June 1, 2023

Seasonal Shift: Summer

June, from my cross-stitch calendar Christmas present. :)

Summer is here. I have to say that I enjoy early summer the best; we've finished with the cold, but the oppressive heat hasn't arrived yet (we save that for July and August). Summer's arrival is notable because it signals a general shift in almost everything we do. Garden work is now in the morning while it's cool. Afternoons are for indoor and shade projects. We've switched from flannel to cotton bed sheets, and I've moved cooking and canning from the kitchen to the back porch. With the solstice coming up, we'll need to change the angle of our solar array too.

In terms of projects, nothing new is planned because "food first." Garden mulching, weeding, picking, and processing are the priority of the season. Summer is usually dry, so I concentrate on monitoring soil moisture and making sure everything has enough water to grow. We'll continue working on the greenhouse and sewing room. And there are always things that come up. So, were definitely going to be busy.

How's everyone else's summer shaping up? Gardens? Vacations? Building projects? Anything else?

12 comments:

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Nothing going on here until my husband's 16 hour days change. We are not able to get what we want planted due to that, and being so far behind. Heck, we have not even de-winterized the camper. I am just trying to get indoor stuff done, that I can manage on my own, but we lack AC upstairs right now, so it's too hot to work up there. It's been a rough start to this year's garden for sure. And we have not even bought supplies to build the new coop.

Rosalea said...

Brutally hot here for a few days. Fire bans are in place. My transplants, although hardened off well, are looking a bit stressed. Looking forward to more seasonal temps. to get the rest of the garden planted.

Leigh said...

Kristina, he's back on 16 hour days?! I thought that was done. Whew, that's rough. Especially with all the renovating and remodeling you've been doing. I hope things get better for you soon.

Leigh said...

Rosalea, that doesn't sound good. It's really tough trying to transplant when the weather is hot and dry. I hope you get your seasonal weather soon!

daisy g said...

Still enjoying our cooler than average spring to think about the heat and humidity of summer! We don't vacation, so we'll be right here on the homestead just keepin' on!

Leigh said...

Daisy, lucky you! I know you'll make good use of your time. :)

Ed said...

Summer is here too though for us, without having gone through the spring rainy season. Oppressive heat has been here too which hasn't been a lot of fun building a cabin in these last 10 days. I'm not sure what we will do about the garden water situation. I'm thinking of perhaps stringing out a country mile of garden hose and sitting back with a book for a few hours versus carrying all those buckets to keep things watered. If I do that, we will finish all the mulching first so that it is hopefully retained longer.

Leigh said...

Ed, I read your recent garden post yesterday, so I see what you've been facing. You have a big garden, so you'd need a lot of hose! Soaker hose, right? If you put it down first and cover it with mulch, wouldn't it still work, with the benefit that the mulch would keep the water from evaporating so quickly? (Having to spend a few hours with a book while the hose does the work for you sounds very appealing.)

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Leigh, oddly enough we seem to be on a slow burn into Summer this year. Our weather is in the 80's but not oppressively hot (yet).

I think I have the garden set up for regular watering now, which will be a test when we are away for a few days. So far it seems to be working well. I will be interested to see if this improves my overall yield.

Perhaps you have discussed it before, but how do you typically monitor moisture?

Leigh said...

TB, so far, I can't complain about the start of June. It reminds me of summer where I grew up.

I monitor moisture basically by observation: last rainfall and amount, digging a small hole under the mulch with a hand trowel, and by the condition of the plant. When summer is in full swing, our rains are less soaking and tend to evaporate quickly. So I check by feel often. I don't have an actual irrigation system in place, so it's mostly hand watering, which keeps me constantly checking.

Ed said...

Because the most direct route from the spigot to the garden goes over areas driven over frequently by tractors, semis and other large things, we can't leave it lay unfortunately. Thus we just have regular garden hose. Although I haven't blogged about it yet, we are back from the garden this morning where we drug out the hose, watered everything very thoroughly and mulched it heavily to help retain that moisture for longer. Hopefully that will buy us a couple weeks until we can get a decent rainfall and give us a break from the buckets. Everything is growing very fast in this heat we've been getting since we've kept them watered manually.

Leigh said...

Ed, it sounds like you've worked out a doable system. There are always challenges to gardening. I think we just have to work with solutions that work best for us. It's great to hear everything is growing. You should get a great harvest!