{"id":1555,"date":"2009-08-16T18:08:25","date_gmt":"2009-08-16T22:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2010-10-08T21:17:41","modified_gmt":"2010-10-09T01:17:41","slug":"a-little-late-but-summers-finally-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/2009\/08\/16\/a-little-late-but-summers-finally-here\/","title":{"rendered":"A little late, but Summer&#8217;s finally here"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--CusAds--><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/2006\/06\/23\/green-thumb-sunday\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/104\/306398715_49775ad925_o.gif\" alt=\"Join Green Thumb Sunday\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/2006\/06\/23\/green-thumb-sunday\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Join<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Well it was a slow start, but as of this past week summer&#8217;s finally arrived in Toronto!<\/p>\n<p>The week, well let&#8217;s say last Sunday, started with rain and a massive lightening storm. Spectacular really &#8211; with sheet lighting and huge vibrant lightening all over the city for about an hour and a half! It was the most vibrant lightening storm I&#8217;ve seen in a year or two!<\/p>\n<div class=\"912745ff53504cd4aef8ff3ef7b9aa95\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: right; margin:10px 0 10px 10px;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-3375789278566919\";\r\n\/* gardengrows_300x250inpost *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"4054669721\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>After that the heat that is usually so much a part of our summers here in Toronto finally arrived.  As the week has progressed it seems each day that passes is hotter than the last!  We&#8217;ve also had a lot of humidity. Currently with humidity it supposedly feels like 36 C (96.8 F).<\/p>\n<p>I think by Wednesday of this week the true summer like heat will be gone again though &#8230; so that means we&#8217;ll have only had about one true week of summer this year!  Perhaps that&#8217;s still better than last summer though &#8211; last summer we had record breaking rain!<\/p>\n<p>All through July I watched my Tiny Tom and Cherry, Early Girl and Glam tomatoes grow on the vine. I began to wonder if they&#8217;d ever change from green to red as they seemed to stay green and the same size for the longest time &#8211; probably due to the lower than normal summer temperatures that we were having.<\/p>\n<p>However after a week of true summer like heat I can finally say that I was able to pick two ripe tomatoes and a handful of Tiny Tom tomatoes yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, my pole beans, cucumbers, raspberries and strawberries have been behind this summer.  Over the last two weeks though we picked our first beans and a new (very small) crop of strawberries came in.  The raspberries started to ripen and we&#8217;ve had a couple of handfuls over the last week as well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Green beans 3 by triciawd, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dragonden\/3812390391\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener noreferrer\" class=\"ext-link\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3466\/3812390391_3aa75ac2d1.jpg\" alt=\"Green beans 3\" width=\"401\" height=\"267\" \/><\/a><\/p><!--CusAds-->\n<p>The cucumbers are growing very very slowly! Three weeks ago I noticed that we had our first cucumbers, but they were smaller than Gherkins!  Now those cucumbers are a little bigger and thicker than my thumb so it&#8217;s still slow going. They&#8217;re English Burpless cucumbers so they have a long way to go before we can pick them!<\/p>\n<p>Our roses are starting to rebloom now too.  Maybe well have two more flushes of blooms before summer truly ends.<\/p>\n<p>The pro&#8217;s of having a cooler and slightly drier summer are:<\/p>\n<p>1. The lawn has been growing slowly so we haven&#8217;t had to cut it as much, and due to the cooler weather and occasional really heavy rain it&#8217;s stayed green.<\/p>\n<p>2. We haven&#8217;t had the air-conditioning on for most of the summer (with the exception of this week and the last week of June) so for a change, we&#8217;ve been able to enjoy the summer with our window and doors open, and of course, we&#8217;ve saved a lot of money on the electricity bill!