Hot and dry delayed watering

 Had a farewell party for the apartment manager so didn't get to the garden to do anything until after noon. In this heat that is a bad thing.

The sunflowers are getting some sort of leaf fungus on the lower leaves which is concerning me since they haven't started even budding yet. Since it's the lower leaves I'm guessing it's the constant watering I'm doing and it stays on the leaf to be a great growing area for fungus or it's burning the leaves.

Everything is still there thankfully but damn it's so dry and pancake hot on the ground. Weather today is kind of funky, started clear but now it's windy and high clouds are moving in, good and bad on that. Good because it keeps the sun from baking the air and soil, bad because it holds the heat in when the sun goes down and that makes for a warmer and more humid day. Makes for a wonderful breeze coming through the apartment and until the sun comes over the building we'll keep it open.

The green Japanese 'bomber' beetles are out, also known as Japanese Fig Beetles, one of them buzzed the window screen this morning and Rocky took note. They are so slow moving you can catch them with a net easily or even a hat. I remember seeing them all over the fig trees at the nursery and then also on the palm tree flowers somewhere else. They are nectar and pollen eaters so they ruin fruit like figs but also are a pollinator this time of year.

Not much else going on for gardening.  It's the doldrums of summer right now and I'm pining for the tall fir forests of the north.