"Memorial Day is the unofficial kickoff to summer". Officially calendarly it is JUNE 21. So do you go by official or un?

Me find anything YOU do strange? Not likely m'dear. Not bloody likely!  Know what I most like about what you wrote? "....the same time frame as the growing season..." This I like a lot. It makes sense and there is so little of that these days. I know you grow things and that is always such a positive thing to be doing with your time. Nurturing watering mulching feeding weeding all to help nature out. Every year. Repeat. Sadly many spend time killing squelching starving blocking ending destroying. I don't remember it ever being that way that much. We are in fact "going to he** in a handbasket" in many places. I don't know why that is. But there are pockets of hope where people spend time growing things. Bringing life not preventing it. I suppose you grow magnificent tomatoes? I've been successful at growing some things but for some reason not tomatoes. A small thing overall but still it's annoying when you really like tomatoes! Thank you for your reply Shuhak and Happy Sunday to you and yours. What is your favorite thing that you grow? :)

Yes, I grow good tomatoes.  Have you tried growing patio tomatoes?  They are a determinate variety (one time crop), but they do well in pots (not all varieties do well in pots).  Tomatoes like full sun, but not reflected heat (fence, house, etc.). Potted tomatoes take a lot of water as the soil dries out quickly  They hate water on their leaves, and water on the fruit can cause blossom end rot.  I overhear water my garden, so I have "harsh words" with my tomatoes each year - they can either deal with the water on their leaves or they get NO water.  We usually end up compromising.

I love corn!  I don't get much out of it, but it's well worth it!!  Last year I got something like 7 plants (out of an entire packet of seed) and the ears were only an inch or two in length (some plants didn't even develop any ears).  Still, a freshly picked ear of corn (eaten right there in there garden) is utterly delicious!

Never heard of "patio" tomatoes m'dear. Jim is the one with the green thumb so I'm going to have him read this response. Lucky you! My mouth is watering. I've never had that joyful experience. Eating an ear of corn picked right from the garden that I ever grew. Never tried. What was easy was zuccini, radishes, green onions, cucumbers and strawberries. I tried one year to grow celery, broccoli, cauliflower. Didn't turn out so good. Couldn't eat any of it. I did grow potatoes once upon a time and they turned out pretty okay. I wouldn't have bought them in the market though. Not the prettiest potatoes you ever saw. But they were surprisingly tasty. Thank you for your reply Shuhak. Are you able to successfully grow anything you like to eat? I think avocados grow best on hillsides for water drainage or something. Also we love papaya...not the Mexican kind but the ones grown in Hawaii. Do they grow papayas in the US anywhere? I know they grow avocados successfully. :) This post was edited by RosieG at May 31, 2021 11:17 AM MDT

Zucchini and cucumbers are very easy to grow; it gets hot here rather quickly, so radishes usually end up bolting long before they become edible.  Some unnamed person always eats the tops off green onions before the plant has a chance to mature.  (what?  I love green onion tops!).  The slugs and earwigs get 99% of the strawberries, so I don’t bother with them anymore (there are still a few plants left by the wall in the back yard).  My location prohibits me from growing things like broccoli and cauliflower (too hot in the summer and too many trees making it to cold in the winter).

I would love to grow blueberries, but the only place I have room for them is in the driveway… which the deer have full access to.

Yes, papayas are grown in the US – southern Florida and southern Texas.

If it were within your budget to have a HOT HOUSE would you have one? Is what is grown inside them as good as what you grow in the earth outside? Of course if you're already strapped for space I don't know where you'd put it. Ever grow bamboo? It is the fastest growing anything and it took over our garden! I liked the looks of it...kinda pretty early on. But it is an insidious plant that distracts and beguiles until it takes over.Talk about HOT this week for us is AARRGGHH! Starting with today...96 97 95 94 90 85 77 81. Thank you for your reply Shuhak and also Happy June 1! Wonder what awaits us?

You bet I would!  I had the opportunity to get one once, but there was simply no place to put it. 
Some of the produce you buy in stores is grown in hothouses - especially tomatoes.  I would assume the flavor is comparable to outside grown items, but after growing my own, I'm very biased.  Most store produce is picked a bit on the green side (mass harvesting or to survive shipping) and then box ripened (or gassed) before it hits store shelves.  That's why the flavor of home grown or farmers market (locally grown) produce is so much better.  Once you taste "real" produce, the store stuff will never be the same.  

It's hot here too.  It reached 97.8F here yesterday (a new record).  We've already broke the old record for today (93.8 set in 2016)... and there's still 4 hours of heating to go!

