like you need a fair amount of space and it costs a lot.

  28. 28.

    Raven

    @Barbara: Yea, I kept thinking (and said it) that it might be a problem with the coils inside the air handler. He didn’t much seem to lean in that direction so we’ll see what happens when they get the message this morning.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Barbara: Geothermal can be spread out or down. Obviously, drilling down is more expensive but it can still be cost efficient.

  39. 39.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Pretty much, you’re limited on the exposure time on the sky due to the earth’s rotation(you end up getting star trails if you expose it too long) and you need a really long exposure to capture the ground.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Nice.

    The best night shot I ever took was of 4 friends sitting around a camp fire beneath a full moon. I took multiple shots of varying times. The best one showed 4 disembodied faces floating around the fire, with the full moon up behind them. The moon of course was a more realistic (than most moon shots one sees) small in size but the overall effect was rather surreal.

  44. 44.

    Jeffro

    I’m just glad we had some thunderstorms come through last night (finally!) to cool things down a bit. I’m gonna go get some kayaking time in, be back in time for lunch and a nap out of the REAL heat…

  46. 46.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve seen fig trees thriving in Brooklyn, NY, full of fruit in the middle of a concrete patio. It looks like people in these buildings take up some of the concrete to make room for trees.

    I don’t know what kind of TLC it takes to make a fig tree survive a New York winter and what is likely unfavorable soil chemistry, but it can be done.

  47. 47.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Jeff:

    heatwave in Philadelphia

    Howdy, neighbor, from Delaware County! Don’t see too many commenters from our fair city for some reason.

  48. 48.

    woodrowfan

    my installation of a raised garden in the side year it stalled due to the heat (and now storms) in the DC area…

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Thanx. The web page I looked at said “Protect from winter winds…” My place faces north/NW and when a winter storm comes thru it can be pretty brutal (this last winter… well, we didn’t have a winter) I may give it a try anyway.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    In San Antonio I grew Mission figs. My cats loved the deep shade the tree made — it was their favorite place to hang out during the summer days. Up here in Boston, I have an Italian friend who has two pretty good sized fig plants in big pots. In the winter, when they go dormant, he gets them onto big wheeled platforms and puts them in the garage for the winter. They do fine.

  51. 51.

    Eric U.

    a deer ate the top of a couple of our tomato plants. They come for the apples, decided to wipe out the tomatoes. Plants are coming back strong, don’t hold out much hope for them though. We had a lot of rain yesterday and it looks like we are going to get more today. It has been really hot here. Thinking about getting mini splits so we don’t have to rely on the attic fan for cooling. We have a neighbor that burns wood a lot, someone told me it’s probably for hot water, but considering a lot of houses around here dont’ have air conditioning, it takes a borderline sociopath to burn wood on a warm night.

  53. 53.

    Immanentize

    Also, the heat and humidity broke last night. It is going to be mid seventies today instead of mid nineties. I weeded a row of peppers yesterday and ended up drenched in sweat. Today, I hope to get another row or two without wilting myself. Also, taking my son to see Dunkirk — he is a tech geek but.also loves history.

  54. 54.

    tobie

    @Mustang Bobby: You know things are weird weather-wise when it’s hotter in the northeast and mid-Atlantic than it is in Florida. I hope the heat breaks today for those between New York and Atlanta. It’s no fun to be stuck indoors and even less fun to bake without AC indoors.

  56. 56.

    Immanentize

    @Eric U.: I stayed in a lake house in Maine on summer that had a wood burning stove in the lower floor (lake level) room. That stove was used all summer to take the humidity out of the house. Getting the humidity out is usually what your air conditioner is doing for a good hour before it can start cooling. So, not so crazy.

  57. 57.

    satby

    @Immanentize: I spent the entire 9 hours of the market covered in a sheen of sweat and so did everything and everyone else. Even the glycerin that’s in the soap was causing it to sweat (though that’s taking moisture out of the air, not sweating it out of the soap).
    By the time I left I could barely move.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Eric U.: I too am thinking about mini-splits. A buddy of mine who worked in energy efficiency swears by them and put them into his 1860s farm house. My neighbor just got them and they are loving it.

  61. 61.

    Immanentize

    @satby: in an abandoned small pile of mulch, I found a volunteer black walnut seedling this week. My neighbor has a huge black walnut tree that sends walnuts everywhere including frequently on to my head.

    But that could be the squirrels….

    Anyway, those walnut husks have a toxin in them that keeps walnut trees from growing under the parent walnut tree so it doesn’t have to fight for resources. Nature is amazing! Anyhoo, it is very rare to find a seedling. I potted it and here’s hoping!

  62. 62.

    Spanky

    @raven: Get the damned window unit and install it somewhere it can be done safely. You might have to move sleeping quarters for a few days (weeks?), but it beats no A/C.

