My Heredity Report & State Of The Garden
Yesterday, though I watered four times, the petunias in those tall brown stands looked burned up by afternoon.
This morning they have rebounded a little, but I doubt they can overcome that much stress.
I will have to rethink what I plant next year. Because I put a lot of money and effort into what I planted this year only to be able to enjoy some of the plants just over a month.
This is the first daisy to bloom in the galvanized tub. They are so pretty. I hope I can keep them from dying and enjoy them awhile.
The other daisies that came up are blooming too.
I don’t recall the heat being so bad this early in June. The first week of June!
I just don’t have enough shade. When I moved here there were two other trees and now I have only one that hangs over from another yard.
Some of you mentioned getting a sun sail (I think that’s what they’re called) or a patio umbrella. And I’ve looked at them online and thought about ordering them.
But the problem is that I would still have to have something heavy to hold down the base of an umbrella. And I don’t have the strength to drag sand bags from the store to put out there. And I haven’t really been to anything but the grocery store in the past months.
The problem with getting a sun sail is that the fence wood is pretty old. The poles that hold wood fences are usually thick. But from my side of the fence, I don’t see any thick poles. So I don’t know that what is there would hold the hardware that you need to hold the sun sail in place.
In other news I had ordered one of those 23andme kits to check my ancestry. I paid an extra $100 to get possible medical traits and to see what I was a carrier of, etc. What I got yesterday emailed to me was kind of disappointing for the sum total of $200.
But Kendra had mentioned that since she was adopted by Kasi’s dad when she was a toddler just after we got married, and since I know little about my background, she didn’t really have much to go on for ancestry and health traits.
So I thought I should at least see what I could find out for her on my side.
My DNA suggested that 73.8% of my ancestry is British & Irish. 10.1% was French and German. And the remaining 2.4% was Spanish and Portuguese.
There was nothing remarkable in the health report and I didn’t seem to be a carrier for anything that would affect my daughters.
I didn’t get a thing done on my decorating project yesterday and don’t know if I’ll have the energy to do much today. Not getting enough sleep is really wearing on me. I can barely keep my eyes open yet I cannot nap during the day.
Even as a child I was never able to take a nap. I think I’ve always been hyper-vigilant and that plays a factor in my being able to sleep.
I will get things done as quickly as I can. I’m waiting for a couple of things I ordered right now anyway.
Someone, or I think several of you maybe, suggested that I give Charlie something to help him sleep at night. Well the vet prescribed Melatonin and Trazadone a long time ago. I give him a dose of each one every night.
Plus last night I went ahead and gave him a dose of the hydrocodone syrup he takes to help him stop coughing. Still he wakes up nearly every hour or every other hour.
So I will not be driving today. I’m not about to endanger others when I’m this tired.
My back yard is horribly hot in the summer with no shade until the sun goes down so I have battled many years trying to find something that will grow that I don’t have to water several times a day too. One thing that I have discovered the past few years that has helped quite a bit is I cut squares of puppy potty pads and put them in the bottom of my containers, not as big as the bottom so there will be some drainage. It seems to hold moisture in a lot longer for my plants, I’m still watering but not several times a day anymore.
Good evening Brenda, I thought when I wrote about Melatonin that you probably already knew about it.
I know how you feel about your plantings, several of mine are already shriveling! The weather is so hot already.
I am sure that you know what is best for you, just do whatever you can to get some rest, you don’t want to get sick.
Take care my friend.
Brenda,
You might think about getting a retractable awning. We had a Sunsetter awning & loved it. They can be automated. That would give you shade to keep your home cooler & your plants could have some shade.
I doubt the apartment manager would let me do that. And I can’t imagine the expense.
Umbrella bases are available on Amazon for under $30. A 9 ft umbrella for $64 and up. One that tilts is useful. It’s remarkable how much relief an umbrella provides. I eat most of my meals in the Garden which wouldn’t be possible without the aid of my umbrella. Just a suggestion.
Would a humidifier in your bedroom at night help with Charlie’s coughing?
Instead of a sun sail, how about one of those big free-standing umbrellas? I believe you fill the base with sand. I know it wouldn’t cover your entire patio, but maybe you could put the annuals under them that are particularly sensitive to the heat.
You might want to take a look at the article about the health portion of 23 and Me:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/01/opinion/23andme-cancer-dna-test-brca.html
Does Charlie cough like that in the daytime?
Not much. Sometimes but it’s mostly at night.
Oh Brenda, sleep deprivation is the worst!
Are you running a cool mist humidifier in your bedroom at night? What about a new air conditioning unit? My son had one of the rolling ones and it kept his small home quite cool with a couple strategically placed fans. Old units are awful for mold.
A flower that did extremely well for me during our hottest, driest summer in history, was vinca. Not the vine. Pretty little white, pink and purple varieties. Moss Rose do very well in heat.
Sure hope you get some sleep!
I have a small window air conditioner in my bedroom window if I need it. I put it in a few years ago so I wouldn’t just be left for 4-5 days without any air conditioning.
