Rain, Storms High Humidity, and an Uncontrolled Garden!

Storm's a Brewin'!

 It has rained for the last few days here in Iowa.  You would think it would bring in cooler temps, but it did not.  Well,   Not for very long.   The night time lows were pleasant...  But the humidity cranked right back up there to unbearable.  Cheryl even ran in the rain on  Tuesday.   

Swirly clouds!  Fun!

The stormy clouds and lightning flashes could be seen even last night.  ( Though, no rain..) It was so humid this morning, we had dense fog!  Kind of cool... As long as you did not have to run in it. ( which we did!) 

The good (-ish) news is that the Plants seem to be much happier now with a bit of a drink.  My Garden is a lost cause this year.   The free Tomato plants I planted got off to a late start and we seem to be behind everyone else by about 3 weeks!  ( Maybe more!)  I can see that there are a LOT of buds on the Grape Tomato plants ( Grape, not cherry?   I guess so.) 

The Sunflowers are all gone to seed now, feeding the Birds better than the bird feeder ever did last winter.  The Hops vine seem to be thriving!   I see lots of lowers, so I am hoping it will produce cones this year.  

The Cardinal Creeper has been fighting an uphill battle this entire time.  I begged, pleaded, and pointed out every plant I had to the Land Lords so they would not "trim" them off.   And out of 8 plants,  only three remain.   However, I finally have my second flower of the year!  The vine that was hidden in the Hops vine, seems to be doing the best as far as flowers.   The one growing along the trellis is certainly big, but has not produced flowers yet.  Fingers crossed the Landlords ( and rabbits!) leave them alone for the rest of the summer.

And finally,  Peppers!  The Habanero Pepper plants were a freebie from the local store that I thought I would take a chance on, ( Having never planted  Peppers before in my small  garden plot. )  The Slugs ate three out of the 5 plants.   And the remaining two plants have been enveloped by weeds and sunflowers for most of the Summer.  However!  Yesterday, Cheryl discovered that the plants were still alive, still Growing!  AND had peppers on them!  

We both sampled a small one and about burned out faces off!  I thought these were going to be "sweet" peppers.   SURPRISE!  I'm not much into hot and spicy foods, and the heat index on these guys is Way off MY charts.   Cheryl says she will attempt a Salsa with Strawberries.  Apparently the sweet berries offsets the heat a bit.  We shall find out. 

Farmer's Market tonight.   Cheryl wants to bring some of her pouches, so we will have to see how that pans out.   The Soap does not like the high humidity and heat, so we will be leaving that home until the seasonal temps change a bit towards the cooler side.   I'll have to report on the success later.  Thanks for stopping in.