Oh lordy! Of course now we have only winds and fire to make it complete! I sure hope this year isn't nearly as deadly and destructive as last year Shuhak. We were lucky down here. All we had to struggle with was crapped up air and winds for days at a time. But surrounding us lots of destruction and "up north" where there is a lot more vegetation the burnings were insane. I don't have to remind you of that. You LIVED it. All we have to do is SURVIVE it. Fingers crossed. The high yesterday hit 99. Today  in Hemet it will supposedly be 96. I wonder if our utility companies are in any better shape this year than last? I guess we'll find out. Market tomatoes have no taste but they're sure pretty. Home grown? I have had such tomatoes for "dessert". I kid you not. A few home-grown tomatoes with a bit of salt and I'm a happy girl. You can have your hot fudge sundaes and brownies and pie. I'll take tomatoes every time! I remember it well! I have VERY CLEAR food memories. I may have forgotten a lot of things Shuhak but I never forget what an especially delicious food TASTED like. You too? Thank you for your reply.

It's already shaping up to be a excessively bad fire year.  Compared to last year (Jan 1 - May 30), we've had 890 MORE fires and 13189 MORE acreage has burned!  A lot of these were started by escaped burn piles.   They should have banned burning back in February when it was MORE than evident that everything - ground, air, plants - were excessively dry.  But nooo...  instead, they encouraged people to burn to (supposedly) prevent fires (although the same smoke goes into the air either way).  They're still doing large controlled burns in the mountains even now,  There's no snow, rivers are drying up, farmers can't grow due to lack of water... and they're dumping water on controlled burns.  (It's too much trouble to chip the debris and let it serve as ground cover, instead they burn it off; then when it does rain the soil washes away.

Most home grown tomatoes look just like store ones (of the same variety)  Of course there are many more varieties available for the home grower.  Water and temperature can affect a tompotres flavor.  Too little water makes for a more acidic flavor and very tough skins. Excessive heat also can also produce tough skins.

Tomatoes for dessert is fine.  My dad used to eat many of them that way.  Mom tried to wean him off salt for health reasons (he even salted watermelon!), so he smothered the tomatoes with mayonnaise instead.

I've always had a really, REALLY good memory.  I remember a LOT of things clearly (even some things that I don't want to remember).

I hear ya very clearly...especially the part about where there are some things you remember you wish you didn't. Me too. But well you can't unremember purposely. You either do it "naturally" with age, brain disease/trauma or you carry it with you and sometimes you touch it like you do a sore tooth...it feels so much better when you stop! I know the drought is BAAAAACK. So far more so "up north" it seems which is very weird but it's down here too and the area is growing. Dry weather...intense heat...winds. We have the Santa Anas down here. What do you name yours? So this year will be "worse" than last fire-wise? Maybe start each day with a prayer? "Dear Lord not today. Not today." I'm being facetious mostly but not entirely. Thank you for your reply Shuhak. The sky is falling the sky is falling? Are we there yet? :( This post was edited by RosieG at June 4, 2021 5:37 AM MDT

I'm not aware of any special name for our winds.  The ones that exacerbate fires are north and northeast winds.  

I don't know why ours are called Santa Anas. I'll Google it and find out. Thank you for your reply Shuhak! :) I mean there is a town in Orange County called SANTA ANA.

Geez I'll trade ya m2c. Here is our projected weather for the week starting with today's high
88
90
95
96
95
91
89
88
I am not making this stuff up! So do you wanna swap the entire week with us or just a couple of days? Thank you for your reply and Happy Sunday to thee and thine dearie! :)

I would happily trade you. I had to send my husband to get fuel for the heater yesterday....brrrr. 

So we've agreed on the outcome we want. How do we get there from here? Thank you for your reply m2c and Happy Monday to thee and thine! :)

Starting tomorrow, ours will be about the same.

Condolences. Some folks adore HOT. My dearly departed sister-in-law was one of them. Our daughter-in-law who lives in Arizona does. She and our son David(who passed away) lived in Oregon for years. They moved to Arizona because she was tired of always being cold. I thought when David passed away she'd move back up there to be with her daughter and grandkids but no. She plans to stay in Arizona forever. GO FIGGER! We survive hot but don't like it much. So why aren't we living at the beach? When our ship comes in the first thing we do is buy a CONDO at the beach. Any southern California beach. Doesn't matter. Till then we watch reruns of MAGNUM and get away to Hawaii! Where is your TV getaway E? I'm gonna ask. Thank you for your reply! :)

Oh, yeah...high humidity, too.

AARRGGHH! Now that doesn't happen too often here. Our heat is usually DRY heat which is more tolerable than humid air. Thank you for your reply E. How far away are you from the nearest body of water? That would things more humid too wouldn't it? :)

"weather GUESSERS"! I LOVE IT! Weather guessing must pay well and you don't ever have to be right! What a deal! Thank you for your reply E and Happy Friday to thee and thine! Here comes a question.

That's what we called the Navy meteorologists. It irked them.

To their faces? Yeah. Well I don't like being called a BEAN COUNTER either. Thank you for your reply E! :)