During end of last year till New Year we experienced hot extreme weather about 40 degree Celsius. This has caused a lot of damage with our plants. Well we lost many plants and I don't feel like we have any summer garden at the moment. Pictures that we are showing are only a part of of the garden and only taken from the back of our backyard fence. Surprisingly, chives are very hardy plants. However, in front of those chives used to be alpine strawberries that I transplanted end of winter last year. It cannot be seen in this photo but these chives and alpine strawberry is actually a row with a length of more than 3 metres. I am not sure how many alpine strawberry plants I lost but roughly it should be more than 30 plants including the dead ones in the container. Lucky that we don't spent fortune on them because there were from volunteers or divisions from the original parents that we grown from seeds almost 3 years ago. Fortunately, their parents survive in partial shade and hope provide some babies for next planting.
Where did all the green plants when?
We can't even see much of bare soil before surrounded by foliage.
However, now all perished.
We used to have 4 potato plants and 3 spagetthi squash plants, inter-planted with sweet corn on this patch. I should dug died potato plants out to see whether there are some spuds. But I really don't have the motivation to do that and on top of that I don't even know where the plants were because hardly no trace of those plants. Cherry tomato plants patch next to this patch also look really bad. Not sure whether I can save it or not.
Vietnamese mint/laksa leaves herb plants were also burned badly by the scorching sun. The right Vietnamese mint plants look very crisp isn't it. Five plants at least damaged like that. Lucky again before the hot weather I took some cuttings in our kitchen to propagate new ones.
Farewell our carrot and parsnip plants.
Many of the carrot and parsnip plants top were burned to crisp.
I had to dig blindly to harvest the roots.
Because there were no trace of the tops.
Harvested roots were not juicy but they were still very sweet.
Our kids enjoyed them in Fish soup.
From the front row: Lebanese zucchini not sure if they bounce back; Red capsicum bell some died and some of them lack of growth since germinated; Purple top turnip leaves wilting: Bonica eggplant has bloom but it won't set fruit and young lemon grass plants hanging tough.
Somehow one of the volunteer Evening Sun Sunflower managed to bloom the next day after the 40 degree Celsius day. Sigh, not much left to look forward in this summer garden this year.
The weather has cool down.
We even have some shower today.
Hopefully will help some of the plants to stay alive.
Oh so sad. Poor you, how frustrating! Hope you manage to salvage some plants.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness! What a horrible sight! I am so sorry to see the state of your garden. That is rather disheartening. I hope things pick up soon.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget - blackberry season will start in a few weeks - looking good so far! :))
That's so sad to see that. Sometimes you wonder if all your hard work pays off. Hoping most if not all of this comes back with a lot of watering.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
Oh Diana, I always pop by your blog for some inspiration! I a so sorry your garden was baked. It must be so frustrating.
ReplyDeleteOh no, how sad! Hopefully, you will have some survivors. I guess that it is too late to re-plant some veggies??
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame after all your hard work - at least 40C isn't something we experience as I too would be brown and shrivelled
ReplyDeleteI hope you got as much rain as we did this afternoon. Hopefully that will help.
ReplyDeletekesiannya pokok pokok semua mati:( kat Malaysia pun sehari dua ni cuaca sungguh panas.Terasa seperti terbakar kulit.Banyak pokok pokok bunga yang mati sebab tak cukup air.
ReplyDeleteOnly sunflowers love hot sun.
ReplyDeleteAnd they even chase after the sun.
I'm so sorry to hear about your summer garden. That heat is just too much for most plants to handle. Hope some of your perennials like the strawberries are able to pull through.
ReplyDeleteSo sad to see your beautiful vegetables scorched. Your daun kesum don't look that bad.
ReplyDeleteI wish you much rain and comfortable temperature.
ReplyDeleteThe temperature around here is also almost 40c in mid summer.
Take care of summer heat fatigue,please.
I'm so sorry the heat burned your beautiful garden up. I was talking to my cousin the other day. She grows vegetables in Texas. In order to get anything to survive in that heat she uses sunken beds, the opposite of raised beds. Her vegetable beds are about a foot lower than the surrounding soil. With gardening you never know what will happen. I hope you get right back out there when the heat wave is over and get things replanted.
ReplyDeleteHeat is a killer. Your garden reminds me of mine last July here. Hang in there. I hope you get cooler weather soon!
ReplyDeleteSorry for your damaged plants.
ReplyDeleteI also experienced close to 40C heat wave in Japan and I also have to create countermeasures to protect scorching summer.
I appreciate your sharing of your situation which reminds me of how terrible heatwave is.