    The whole house unit will not get any better, if it progresses as these things do.

  63. 63.

    Schlemazel

    @Karen:
    DO you remember the variety? I love fig but always assumed they couldn’t survive on the tundra

  64. 64.

    O. Felix Culpa

    We’re supposed to be in monsoon season and have had one or two good rains, but not nearly enough. I have to water pretty much every morning. We do rainwater harvesting, so I take some out of the cistern. (The drip irrigation pump was stolen during the years the house was empty and it costs about $1000 to replace, so I lower a submersible pump into the cistern with a hose attached. Low pressure but it gets the water out.)

    My Santa Fe peppers are thriving, along with beets and chard. I’ve decided I’ll do more beets going forward since they’re a nice twofer: great leafy greens and the lovely globes for roasting. One tomato plant is lush and leafy green, but no evidence of fruit yet. Another has produced a paltry few cherry tomatoes thus far. Others seem to be fading away as their leaves progressively turn crispy brown.

    I’m growing potatoes in a grow bag for the first time ever – first time potatoes and first time grow bag. How do I know when them taters are ready to harvest?

  65. 65.

    Schlemazel

    @Immanentize:
    We had a black walnut tree at a previous house & that toxin kills more than just other walnut trees. Had a tough time getting anything to grow well near it. We got fairly adept at hulling the damn things. That is a treat of an activity. But we rarely got a lot of them because the squirrels were crazy for them & if we waited too long would literally strip the tree of every nut. Where they hid them all was a mystery.

  67. 67.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby: Good morning! I’m thinking about a trip to Chicago in October. Will let you know. I don’t think I can go back in the summer now. Would have to take humidity endurance training. Hope you stay cool!

  68. 68.

    zhena gogolia

    Yesterday when I went to YouTube, one of the recommended videos was of Tunch! I found it was still too soon for me to be able to watch it, too painful.

  69. 69.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I too am thinking about mini-splits.

    Friends of mine installed mini-splits in their place and love them, FWIW. I’m trying to avoid air conditioning in my place, but if the Chinese hoax continues, I might opt for the splits.

  72. 72.

    Spanky

    @OzarkHillbilly: Seriously considering mini-splits for the historic part of Chez DeferredMaintenance. The last owners exposed the hewn beams, leaving no room for duct work. I’m a little leary of sticking those big wall units in the fairly small rooms though. If they can get them slimmed down I’d be happier.

  76. 76.

    Spanky

    @Immanentize:

    Anyhoo, it is very rare to find a seedling. I potted it and here’s hoping!

    Clearly you’ve never seen my yard. I’ve got a line of walnut saplings behind the garage. Mama Walnut drops the nuts on the garage roof, where they roll down the roof and shoot off into the yard. The all seem to end up the same distance from the garage.

  77. 77.

    stibbert

    Good morning rikyrah et al. Recently ‘finished’ a full-boat weeding regimen here, so the thistles, dandelions & vines are pert’ well scaled back. I set a goal of 202 weeds per day, and often remembered to sunscreen my face & neck beforehand. Anyhow, my weed-count is up to 2,222!

  78. 78.

    satby

    @Immanentize: good luck! I discovered that what I thought was a weed tree in my neighbors yard is also a walnut, probably a black walnut. I have to investigate how hard it will be to get usable nuts out of the shells.

  79. 79.

    debbie

    @raven:

    If you don’t have any already, if it takes a while to be fixed or replaced, Honeywell makes great floor fans that really get air moving. You can get them from Amazon pretty quickly.

  82. 82.

    Spanky

    @raven: Debbie reminded me that you can also get a portable air conditioner for the bedroom, so all that needs to go out the window is the hose.

    We have a couple of them here. I find them not efficient as a window unit, but do quite well enough in a well-insulated space, which we are sorely lacking here.

  84. 84.

    StringOnAStick

    This is sort of garden related. We had a fire in the open space behind our house Monday night, caused by a homeless guy who had found the one flat place that wasn’t visible from our side of the small valley since it is fairly steep and downhill from us, but low enough on the slope that the trees along the small creek hid it from the houses on the other side. Fortunately the winds had stopped before his cooking fire spread and a neighbor out stargazing had seen it start to run up the juniper trees that protected the campsite; wind would have blown it right into our house and deck. Many thanks to the rapid firefighter response and neighbors who warned everyone since it was after 11 pm. It looks like the firebug was arrested.

    One if the things we love about this small town on the edge f Denver is all the surrounding wild lands but it is turning into a draw for urban campers so break ins and fire issues are way up and there is a county fire ban due to how dry it is. The good news is the fire ruined the only well hidden camping spot along the fire prone strip of open space behind us. Gotta look on the bright side!

  85. 85.