<\/p>\n<p>3. We&#8217;ve been watering less this summer. With the cooler weather the plants don&#8217;t seem to need as much water &#8211; so again we&#8217;ve saved some money on the water bill (which doubled on the last bill anyway- Thanks City of Toronto due to increased prices, taxes and sewer and trash collection fees!)<\/p>\n<p>Overall it seems like my plants don&#8217;t mind the weather we&#8217;ve had this summer although I do have a few roses that have almost totally lost their leaves due to powdery mildew (cooler weather, more dew at night on the leaves?).<\/p>\n<p>The Balloon flowers seem to love this weather. They&#8217;re taller than normal (4 feet!) and blooming their pretty little heads off. Here&#8217;s a picture of a Balloon flower bud, and a Balloon flower in bloom &#8211; you can definitely see where they get their name from:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Balloon flower bud  by triciawd, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dragonden\/3812377109\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener noreferrer\" class=\"ext-link\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3496\/3812377109_8fc598d522.jpg\" alt=\"Balloon flower bud \" width=\"424\" height=\"317\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Balloon flower 2 by triciawd, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dragonden\/3812375425\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener noreferrer\" class=\"ext-link\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3460\/3812375425_693a40afe5.jpg\" alt=\"Balloon flower 2\" width=\"425\" height=\"283\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds--><p>How is your garden doing this summer?  Have you managed to eat any of the veggies that you&#8217;re growing yet?<\/p>\n<div class=\"912745ff53504cd4aef8ff3ef7b9aa95\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<br\/> <br\/>\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-3375789278566919\";\r\n\/* gardengrows_underpost_300x250 *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"0957462354\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<br\/>\r\n<br\/>\r\n\r\n<?php if ( is_search() || is_single() || is_page() || is_paged() || is_category() || is_archive() ) { ?>\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\nch_client = \"dragonden\";\r\nch_type = \"mpu\";\r\nch_width = 468;\r\nch_height = 250;\r\nch_color_bg = \"FFFFFF\";\r\nch_color_title = \"FF9B00\";\r\nch_color_text = \"333333\";\r\nch_non_contextual = 4;\r\nch_vertical =\"premium\";\r\nch_sid = \"gardengrows_betweenposts\";\r\nvar ch_queries = new Array( );\r\nvar ch_selected=Math.floor((Math.random()*ch_queries.length));\r\nif ( ch_selected < ch_queries.length ) {\r\nch_query = ch_queries[ch_selected];\r\n}\r\n\/\/--><\/script>\r\n<script  src=\"http:\/\/scripts.chitika.net\/eminimalls\/amm.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br\/><\/div>\r\n<?php } ?>\n<\/div>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Join Well it was a slow start, but as of this past week summer&#8217;s finally arrived in Toronto! The week, well let&#8217;s say last Sunday, started with rain and a massive lightening storm. Spectacular really &#8211; with sheet lighting and huge vibrant lightening all over the city for about an hour and a half! It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16,4,10,36,82],"tags":[1025,5341,3876,5300,94,1673,5343,5337,5333,97,5338,2745,3548,6028,5334,3721,2701,742,295,3126,5344,5339,5336,113,3550,5342,230,190,5340,5335,116,1942,198,262,3884,6060,3840,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-1555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blooming-today","7":"category-garden-buzz","8":"category-green-thumb-sunday","9":"category-perennials","10":"category-photography","11":"category-summer-in-the-garden","12":"tag-air-conditioning","13":"tag-balloon-flowers","14":"tag-cherry-tomatoes","15":"tag-cool-summer","16":"tag-cucumbers","17":"tag-cutting","18":"tag-dew","19":"tag-early-girl-tomatoes","20":"tag-electric-bill","21":"tag-flowers","22":"tag-glam-tomatoes","23":"tag-grass","24":"tag-green-beans","25":"tag-green-thumb-sunday","26":"tag-green-tomatoes","27":"tag-gts","28":"tag-hot","29":"tag-humid","30":"tag-humidity","31":"tag-lawn","32":"tag-lightening-storm","33":"tag-on-the-vine","34":"tag-picked","35":"tag-plants","36":"tag-pole-beans","37":"tag-powderly-mildew","38":"tag-rain","39":"tag-raspberries","40":"tag-ripen","41":"tag-ripening","42":"tag-roses","43":"tag-save-money","44":"tag-strawberries","45":"tag-tall","46":"tag-tiny-tom-tomatoes","47":"tag-toronto","48":"tag-water-bill","49":"tag-watering","50":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}