Half the world is wishing for MORE sunshine, and the other half is wishing for LESS. It's a pity it can't be shared-out evenly! :-)
ReplyDeleteYour plants do look in a bad way, but I expect that with your skill and dedication you will soon have the garden looking good again.
dear diana, I'm so sorry to hear of the lost plants. It seems part of gardening that we have losses and disappointments and frustrations as well as joys. I hope you feel better soon, and regain hope and energy. cheers, catmint
ReplyDeleteI am so very sorry, Diana, and I understand you so well ... our summers are like that too. The rain will help ...
ReplyDeleteHave a nice week !
That's so disappointing to hear, and you had so much potential there. I don't know what's going on here - it's winter but still very warm and the flowers are starting to pop up. Hope things improve soon!
ReplyDeleteAll the best in 2012 to you and your family!
hi diana, so sorry to hear that you lost a lot of plants due to the heat.
ReplyDeleteyou mast have a large garden to be able to plant so many strawberries too. beautiful sunflower too. have a nice day
MKG dear,
ReplyDeleteThe beauty with a balcony garden is that when it's summer, we can move all the pots to the shaded area. Or, if you have a large tree in the backyard, move everything there. What I saw some people do in Sydney is to erect some tarpaulin shade. purrr....meow!
Oh Diana, I'm so sorry about all your casualties. I curse my next door neighbours trees for keeping my garden in shade for large chunks of the day but perhaps its no bad thing. I do hope you find some potatoes at the very least.
ReplyDeleteAs they say, can't beat the weather... we have never experience 40 degrees here at our potager although we came close... hope next season can cover up for your lost this season...
ReplyDeleteTotal bummer on all the heat. Maybe the strawberries will bounce back once the weather cools for good in the fall?
ReplyDeletenow what i can think of to make good use of the hot sun is wash all your comforters and bedsheets and hang them dry!!
ReplyDeleteI had the same thing happen this year it is very disheartening that is why I have decided to grow most of the vegetables in the autumn winter and spring.
ReplyDeleteShaz-I hope some of our brinjal plants will be tough this summer.
ReplyDeleteVeggie gnome-cannot wait for the blackberry season. Hope you have a pleasant weather up on the hill this summer.
Cher-we have several days of isolated shower recently that has help to keep the soil moist a little bit.
Hazel-it is frustrating but it is the risk we have to take each summer. Mulching does not help here.
Robin-it all depend much on whether the cold come early or later this year to make up the lost of those plants. But we do try to re-sow some plants like pumpkin and squash, tomato too.
Sue-the summer very harsh here. We grow plants much better in cool season. Autumn will be like spring again for us.
Judith-fortunately that we had the isolated shower to help some of the plants to thrive again.
Makcikmanggis-Ada balk kat Malaysia ni hujan Turin goal hari. Lama tak rasa cuaca lembap. Kepingin nak makan durian.
Rain field- it seems that the sunflower has gotten use with the harsh weather.
Mr. H~ Our mid-summer garden is not going well. We probably think of planting cool season veggies next month earlier than last year so we have some to harvest. Strawberries in the partial shade seems to survive the heat. We got only a few left strawberry plants.
ReplyDeleteSean L~We had a few kesum in the partial shade corner that is surviving. But growing too slowly.
Kumittyi~On average its been 38 degree Celsius maximum lately. Hope next week the weather cools down as end summer is approaching.
Katie~Sounds cooler the sunken beds. Great idea and thanks for sharing this information. With the day temperature we have at the moment, most of the plants growth has stunted. They just use up energy just to stay alive.
Gardener on Sherlock Street~Thanks. I hope it cools down. The plants are dying one by one and the veggie patch looks really dreadful. No green patch here.
Takaeko~I don't do much gardening this month since it been so hot. Nothing to do except for watering the plants and hope some of them survive.
Mark~The container garden and the corner that receive partial sun is the only plants that shows some sign of green life. Its really wierd, winter gardening not much a problem for us here but mid-summer this year is where I stop gardening for awhile. The only think to do is water water water.
Catmint~With the mid-summer we have this year, I don't have the chance to do much gardening as it is too hot. Probably that the reason I am not feeling energetic;-).
Dani~Thanks. I probably just start planning for end summer now for cool season veggies.
JGH~Its been harder here to garden each year with so little rain that we had.
Cookingvarieties~We don't have a large garden. But strawberry plants don't take much space so it is easy to squeeze them here and there.
Cat-from-Sydney~I was thinking to erect some tarpaulin shade but the sun still strong here. I used up all our shade area at the moment.
Liz~Too much sun here in summer that growing them in partial shade has much more better chance to survive. Better to have something to harvest even a little than nothing at all.
Lrong~We been lucky at other season. But summer here is always hard to get through.
Tina~Hopefully some of the strawberries will bounce back.
Lena~It takes only one hour to dry bedsheets here in summer.
Cathy~I should follow as well grow most of the vegetables in the autumn winter and spring. Last summer was allright but not this one.
Wow..what a disaster...habiss...
ReplyDeleteCathJ~Habis harapan, bulan ni nak kena tanam baru.
ReplyDelete