    Schlemazel

    @satby:
    It takes time & stains everything black. If the nuts were not so tasty nobody would ever do it. We found that storing them for a year made the operation much easier

  86. 86.

    Miss Bianca

    Good morning all – Central Mountains have seen some heat,and since we’ve had some rain we’ve also seen some actual humidity, but nothing like all y’all have been suffering. Extent of my gardening this year has been harvesting berries and wild rose petals for mead-making. Better next year…maybe!

  88. 88.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    In our humidity, and at our advancing age, AC is not a luxury.

    Oh, I know!!! I had AC when I lived in Chicago and can’t imagine surviving Misery without it. The absence of humidity out here in the Southwest makes AC less urgent – for now. Between my inexorably advancing age and the rising heat, I may have to surrender.

  89. 89.

    debbie

    @Lapassionara:

    The hydrangeas have really flourished this year. They may be beautiful, but in this weather, they have turned out to be the toughest SOBs in the flower world.

  93. 93.

    bemused

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    We got a new vehicle last year, first one with dual heated seats. After the first frigid day we used it, we instantly knew we’d never have a vehicle without heated seats again, not in Minnesota winters or fall and spring either.

  94. 94.

    debbie

    Dammit, not even these weather people know what’s going on. There was a small chance of a morning shower this morning and now there’s yet another friggin’ monsoon. I can’t imagine what the severe thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon will bring. Enough already.

  96. 96.

    Schlemazel

    @bemused:
    Our recent purchase has heated seats and they are a gift! Rented a car with air conditioned seats but did not like those as much, instead of the back the cold air came up through the seat os it was not optimal.

  98. 98.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly: We tried leaving them out and by morning there were none. Somewhere near there was a fort knox of nuts. We picked three 10 gallon buckets on our best year but many years the squirrels got them all which I am sure would have been 5 times that many. I have no idea where they hid them all

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Schlemazel:

    We tried leaving them out and by morning there were none.

    Hence the roof. The greedy little bstrds couldn’t get to them up there.

    I have no idea where they hid them all

    Sometimes they will stash them in a hollow tree or such, but usually they bury them. Most nut trees get their best starts when buried, so they give lots of nutrition to squirrels, chipmunks, mice, etc and in return the little buggers can’t possibly remember where they buried them all.

  103. 103.

    stibbert

    @satby: Hi satby, fortunately I don’t have bug-bite probs here! But after the 2nd day of my weeding thing, mom asked, “whoa, what happened to your face?” So I learned that even 40 minutes of early morning sun can be a prob. Mebbe there’s a good market for some kind of lotion that is both 30 SPF & bug-repellant!

  104. 104.

    Barbara

    @debbie: This is a great suggestion. When my air conditioning pooped out during a heat wave a couple of years ago, I got a fan (not Honeywell, but Lakewood, I think) and it put out a monster level of blowing air that helped a lot, especially in the kitchen. I also advocate using your grill to cook whatever you can, to avoid further heating up your house, and finding local swimming pool venues. A few years ago we had the derecho during a spell of record heat and did not have any power for 100 hours. We moved into our basement. My mother was watching national news one night and saw a story about it, which was broadcast right outside our central library, where there was a big line waiting for it to open so that people could get some AC and, of course, WiFi. A long time ago I lived in Baltimore in a converted row house with no AC. It was so hot that I couldn’t stand it, but my little dog was suffering even more. So I would walk to the neighborhood bank’s ATM, because it was in an air conditioned vestibule that was open for 24 hours. I would take a book and just sit and read so my dog could cool down.

  107. 107.

    germy

    WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans aren’t usually big on raising taxes, but they’re really eager to eliminate the federal deduction for state and local taxes.

    Why? A look at the states that benefit the most from the tax break helps explain it – they are all Democratic strongholds. New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and California top the list of states where taxpayers get the biggest deductions. Not a single Republican-leaning state ranks in the top 10.

    “Although Republicans usually recoil at any type of tax increase, cutting this tax break would almost be fun for them,” said Martin Sullivan, chief economist for Tax Analysts. “It provides massively disproportionate deductions to high-tax states controlled by Democrats.”

  108. 108.

    frosty

    @O. Felix Culpa: We’ve lived in South PA for 13 years with the 20K BTU 220V ancient window unit the previous owners put in the dining room. It does the whole downstairs. We’ve never put one in our bedroom — ceiling fan and windows on all four walls.

    That wasn’t the case in Baltimore. A couple hundred feet of elevation makes all the difference.

    Temps haven’t hit 100 all year.

  109. 109.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Oh I understand how it is done but given the hundreds of them I just can’t understand WHERE they put them all. We lived in a suburb and they never left a trace

  110. 110.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @germy: So, the GOP wants to attack the states with civilization. Taxes (state and local) go a long ways towards providing the civilization those states enjoy. Removing the deductions punishes them for being civilized.

