More gopher sign and a good tomato.

 Weather started with light overcast and has cleared with the breeze that came up. The gopher seems to be focused on the neighbors bed...right next to mine which is why my cilantro got cut down. Wonder why only that one and not the other, maybe it tasted like soap to it and left it alone.

Hard to tell but the onion in the neighbor bed was eaten from underneath or at least it was disturbed. Technically and from experience of several gardeners, gophers don't eat lilies or onions (same family different flavor). Can't tell if it was eaten or it just came to the surface there and tried to eat it but decided against it.

 

 There are signs of digging along the wall as well behind that bed and a little behind mine. Stay away from my carrots!

This is the spot where the cilantro got cut down, I took a picture because you can see the pelleted type of dirt... that is worms working which is an excellent thing to know. Means there's enough organic matter for them to be active close to the surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm looking at the soil to check for any raised areas that would indicate it coming to the surface. No, we don't have moles, this is most definitely a Western Pocket Gopher. I grew up with them in my yard and know the signs.

I watered the lettuces behind the potatoes, all transplants are looking good as well. New seeds are continuing to come up so I may have a lot of pepper plants soon, which could be the green pepper seeds I collected or the mixed colorful ones (not counting on those since they were put in a much longer time ago).

I saved out some of the seeds from the red bell pepper in the fridge, drying them out in a safer place this time and might use a paper egg carton and borrowed soil to plant them instead of going right out to the garden.

I also decided to use the smaller tomato I picked day before yesterday. It had a minor split and not a lot of mite damage. Cut it open and put it in a salad, tasted just fine. 

 Good meat to seed ratio and was just the perfect size for chopping in a salad. As everyone says, straight from the garden tastes better and this one did have more flavor than the ones I got from the market. Who knows where those tomatoes came from and how long they had been off the vine, whether they were treated to ripen them or what, They looked fine, tasted good and were definitely greenhouse grown because of how evenly colored and perfect they were.

Mine had a slightly orange skin and deep pink flesh, it's a Better Boy and that's just fine. I'm going to hold off cutting the plant down until the last three or four are ripe and picked.

They're still very orange right now and not close to being ripe, maybe another few days and be all ready. Good thing too because we're out of tomatoes and use them more than we did before between salad for me and home made hamburgers and sandwiches. 

Yay I'm using my veggies!