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Monday, January 7, 2013

Surviving and thriving.

 
I'm feeling a bit like this pumpkin vine today. Wilted. I am truly surprised though at the resilience of plants. I certainly couldn't stand outside in the sun all day and survive. I feel the most for the livestock. Ours have plenty of shade and access to creeks and clean water but I know there are  a lot of animals out there which aren't so lucky. Even if you do all of the right things, such high temperatures can have fatal effects on animals.

 
I am taking note though of the plants and in particular the varieties which are thriving not just surviving our heatwave. The pumpkins are all wilted but once the sun goes down, they perk up, hoping that tomorrow will be cooler. A wilted leaf doesn't lose as much water through transpiration so wilting can be a good thing.
 
 
Then there are the zucchini plants which are absolutely thriving in the heat. The chillies are loving it too and hopefully it means the chillies this year will be extra hot. Corn are also extra tall and hardy looking this year. Of course if I didn't water them, none of them would survive and I'm grateful for the little bits of rain here and there that we have had that have allowed me to actually grow a summer garden this season.
 
 
Talking about zucchini, they are now starting to their thing and grow at a great pace. Tomorrow morning I'm firing up the oven to make freezer meals out of this lot of beauties... zucchini slice, zucchini chocolate cake, zucchini cake with lemon glaze and maybe some biscuits, soup and souffle for the table rather than the freezer. We'll see. My intentions are good but I might just run out of steam.
 
So far I have been a bit too hot to be experimental in the kitchen and we are eating later than usual to make it more pleasant. Tonight we are having a lasagne which I think I can make with my eyes closed but we did have a rather nice tabbouleh parsley salad with pearl couscous on Friday night which was a bit different and delicious too.
 
Swimming tomorrow.
tracy

6 comments:

Fiona said...

glad to hear the garden is coping.. and indeed doing well.... your cooking plans sound so yum
Hugz

xo.sorcha.ox said...

Your zucchini are surviving? Mine are not. In fact, they are suffering worst of all from this persistent heat and have started dropping fruit. :( I've had just the one solitary zucchini to eat in the last fortnight! And usually we have too many! I'm keeping the soil damp but it doesn't appear to be working: The sun has real bite.

Stay cool!
~S.

Unknown said...

The heat and dry does make gardening a challenge, especially when we usually have so much rain in summer. I am glad I kept the garden small, we have just enough grey water each day to keep everything going. With the animals, even though I want to keep the chickens locked up so I can get all their eggs, they are free-ranging all day so they can find their own shade.

Becky said...

It is so much harder to bring ourselves to cook on hot Summer days. Of course right now we are having winter and any excuse to heat the kitchen up is met with lots of pleasurable noises from the Peanut Gallery around here.

Joolz said...

We are having a cool weather reprieve at the moment which is nice. Funny to feel chilly when walking up the main street!

We had zucchini slice and salad last night and a last minute dinner guest so Gus went and bought some lamb chops to have with it. Leftovers for lunch today - yay!

I look forward to some pics of your epic cooking spree!

Cheers - Joolz

trishie said...

I didn't know that wilted leaves lose less water...now I don't feel so bad about my plants in the garden. Stay cool, Tracy!