    The GOP must be annihilated.

  111. 111.

    Schlemazel

    @Gelfling 545:
    I tried that but it ended up sending the flying. I put them in a burlap sack & drove over that but it didn’t work very well.

  113. 113.

    Barbara

    @germy: That may be true but the people who pay the highest property taxes are even odds to disproportionately vote Republican — certainly that would be true in New Jersey and New York, where there are Republican house members from Long Island, Westchester County, and the likes of Frelinghuysen. So while it might be fun for them, it would also make it harder for them to maintain what Republican representation they have in these states. There are currently 28 Republican House members from New York, New Jersey and California, and those voting Republican in those states are disproportionately motivated by tax rates, not social issues. Like a lot of things that might seem like good ideas, the details may not make it seem nearly as straightforward.

    P.S. Remember that to deduct anything you have to itemize. Only relatively well-off voters itemize. Another area it would reduce Republican chances are the NoVa suburbs — high property taxes even if the state tax is low.

  114. 114.

    chris

    @MomSense: Same here, it’s about 70 and dry. On my way out to a beach now with a sweatshirt in my pack. Just like the old days, 15 years ago.

  115. 115.

    JPL

    @Raven: Good luck. The nice thing about living in GA is being able to mow, then cool off in a air-conditioned house.

  116. 116.

    J R in WV

    Our power went out last night around midnight in the second or third thunderstorm, the storms continued for 2 or 3 hours. The Generac kicked in and is still droning away out front, so lights, fridge etc are fine. Two things it won’t do – power the AC unit, which pulls more than the Generac puts out, it is the largest air-cooled gen-set, 22 Kw, but the A/C takes nearly 30 amps. Other thing it won’t do is power the submerged water pump, which is a 900 foot run from the house, so there’s a ApCo drop down at the well, it used to power the old farmhouse too. We have a big relay in the well house which the call for pressure actuates.

    But the water plant hold pressure OK as long as we don’t forget the pump isn’t going to replenish water. I do have an emergency 300 gallon tank in the sub-basement with a small pump for flushing and such if the power stays off a long time. Lots of valves involved with firing that up, as well as shutting off power to the main system, so I avoid it.

    Power company internet site shows an outage over about 3 counties, several thousand households. If our Generac quits, or the neighbor on the ridge shuts his more annoying generator off, Internet and TV goes off. This is the first time we’ve had ‘net access during a power outage, it feels good!

    So far comfortable in the house, was pushing 90 yesterday afternoon here, upper 90s in town in the afternoon. V Humid too, at least we got some rain with the storms!

    That’s the way it is here in rural southwestern WV…

  117. 117.

    J R in WV

    @Lapassionara:

    Regarding fig trees, they are kind of tropical, but we have neighbors who wrap their fig tree with a giant woven wire cylinder, which they then fill with loose leaves they rake up in the fall. And they do get figs most years. The tree is multiple trunks and very bushy, I suppose from the way it gets frozen off on the branch ends that poke out of the leaf mulch. It is a lot of work, but they keep dairy goats and make cheese, so they’re used to hard work on a relentless schedule.

    Zone 5 or 6 here, depending on how the global warming conspiracy is doing for any given annual season.

  118. 118.

    J R in WV

    I sometimes think about getting a one-room A/C for the bedroom during outages, and Mrs J always says, “Well, it stays cool downstairs in the basement (which has windows on the east side) and we could just move downstairs for the duration…”

    Well, except for the kitchen, and the giant mattress we sleep on, and the catness of our basement. But I do tend to overdo back-up solutions. I have a back-up generator for the big Generac, for instance, that we used to use before we got the whole house back up installed. I got tired of running the extension cords and carrying gasoline around. The Generac is hooked into the natural gas network, which has new pipe and seems pretty reliable.

  119. 119.

    WaterGirl

    @Mustang Bobby: A big wow! for the flower photo, and a big yay for the great landlord. I imagine you have been there for a long time and are a model tenant, so I bet he counts himself as lucky, too.

  122. 122.

    No Drought No More

    We may have live with droughts and earthquakes, but California has got a climate that can’t be beat. I live midway between the Pacifice Ocean and the Mayacama range of hills (that separate Sonoma and Napa counties), and the weather this time of year is always beautiful. Which of course explains why California is the most populous state in the Union. Between the Oregon border and Mexico, a person can find somewhere to plant darn near any seed in the world, and it will grow.

    With proper irrigation, of course.

    Water, blessed water..

  124. 124.

    opiejeanne

    @Gelfling 545: We did that when I was a kid, with mixed results.

    Squirrels weren’t the problem with tree nuts for us, but crows were. We had a pecan tree in Riverside and we had some old window screens. I spread the pecans out on one big screen and put another screen over them. Otherwise we’d have gotten nothing.

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