Wow, thanks! I am learning....that one is one of my favorite irises. Can't grow them in Florida.

Have a great holiday weekend. I think we are going to have some sunshine tomorrow and then the ever-present rain again tomorrow night. It actually thundered today! Well, not exactly Florida thunder, the window rattling kind that I like, but thunder just the same.

I see you all are having it plenty hot. It's backwards here. A neighbor and I are collaborating on a garden and now is the time to plant (we are slightly late but not bad) so it just seems weird to me to plant for things to grow in the summer. Here there are plenty of years the tomatoes don't get a chance to ripen as the season is so short. We are getting close to 16 hours of daylight though, to offset the months when there are only 8 hours of daylight.

I am still wearing a hoodie jacket and it was 46 this morning. It might get to 70 tomorrow and everyone is excited about it. LOL People here swelter when it gets to 80 degrees.

Thanks again!

Cheryl

The sun was out today and it got into the 70's!!! I think we are going to have another dry day tomorrow but don't know about the the sun. Then the rain comes back! LOL, when we get a dry day we have to drop everything and go work outside.

I have 30 irises planted at my mother-in-law's and that's where I was working today. Weeding. Slugs never quite go away here.

I went in with a neighbor on a vegetable garden. He arranged for it but he planned that I would see what he was doing and would come help. The problem is, he doesn't know anything, and I don't know anything about growing vegetables here. Then he had already gotten a load of compost to put in the grow box, which he did. I wondered from the beginning about the compost. It felt warm when I was planting starts. Well, I got some bagged stuff and mixed some potting soil with it and planted some squash and other things in pots. (I am used to working with pots here as all the iris at our place are in pots.)

Anyway, I had some zucchini in the grow box (in the compost) and some in a large pot with the potting mix I had combined. The difference is incredible!!!! So, any ideas on what to do with what's in the grow boxes? My husband thinks I could carefully "transplant" them by lifting them out with some of the compost that's there, adding the mix I made up, and planting them back in the grow box. They would still technically be in some of the compost. I did that with his tomatoes as he decided he wanted them in a big pot like mine. They seem ok. Of course that was a couple of weeks ago. The beans and peas in the grow box look sickly and pale. Thought about just using more organic fertilizer. Had some broccoli left over and I just stuck them in a pot in my mix and they are doing at least twice as good as the ones in the grow boxes.

Any ideas? Thanks!!!

Cheryl

That was my feeling about the compost from the beginning. I wondered about planting in it but he already had it. When it felt warm, I probably should have just stopped right then and said something but I am not sure he would have believed me. I have heard that composting stuff uses up nitrogen while it composts and I am sure seeing it.

I need my pots for the irises but may just have to plant the vegetables in those pots. Something else to figure out and juggle.

It's not like I don't have other things to do. LOL....

My mother-in-law is not really up to weeding and such things and she is a gardener. So, I am catching her up. It will take me a little bit. Then there is taking care of our place, small as it is. Last year I didn't do much because of my thyroid issue (which just righted itself when we discovered what I was doing to cause it) and so my irises in one gallon pots especially have to get transplanted now. It's not quite the ideal time but it has to be done as soon as possible.

I have joined the local iris club, and the national one, AIS. So I am hoping to learn a bit more. Looks like I will be learning about the Japanese, Siberian, Spuria, Pacific Coast, Louisiana, and aril. Plus I see there are the smaller bearded ones I don't know too much about. It seems some of the others (other than tall bearded) might grow better here. We have weather much like yours, I think. It's going to be interesting.

Thanks so much for your help on the vegetable garden. I was trying to figure how I could do something with the compost but I probably felt it wouldn't work as I hadn't started anything yet. Going to get some things out, others I'll probably get new starts.

I appreciate your input.

Cheryl