Gardening on Hell's Front Porch

Here in north Texas, toward the western edge of the DFW metroplex, we have been gifted with a week or more of 100F+ temperatures and those are expected to continue through next week. As you can imagine, this kind of heat makes gardening… challenging to say the least.

It does indeed feel like we’re sitting on Hell’s front porch.

What this means in practical terms, for me at least, is an early morning daily stroll around the back yard with the hose, giving everything a good dousing. I am happy to say it appears to be working.

The raised bed in the back is covered in shade cloth which is enormously helpful. The basil, parsley, and Thai basil are all still thriving. The newly transplanted lacinato kale is also doing well tucked into my green tunnel.

I just saw a post in a gardening group about mealy bugs on hibiscus. Fortunately, I haven’t seen those on my hibiscus yet, but I won’t be surprised when/if they show up. At least now I have a couple of ideas for dealing with them.

The patio plants are doing well (again, watered every morning) and I’m hopeful I’ll have color through the fall with them. At some point this week, I will need to figure out transplanting some of the babies my succulents are growing. I don’t want to overcrowd anything.

The agave is thriving and I’m looking forward to my tequila business! The others have recovered from what I thought was a catastrophic fall several months ago, dumping them out of their pot. However, even just shoving them back into the dirt has kept them all alive. And they’re now in a bigger pot that hopefully won’t tip over any time soon!

It’s too hot to sit out on the patio right now, but I am looking forward to doing that, at least in the mornings with my coffee, once cooler temps arrive.

In the meantime, I am actually enjoying the challenge of keeping everything alive and even thriving as the summer simultaneously draws to a close and heats up!