As planned... digging and feeding and watering.

 I got my exercise in! Yeesh! Took the bag of fertilizer and my hose sprayer down but didn't think to bring my entire basket with gloves and pruners which turns out I needed. Oh well.

First off, I startled Meester Leezard (or maybe should call him Woody?) as I got to the garden and it skittered along the wall and back into the wood pile. I then noticed, holes. Or rather divots.

They are too narrow and deep for it being cat digs. I didn't notice any animal prints and the hose was in the aloe which means the other lady had watered. Hmmph. The other bed had some holes as well.

No smell of cat leavings either so it may be possum, raccoon? Human? There is a large chunk of dirt that was tipped up so had to have some strength. The south bed is a lot softer so digging that deep isn't necessary. Oh well, tilled it all in. 

Now as for the other beds that are not mine... looks like melons of some sort maybe cucumber, two onions and then the final sign that she just doesn't have all the brains in there for gardening.

Considering her bed had a divot as well I can't blame the holes on her.

There's a term for what she does and I can't think of it. She just sticks random things in the ground thinking that because it looks healthy it's going to grow. The seeds are doing good but if those are melons she has way too many and most assured most of them will die by summer.

A 'rose cutting'?

 So as I've mentioned, the weeds are also growing like...well...weeds. This is what we call 'spring' in San Diego. After the first rains of the season things are just busting out all over.

'Cheese Weed' or 'Mallow'

The tallest ones are all prickly lettuce and then there's the 'Cheese Weed' which is named for the shape the seed capsules that look like a wheel of cheese. Don't be deceived, I dug all these out because of how big they can get. Easier to do it now.

Dandelion in shade

Prickly Lettuce

Big difference in the leaves for these two. That dandelion is the same one I took a picture of three days ago that was no bigger than the palm of my hand. The prickly lettuce was as tall as my knee this week and ankle high three days ago.

Oh yeah and don't get me started on the scourge of garden and lawn alike.... oxalis (Creeping Woodsorrel)... aka 'clover' as some people call it.

This is the creeping cousin to the other oxalis I used to munch on. This stuff... this is horrific in so many ways. It spreads by runners and when it goes to see the seed capsules are like little rocket shapes that when they pop it can throw seed at least a foot away from the main plant. Yeah this stuff has to go and I am going to have to do it organically. I dug some of it up but just remembered about using vinegar which I have. I don't have a spray bottle unfortunately so have to get that first and will take before and after pictures. I don't usually recommend 'home remedy' things but I have no choice in this since I'm not going to risk overspray on anything else out there.

Meanwhile, back at the tomato:

That's on the topmost long branch coming out, was trying to shift and tuck it in and heard a crunch. Hoping I didn't damage the branch too badly. Going to be about a month before that little baby is ready.

So I cultivated er, hacked with the cultivator in the bed first to get it broken up. The soil hasn't been worked in at least two months so it was not bone dry but just dry enough it was hard and in order to put fertilizer down it needed to be opened up.

Still a bit shady

Fertilizer applied

Almost forgot to take a picture before working the fertilizer in. Did the same for the other bed and worked it all really well before watering it in. Will likely water again tomorrow or day after to make sure (oh and the 30" depth on the bed is correct after I marked off usable area).

Dangit, I was going to do a soil test before putting fertilizer down, oh well. Will do that in a few weeks after it's had time to distribute into the soil. Did I measure how much I put down? Nope.. it's organic fertilizer and I know it needed it so just sprinkled it to whatever I thought looked good. Supposedly this lasts for 3 months, will see what I have in the ground in three months and also see if there's 'fertilizer tea' directions on the bag like there is for the top brand.

Oops, sorry cilantro.

I really need to get an actual camera or learn how to take better pictures on my phone.

 

Was not paying attention and almost dug up the little cilantro seedlings in the other bed. Brains  said, 'small green things like weeds hackychoppy' just before the second swing I stopped realizing what I had just done. Poor things.

After I watered and was digging up the weeds at the back I heard water coming on. Turn around and sure enough, the sprinklers came on. I even walked past the guy and nodded to him as he was turning on one of the other valves on the way to the garden. 

10:20 a.m.

So remember the lady that complained people always water the lemon bush and ruins the lemons? Yeah..the one sprinkler head is aimed right at it for a reason. I had to step over that sprayer and side step to the right to go around the corner to turn off the hose I was using. 'Coiling' up the hose is another matter of course but managed to not get too wet. The tree in the distance is at the end of the sidewalk and the hose bib is roughly across from it on the right.

One of these days I might even try and video my trek from the apartment to the garden with running commentary. As long as there isn't any helicopters, sirens, airplanes, neighbors and such creating too much noise.

Oh drat! Oh, okay... forgot to put the tomato cage back on the bed then realized I had just watered so hopefully cats and other animals might leave it alone. Will find out in the morning.