Thanks.
It rained! It wasn’t a lot, maybe two tenths of an inch, maybe a little less, but it really cooled things off. The temperature hit 100 again before the rain came, but the rain dropped things down to 73. The soil in my garden was damp on top but not deeper down, but the leaves of the plants looked perkier for it. I’m sure they appreciated the break from the intense UV.
The showers were scattered according to the local news, but some places did get up to an inch. It should remain cooler than it has been tomorrow, and there is the chance for more showers. It didn’t put a lot in my rain tanks, but it’s more than I had, and I’m very thankful.
We also verified that a big armadillo was digging in the new garden area last night. There is no sign of a hole under the fence (and the fence goes out a foot horizontally at the base and is buried a bit), and the armadillo really looked big in the photo, so I don’t think it could squeeze through the spaces (mostly 2” x 3”, though one section has 2” X 4”. (We did witness a baby armadillo squeeze through once, but this looked a lot bigger.). It’s possible that where the gate closes, the armadillo is able to push its way in between the wire of the gate itself and the wire of the fence line at the bottom. We had the trap at that point last night, though, but the camera was pointed in a different direction. My husband repositioned things tonight to see if we can get a better idea. I doubt the armadillo has learned to climb a six-foot fence, but it definitely has been climbing foot-high garden beds.
The camera also caught a few shots of a skunk outside the new garden, but it never showed it inside. There were, however, smaller holes in our old garden this morning, and the marshmallows in the paths had disappeared, so I wonder if the skunk made its way in there. It looked small on the camera, but it is hard to tell. I think the critters are desperate so willing to work to get to a good food source.
I got overheated this morning hauling compost to repair the holes in the garden as the sun was bright, and it heated up fast. I spent the afternoon inside in some air conditioning, and I started some corn seeds in one of my Aerogardens. I’m trying cotton balls as a growing medium again. I used cotton squares to make a tube and put a stretched cotton ball inside each and tucked one corn seeds in toward the top but under some of the cotton ball. I’ve never transplanted corn before, but I only have three plants remaining of the sixteen that I planted after presprouting the seeds earlier this year, so I want to give it a try.
A little water going into our 1150 gallon rain tank that was very nearly empty.
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The luffa plants that usually spend the afternoon wilting in the sun perking up in the rain. This bed gets some roof runoff because there are no gutters on that part of the house, so it should have extra water from today.
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The cotton balls in the Aerogarden. It will be an interesting experiment.
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