Florida Summer Gardening is HOT!

Here we are in the early August sunshine trying to work in our central Florida garden! Whew. I did manage to plant about 3-4 dozen campanulas for next spring's blooms. But with the heat we have right now, they may be toast. Heat index for today is to reach 104 degrees. Too hot to do much of anything except wilt under the blast.

The zinnias planted back in, I think it was May, are doing just all right. The marigolds I started from seed look dazed and confused. I put sunflower seeds in some liner trays, they sprouted, but look as though they'd rather be in Alaska right about now. But then after all, this is the hottest time of the year here in our central Florida garden.

We did receive the balance of our poinsettia order which is about another 50 plants. We are going to try to pot them up this weekend in 4" pots from the liner trays they arrived in. That way they can put down good roots. This year we will be more diligent about covering them in the evening to ensure they get the required number of dark hours so they turn their color earlier. We didn't do that last year, and the poinsettias didn't color out until into late December. By January though, they were spectacular which didn't help us for our Christmas display!

Scott and I have talked a number of times over the last few years about creating and keeping a central Florida gardening journal for real people, and we have at last begun that journey. For a bit over a month now, we've been listing out what we did in the garden for the previous week, the plants we ordered, seeded or planted. We also list when we fertilize, with the type and amount of fertilizer spread, when we put out insecticide for the FIRE ANTS!!!!! GR-R-R-R....we hate them! And we list things such as when we prune certain plants, the areas we tried to grow certain plants and the results we enjoyed (or not!). So, we'll see if we can keep up the discipline of the weekly diary. Who knows, we may turn it into a blog all by itself, or even start writing our results out here.