Up and Down Summer

Every time I think the weather has settled in to one regime or the other; cool and wet, warm and dry, hot and wet, it reverses and starts anew.  The prediction for the next week is ideal for mid summer.  Warm and dry with plenty of sunshine.  There is plenty of moisture in the soil and many summer crops have been waiting for this kind of weather to finally take off.  The peppers and eggplant especially need heat units to produce a crop before late August heralds the shorter days and cooler mornings of autumn.  Even the cole crops will thrive with a little more heat, and the corn is tasseling and starting to form ears.  This is the nitty gritty time of the season.  It is tempting to walk away from the weeds and the seeding and transplant schedules, but it will be a cruel September if I do.