100.3 and melting

I was outside until 4 pm today - mostly in the shade. I decided I wanted gourds despite the lateness of the season. We dumped out some huge pots of dirt full of worms. David tilled at 6 of the 8 legs of this big huge tent thing we are using for a trellis.

Added the pictures - worth a thousand words. Last year we had pots - as you can see in the picture at each leg - all was going well until we had that late hail storm the first week in May. Beat the plants terribly and they did grow but never fully recovered and pots just - well I heard this on TV I think - a plant in a pot is like a man in a hotel room. It just isn't home.

So I am late to get gourds planted and instead of pots, I had David till me about a 3 foot square hole at each leg and will use those large fake clay pots on this end for small gourds - and I tossed some potting mix that was full of worms and then a small shovel full of bunny manure and hand mixed until smooth and creamy - lol. David watched me kneel at each pile and shaking his head and said most people would either be grossed out or put on gloves - I like to feel the soil - and bunny poo is just little dry pellets - no stinkum.

This picture is a gourd I painted from a gourd we grew back in 2007 and it is about 15-16 inches in diameter so I really do want gourds big enough to paint on.

And I humped up the soil then flattened the top into mesa's, punched in the 3 fingers to make seed holes and into each inserted a single seed in hopes of getting one good healthy plant per mound - 3 won't hurt. But how to keep the dogs out. I ran to Lowes and found the plastic fencing wire - you can cut this stuff with scissors and asked for stakes - should have asked for ground staples - which they had and am going to cover all six mounds that are currently mulched with newspaper and fresh straw with tops of mesa's basically exposed with about 3' X 4' of this plastic wire to keep all the muttlies out of the 6 new spots - not much fun digging in secured piles - I hope.

But going back out at 6 pm proved too hot, too much sun exposure now that the sun is going down below the treelines and hot-diggity - gonna wait until tomorrow to finish the job. My thermometer says it is over 100 degrees F - too hot even for me now.

Now it is 8 pm - better go water again - plants in pots at this temperature means - another watering or they won't make it thru the evening hours.