Watered and thinned. No planting.

Caution: Brain is tired from interrupted sleep last night and more gardening. Random topic changes will occur.

 Decided to water the beds and not do any planting today. May do it tomorrow if I get out there early enough. This is just a test run for actual summer.

What you can't see very well is the back of the new bed is collapsing out between the ends of the border pieces. This is annoying, I worked hard to get that soil amended! I did a little aquacultivation to hopefully even out some of the highs and lows in the bed.

Then the quandary of what to put in the gap to keep the soil from leaking out. Well there just happens to be a stick right there....and thought I got a picture but guess not.

I might find a larger log or something that will work better because the stick isn't as high as the rest of the border. Going to likely let everything sit for another day to get a bit more dry before planting. It really does need more compost, it's all very much still muddy with a little compost.

So the radish seedlings that have come up are getting a bit crowded so I started thinning them and got the brilliant idea for the ones that the roots were still intact to transplant them to the other shady bed.

I could have sworn I took pictures of the north bed! Stupid phone! Will add those in later I guess. Suffice to say I thinned and transplanted some to the south bed and some just in extra space where the existing ones were. Probably should thin a bit more but can do that tomorrow.

 As I've quipped before, Spring in my area lasts about 2.5  minutes and then goes straight into summer. That's what's happening now and after looking at the garden I don't think I have to worry about the new bed being in shade during the summer. It was very much in the sun and even if it does get a little shade it will only be in the early morning.

I'm convinced now that I planted the other seeds too deep and they just aren't germinating.  So I cheated a bit and put some of the transplants over there. Not really cheating but being thrifty.

I need to look at either improvising or buying some more tools. Need something to scrape a shallow seed trench, like a sharpened dowel or rod of some sort. Brain just got another idea of scraping the top half inch or so off and letting it dry a little, then using a container of some sort to sift the soil back on after planting seeds.

 On the topic of temps and weather.

You just can't make blanket statements about when to plant things when there's so many variations of weather and location. There's ballpark times of year but for us when a seed packet says to plant between February and April for spring veggies, they're already too late. We have to plant spring stuff in winter and hope they don't get pelted by rain or too much frost.The soil temperature is another factor. I mentioned digging down in that new bed and it was still cool and damp. For some seeds and plants the soil temperature is more important than air temperature.

 

The wind is picking up a bit today so here's hoping it'll get a bit cloudy later. Doubtful according to the weather but one can always hope. This is our equivalent of 'monsoon' weather which by that name normally brings rain, with ours it's hot, dry air which in the Mediterranean area is called a Sirocco. Dry and dusty wind bringing sand and heat from the Sahara, well ours comes from the South East and  Arizona and has the same effect.

Via Wikipedia:

"The best-accepted explanation for the name Santa Ana winds is that it is derived from the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County, one of the many locations the winds blow intensely. Newspaper references to the name Santa Ana winds date as far back as 1882."

So weather trivia it is. You were warned about random topic changes.