Just about everyone has had it with the heat and humidity. There is complaining everywhere. Again, like I said last week, at least we are not in the southern heat dome. To be this miserable at 80 degrees boggles the mind to be in the triple digits. I grew up in a mountain town in western Pennsylvania and have probably endured 100 degrees only a handful of times in my life. I love it when people say, “But it’s dry heat.” My response is usually, “So is the oven.”

We’ve also received a decent amount of rain, especially for July. Many of my places still are using their irrigation systems.

Hence the plant material in some of the flower beds is moldy and unpleasant. Violet took a photo this week of some odd-looking mushrooms growing in a flower box.

I know nothing about mushrooms. I enjoy eating them but am entirely disqualified to forage for them.

The good news is I don’t need to, since I’m loaded with food in the vegetable garden. It is loving this weather. I have zucchini and cucumber ready every couple of days.

The onions are still growing, as opposed to finishing smaller than I hoped with less water.

I will polish off the rest of the lettuce this week. I neglected to replant a few weeks ago. Hopefully I will get some seeds in the ground this week.

In the flower beds, the most pressing task is the dead leafing of daylilies. Be very careful while doing it as it’s easy to knock the yet-to- bloom buds off their stems.

Hopefully one has kept up with the spraying of deer repellent so there are actual buds. The little jerks will eat every one before they get a chance to bloom. Those buds can be found in soups in Chinese restaurants, so they are edible for humans as well.

Violet is very crafty and has made a French-braided strand of garlic more than three feet long. Of course this can only be done with the soft-necked variety.

The hard necks need to be eaten first since they do not last in storage.

The same is true for onions. Some keep well like Patterson and Cortland, while the sweet ones like Texas Grano, Ailsa Craig or Red Southport should be eaten at least by Christmas.

Speaking of onions, I saw something at Heather Gardens that was amazing. Some unsold six packs of used-to-be onion seedlings had matured and dried in each little section of the pack. They were sitting on top of the soil, ready to be removed and used for supper.

We have come to a place of alarming acceptance of the climate crisis. Words like the new normal are thrown around. There is no longer a new normal. It’s getting worse.

Aside from the worldwide heat and floods, even never-mentioned Vermont is a disaster area.

The waters in south Florida are in the 90-degree range. Aside from being a hurricane magnet, fish and coral will be affected.

To top it all off, malaria has been found in the state. Should be interesting as the health department in the state is understaffed by Governor DeSantis. He’s still sour about efforts to curtain the spread of Covid.

Plus, he’s too busy gallivanting around the country, trying to introduce himself to the national electorate. It’s not going so well, as folks don’t like what they see.