A Tale of Two Hops

It has been pretty hot the last few days and it is taking a toll on the lawn. Even worse, one of my hops plants appears to be withering on the vine. Or, the vine is withering. In any event, it is not doing well. I might almost say that it is doing the opposite of well.
Below is a picture of the Sterling Hops Vine. It has been growing fine, with great speed and a fair amount of verve. It doesn't look so vervy right now.

The next picture is the Hallertau Hops Vine. It is lush and really verviful.

The only thing I can think of that I might have done to contribute to this was a couple weeks back when both plants were covered with aphids. I sprayed some soapy water on both plants and that seemed to help get rid of the bugs.

If it is the soapy water that caused the problem, it's strange that it hurt one and not the other. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on it.

A couple of weeks back, I planted some grass seed around the front yard in some bad patches of lawn. I was about to give up on it when I noticed it finally starting to germinate and grow last night. So far, I only have seed growing in a couple of the patches. Two out of eight is not good odds but perhaps the others are lagging behind.

I'll be keeping an eye on that as well.