And yes, I’m running a cool mist humidifier in the bedroom at night.
Up here in S.D. we had 98 degrees yesterday and it is unusual for such heat this early in summer. I have been watering my flowers and tomatoes, too.
It is rough when you can’t get enough sleep. I don’t usually nap, either, but sometimes weariness will overtake me and I get a short nap. It surely would help if you could sleep when Charlie does!
Have you ever grown daisies from seed? I am going to try it.
Be safe and stay well.
No, I have not grown daisies from seed I don’t think. But I’ve got a tomato plant and a cucumber plant I planted from seeds. Zinnias usually do pretty well too. I have a few more plants out there from seed but I can’t recall them all. Oh, and I have moon vine and morning glory and another vine I can’t think of the name of from seed.
It probably would be nice if you could get an umbrella to work and you could sit out there too and have some shade and then take it down when you want the plants to get some sunshine. It might let you stay outside more too. I have thought about doing one of those 23 and me kits. Doesn’t sound like they give you too much information.
Have a good week.
Kris
Well, I’ll send you mine via Invite and you can see what all they give you. I paid extra for the medical part, an extra $100 added to the first $100 so Kendra would know a bit more about her medical ancestry.
I know there are umbrella bases that can be filled with water, that might make it much easier for you to use. We’ve been getting either July or mid-March weather here in SE Wisconsin; it’s a rare day now that is like the late spring/early summer days I remember from 30/40 years ago and even further back as a kid living here my entire life. The weather has definitely gotten hotter, more humid, the storms more fierce, and generally all more unpredictable. Three weeks ago we were having flooding in parts of my state; this morning I gave my street tree five gallons of water, I took one look of it and could tell immediately it was distressed. We were supposed to get rain on at least 2 separate days last week – it never came except for a few spits here and there, not even enough to wet the ground. Now they are saying we “may” get some rain out of the remains of the tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico – some time tomorrow. Given that the weather forecasts around here have been batting about zero lately, I won’t be betting on any rain. Instead, I finally ordered some decent non-kind hoses and it looks like I may well be spending a semi-fortune again this summer watering my lawn, shrubs, gardens and trees. I refuse to let my lawn go dormant. We are supposed to be a verdant green state, not the Mojave Desert!
Oops – meant to type non-kink hoses, LOL!
I pay $25 a month for water, so I’m not going to worry about it.
That made me laugh when I’m not in a laughing mood, so thanks to you and your rude/mean hose!
I feel your pain concerning the amount of money and time you put in to your garden. Here in NJ I usually plant around Mother’s Day and everything looks good for about a month then in July and August things start to dry out and seem dead , in fact I don’t bother to replace them because sometimes I can’t even find any and I won’t spend more money just to throw it away again, but every year those darn plants come back more beautiful in the Fall. In fact they look dynamic just when I’m ready to take them out and replace them with mums!!That’s so irksome to me!
I’m not spending any more money this year and not going into a nursery due to Covid anyway. Seems my perennials come back best so I may not buy many annuals anymore.
I read somewhere a few months ago that this summer is predicted to be the hottest summer since they started recording them a long time ago. I hope they are wrong but it does feel like the heat is getting worse and starting earlier in each season.
Sleep deprivation takes a huge toll on the body. Like you, there are many days it isn’t safe for me to drive, so I stay home. I do wonder about mold in your apartment. The old AC could be the culprit and it certainly isn’t doing any good for you or Charlie. I hope you can get some rest soon and feel better.
It’s central heat and air. And I think the indoor part was replaced just before I moved in due to a fire. It’s the outside unit that is ancient.
Sedums might be an alternative. I just bought one called ice plant and the flowers are unbelievable almost like straw flowers and they thrive on heat. I have two tufa troughs of different sedums and love how durable they are.
Great idea! Portulaca, too, I always forget about them.
I have something close to Portulaca growing up through the cement crack, Purslane.
Gosh, you’re writing about your poor plants dying in the heat and I am sitting here – on a sunny day – wearing a heavy sweater and wondering if I should turn on the heat. I guess it depends on where you live.
I was deeply moved by your ruminations on the lady pulling her suitcase on wheels. I grieved deeply thinking of an elderly woman being homeless. I know that we should not become attached to material objects, but I love my happy home and the comfortable and pretty objects in it. I love my collection of vintage magazines, the cross I wear around my neck that my father bought me on the day of my birth, and other ‘things’ that give me joy.
I was happy that one of your readers suggested that the suitcase on wheels might have had a more salubrious use. When I worked part time in a library, I had a small suitcase on wheels. I returned and picked up so many heavy books each shift, that the easiest way to move them was in a little suitcase. Hopefully, your slow moving lady was meandering her way to the library as I did.
I suppose I wrote the post to remind us that this could happen to any of us.
Is it possible your galvanized tubs get too hot and hold in the heat overnight ?
But the plants in the galvanized tubs don’t look bad at all. It’s the others in the plastic containers.