Hydrangeas and the Heat

The weather continues to be hot and humid and I'm sure this extreme climate will be the norm instead of the cooler summers I remember while growing up in Southern California. Temperatures would vacillate in the 70's, not in the high 90's.

I remember my Grandfather's Hydrangeas would fill the flowerbeds at the front of his Ocean Beach house. Huge pompoms of lavender, blue and pink would captivate anyone who walked by, even prompting an occasional car to pull over to the curb to take a peak at the efforts of my Grandpa’s green thumb.

Hydrangeas were the first flowers I planted when we bought our home years ago, and they are still flourishing on both sides of the house, battling the heat at times, and delighting our family and friends with their magnificent presence. When the heat becomes a bit challenging I mist the flowerbeds fifteen minutes at a time and shade the blossoms from the direct sun to prevent scorching.

So far so good.

Home Sweet Cherry Tomatoes

Since food prices have gone up considerably, I have been trying to economize in any way possible to help not only with the energy crisis, but to put my two cents in to help the ecological economy in general.

Because my garden time is limited, a few years ago I found it easier to garden from flower boxes or flowerbeds, and this year I am growing vegetables in pots. It's very popular and easy to access when the product is ripe.

I stopped eating tomatoes from the grocery store years ago because they were, and still are, picked green and quite frankly they are tasteless. I bought one sixty-nine cent pack of cherry tomatoes and it has been producing delicious tomatoes for two weeks now. The yield is just right for my husband and me and now tomatoes have been added back into our meals.