Collection and harvesting and other stuff

 It is overcast today and won't even approach 80 degrees so it's much cooler and I even have long pants on instead of my shorts. The little female #zucchini is bigger but still has a closed flower so I collected male flowers that had plenty of pollen.

Will check her tomorrow

Hoping these are still good.

I pruned some of the leaves off the zucchini and did a much harsher pruning on the tomato as well as picking the tomato what was almost ripe. I have apples in the fridge so put it in there to help it along.

Still a little green

Cut even more off after pic

When I was pruning the tomato I was shocked to see a leaf entirely covered in thrips. The still photo doesn't do it justice but needless to say I cut it off, carried it carefully over to my leaf pile and stepped on it several times.

Now the bush itself is still in great condition so why didn't I instantly panic and find some insecticide? Because why use something for an isolated case? I found the colony, destroyed it and of course I didn't get rid of all of them but I have a thriving bush so not really need to do that.

Something else I discovered on the zucchini that I thought I had avoided, mildew. At least it looks like mildew, powdery mildew most likely, but still an isolated incident.

So I just cut off those leaves, and several others to get more light to the interior of the plant, and threw them on the leaf pile. I didn't have to water today so will do that tomorrow but I have been trying to water around and under the plants rather than over the top, like ya do.

Bit of a different from yesterday to today's pruning. I did even more after this so it's considerably thinner on the bottom. Hoping that gives some more energy to the fruit that's there. I really am looking forward to adding more organic food to the soil and turning this bed over for the winter. As far as San Diego is concerned, Fall doesn't start until November, we really don't get cold until late December or January. So some people are still growing and planting tomatoes and peppers now that know our weather patterns.

The one thing I have encountered several times in all my years is the 'helpful relative' who is visiting and wanting to help their friend/sibling/daughter/ whoever to plant their garden or do some landscaping. Well the problem is, this person is 7 out of 10 times not from San Diego and 9 out of 10 times not from even from California. The worst was a young (30ish) couple who's in laws were visiting to help them get plants for their new house. The mother kept interrupting me when I was asking questions and saying I really like this or I think that looks good, none of which were options that would work. I finally had to put my smiley face on and look at her with a audible chuckle to smooth things over, 'Okay so who's house is this?' they would say it's hers, indicating the younger lady, 'okay so where do you live?' she said something like Ohio or something back east 'I'm just visiting', 'She's the one that's going to live in the house not you.' I then turned to the woman who actually owned the house and started asking her questions pointedly about what she liked to see.

My daughter wanted me to go with her to the nursery because she knows I have lived and worked here and knows what is what. If someone is  visiting from Michigan or Ohio, 'oh well where I live we do this'. Well you can just take your suggestions and stuff it. Even if you lived across town that's going to be different than living in El Cajon or Los Angeles or anywhere else. There is a saying I learned from a wonderful manager at the nursery, '5 feet's as good as a mile' meaning, your neighbor could have completely different soil than you do so stop trying to get the same results with what you are doing.

Another lady I encountered obviously had more money than I ever will as she kept talking about her house in Del Mar then goes on about 'when I lived in (some town near L.A.) I never had this problem, and then when I had a house in Colorado....' Stop right there... omg.  I know to me it sounded like she was bragging about how many places she had but in fact was trying to point out that she was an experienced gardener and her garden in Peñasquitos didn't work like it did (name somewhere else she had lived) and oh but I was probably wrong about why her flowers weren't working well because she was an experienced gardener. I told her I had over 20 years experience dealing with plant and soil problems working at a full service nursery. 'Well that's not the same'.  Stand still and let me knock you off your high priced shoes old lady.

The point of all this is when looking online or asking someone advice, listen to them with a critical ear. Make sure they are from your area and have experience more than 5 years and not just 'a friends gardener' or 'the old guy who used to do my garden'. 'I saw a youtube video on how to do this last year'.

Anyway, just check your sources okay? I have experience yes, but I still check information and make sure I'm trying to pass on correct information because I hate being wrong and passing that on.

My how it's grown!