Mary,

Your garden looks absolutely awesome!

In the upper 90's here today, and for the next several days. First time I have run the AC all day since I moved here July a year ago. It's a small window unit, so it is running continuously. I'll be interested to see what it does to the power bill.

I didn't have time to gather and load much of my garden related gear when I moved. The two items I miss the most are the soaker hoses, of which I had several hundred feet, and a Gardener's Supply cold frame that I couldn't find in the rush to move. I'm not going to buy more soaker hoseuntil I get garden beds laid out and know what I need. As it has gotten drier, and now in this intense heat, I'm moving the hose from plant to plant and letting it dribble for 30-60 minutes at a time. I don't have so much in the ground that this is generally a problem, except when I forget the hose is running and go to bed, only to discover it the next morning. I've had a couple of noticable spikes in my water bill from doing that.

The shredded leaves I have used for mulch have done a very good job holding in moisture, and have not decomposed as quickly as I feared they might. They are messy when the wind blows, however, and the slugs and earwigs love them.