Some forgotten details and ending season

 I took pictures of my 'compost pile' and forgot to talk about it. There's several different  methods of composting, the lazy way and the working way are the major divisions. This is the lazy way.

You can dig a hole or not and just start piling cuttings, leftover bits and stuff and let it sit. Water it down occasionally (as I've been doing) and just let it decompose on it's own. Lazy, takes longer for it to break down (sometimes years) and no guarantee of viability. I didn't want to cart the leaves and clippings all the way across the complex to the dumpster so here it is. If I was really next step more ambitious I would use some of the tomato cages to create a frame of sorts. Nah. 

I picked two tomatoes today that were really cracking and figured they wouldn't get much bigger anyway. Test how ready they are by tugging firmly on the tomato, if it breaks off it's ready, if you have to put more effort into it then it's not ready. These, despite coloring, came off easily.

The two in front are from today but you can see how badly the heat is affecting them. I have two more that are on the shady side of the bush that are going to be closer to regular size and show no signs of cracking so far, but it's early yet. Barely coloring on the bigger one (didn't get a picture)

It is now 84 degrees at 11 am and this weather pattern will continue to the weekend. Yuck.

There are a few itty bitty zucchini coming on but again, whether they get pollinated is chancy, stupid bushes. Those are also getting more mildew spots due to it being shadier now for them, humid and warmer. Prime conditions for powdery mildew. Do I care? Not this late in the season, which by the way, late summer and fall is fungus season! Yes indeed, all those images we remember for depicting fall, mushrooms, orange leaves, spiders, yep that's all for a reason.

And of course the tomato bush is showing signs of winding down as well.

Nothing to see here folks, perfectly normal yellowing, could be something but again, this late in the season I'm not going to worry about it. There are also tons of flowers coming in on the tips of the upper growth. Not going to worry about it right now really, this is a first year garden and I know now to put the zucchini over here and the peppers in the other bed, tomatoes can go anywhere but hope another bed opens up by next spring.

The cilantro didn't survive sadly it got baked really bad and not sure the bell peppers are going to come up either, experiments rarely turn out successful the first time. So another sign of late summer/fall are different bugs. This one is an oleander bug.

It's got it's wings open and was walking up the fence, since I was walking Rocky it was difficult to get my phone out and take a picture one handed and in focus. I had to adjust this a great deal just to see it in the photo. Again, nothing to worry about with this one, they are seed eaters and show up when the oleander starts putting on seed pods. It usually look like this:

And on that note, things to do today so that's going to wrap it up for now.