Heat wave again which means more water!

Yes indeed, did I call it or did I not? Going to be in the mid 90's today so at almost noon we have buttoned up for the day after our one errand.

What does this have to do with gardening? Water, water and more water because it is  a weather pattern that is particular to SoCal called Santa Ana conditions (spelling is still debatable). It is a hot weather pattern usually happening twice a year and is the equivalent of 'monsoon' season in areas south of the equator. Ours is just the opposite, breezy to windy, humidity less than 25% and temps anywhere from 80s-90s. My sinuses informed me of this condition when I woke up this morning.

So back to gardening, it is low humidity and high heat which means plants and soil dry out very fast. I may actually go water again tomorrow. Now you see why that cooler weather was a false start and not to plant anything for cool season yet? I remember seeing pansies and other cool season annuals come in to the nursery and the other garden center and thinking, 'wait for it....' and no sooner than we get them in, we get this kind of weather that just cooks them. Do not water delicate things in the morning, wait until evening if you have to water. The water on the leaves during the day can absolutely burn leaves and the plants will almost melt.

Now then, as far as my garden is concerned, I watered dry dirt to keep microbes going hopefully.

It was about 10 am when I took those pictures. The south bed is in full shade so that is definitely going to be things like peas and leafy stuff. The other bed, after watering you can see the puddle to the right of the log making a nice dam effect. Heaving a deep breath thinking about how much work that's going to need. Might even put another board about four inches from the wall so I can build it up a bit more to level it. 

The tomatoes are growing and a lesson in why staking/tying and thinning is so important.

The branches at the bottom have some good fruit on them, but the weight is pulling it down. I tried to lift it up and felt some cracking where it was threatening to snap where I held it. I gently put it back down again or risk losing four fruit on that branch. 

And I mentioned fungus season as well, signs of fall are all happening. Spiders, webs, birds, weather and mushrooms. Ever notice in some places walking around there's a definite mushroom/fungus smell in the air? Yep. These are rather small but right next to some tree roots, yeppers... can't get any more obvious than that.

Oh and besides the jade plant that they put in, the fixed the area around the corner from that as well. Used to be bare dirt with some small white rocks that likely were from a pot of some sort. Now... something much prettier.

Mexican heather and another jade plant. The guys know how to plant thankfully and made a watering moat around it. I think there's a sprinkler head right on the corner there so hoping that enough water clears both the bush and the moat wall that it gets watered. The thing is, that jade should be in a more dry area by it's type, but as we all know about jade plants, they actually don't mind being in the shade and look much nicer, as long as it is a drier shade or an area that drains well.

I mention things like this as a matter of things that work and things shouldn't work but do. Commercial properties don't usually have options and at least they had some money to try and update areas. I so wish I had my own yard to be writing about but this is what I have to work with. 

With the way the housing market is going and our finances, buying a house any time soon is out of the question. Renting,  maybe but again finances being what they are, not in the forseeable future. 

Years ago I was chatting with a customer and they said, 'you must have a wonderful yard!' I said no, actually I'm in a two bedroom upstairs apartment and work at two jobs where I can't use what I know. I also worked at a fabric store and had no area to have a workspace for that either.  

Someone said 'it is what it is' and my reply is 'but what is it?'

It's making do with what you have.