Hot weather gardening routine

Today is the first time this summer that I have felt that I needed to be in my hot weather routine.
Out in the garden by six to make the most of the cooler morning. Back into the house to do household things by about half past eight. Work in my office until that becomes too hot, about the middle of the day and then retreat to the lounge room until it cools down again. Its already over 30 so I think we will get to the mid to high thirties today. We really need some dry heat after all the rain. I will need to venture out to pick the fruit though and hope it cools down enough to continue the mowing now that Zoe is here for a few days to help with that.
Despite the wet weather the roses have come good again.



One of our neighbours told me I would never be able to grow roses here without spraying with various chemicals. I am pleased to be proving them wrong.  We have had no aphids at all so far this year, there has been some black spot but it is not major. A few weeks ago there were some nasty bugs on all the pale colour roses, interestingly none on the dark pinks and reds!. I cut them back quite a big and hoped that a natural predator would kick in and something seems to have happened as they are back in full bloom and looking lovely. Even the large white ones which seem the most susceptible to bugs.

One of my favourite summer foods is Zucchini flowers, mine are a bit late this year but just starting to flower quite well. The pumpkins have really taken off as well and I use some of the pumpkin flowers in the same way. In about a week we will be eating fried zucchini flowers.


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