The Basil is Bolting, but the Beans are Bustin' Out

This is our third 90 degree day in a row and the garden is a bit confused.  Some summer annuals are blooming now.  Everything is a little heat stressed, especially the hydrangeas.  I've been watering a lot more than usual and that seems to be helping.  The lettuce leaves have tripled in size and I don't think will be good for salad past the weekend.  The spinach has begun to bolt.  One variety of basil thinks it's August and has already flowered, seemingly overnight.  I cut it back pretty severely, which should at least slow it down. 

It isn't all bad news.  One bonus of this scorching weather is that the beans I wrote about earlier in the week have already sprouted and are working on their second set of leaves.

Our daughter Polly is coming home on Monday for a couple of weeks.  She is a teacher at the International School of Jakarta, Indonesia.  I can't wait to see her, we always have a great time together.  I am also excited because Polly is a very clever carpenter.  I have a few outdoor projects that are going to thrive on her attention, particularly a gaping hole in the fence that looks like it has lost a tooth.  

A few years ago when she was living at home while teaching locally, Polly built us a beautiful arbor leading to the backyard.  It is now covered with a very pretty peach/apricot climbing rose, Polka.  This is a Meiland rose that is bred in this country by Star Roses.   It is lovely with huge multi-petaled blooms, both single and in sprays.  It has a delicious old rose scent.  After four years, ours is about 9 feet high and very vigorous.  This year it is particularly beautiful.

However, that Polka rose has me to thank for it's continuing existence.  Roses are always high maintenance,  and never trouble-free.  I had to campaign long and hard to even get Tim to even consider planting a rose by Polly's arbor.  He is not one to fawn and nurture, hence his love of native species.  Our Polka seemed to have more than her share of trouble from the beginning, with aphids, beetles and assorted fungus.  Every fall Tim would declare that the "rose was going" and I would convince him to wait just one more season.   We finally made an exception for all our roses this year  to our "nothing but nature" approach to plant care.  We applied a systemic rose food, insecticide, fungicide to the soil around them, and I have to say, they are all thriving - especially the Polka.  Does the end justify the means?  Well, maybe with roses.