A surprise to be sure!

 Weather today is the same as yesterday so will be closing up soon. Nothing remarkable happening for the plants but I did get a picture of the plumeria and then there's the surprise at the door yesterday afternoon.

I heard a loud thump in the front room whilst occupied in the bathroom and thought maybe Jon had fallen, nope. A big box was delivered. I didn't order anything, Jon didn't order anything, the label said it was for me.

What the heck? Then we looked at the label and I remembered one of my old college friends and a fellow gardener had said a few weeks ago she wished she could send me a raised bed. Well she did. (Thank you Laurie!)

Sweet friend of mine. It's like a permanent kind of metal raised bed frame and looks like it needs two people to assemble but it is only 40Lx24wx29h. About the same dimensions as any of my three beds. Jon raised the same concern that if we move we can't take it with us if it's full of dirt so it will have to stay behind or we can put it in storage for when we do get a place of our own. If we get the money enough to get our own place, we'll have the money to get a new one. Or there will be ones already in place. First I need to get permission to put the bed in.

So that project is going to wait for a bit as it is too hot to do serious assembly and I don't have any soil to put in it. But here's the general plan once i can do it.

I assessed the fence bed area because where it sits needs to be level and this is the most level unplanted area. This is progression of events that would have to happen:

The mulch would have to get scraped off and saved. (Day 1)

Level out the soil with shovel and water, filling tunnels and holes. (Day 2/3)

Lay down the remaining chicken wire netting, securing it with dirt or logs. (Day 3/4)

Assemble it in place as per the directions. (Day 4/5)

 The retaining border may or may not be kept in place, the dimensions are almost the same. 

 Netting is 2' x 25' originally. I don't think I used half of what I had. 2 ft wide is pushing it because ideally I needed 3 feet wide. I can double what I have left crosswise and that should cover it.

And of course this is all based on whether I can actually put the frame there. The other part is, no money for soil and from my calculations I will need roughly 6 cu ft. Kelloggs makes (or used to make) a 3 cu ft bag of raised bed/potting mix. They likely still make it but it may not be available in  my area. They are 2 cu ft bags now and run about $9 each and weigh almost 40# each. 

Updates as they happen.

Meanwhile, the plumeria and other things in the garden.

 

Didn't get close enough to smell the flowers but they are very pretty. Definite color difference on the peppers and the one in the ground is losing lower leaves. Not sure if it's overwatering, heat stress or both.

 

The cucumber is pulling the stakes inward as the tendrils latch on and curl. no big deal but I had the right idea with using an inverted cage as the other small one is not quite reaching the next tendril to a support. This pepper is even smaller than the other one so I think that plant is done. Flowers are blooming but the leaves are falling, it's stressing about something and not putting good size fruit out. 

Oh the things I could grow in that bed! Fall veggies would be lettuce and peas, carrots, maybe a potato in one end. Can you believe I still have some of those gold potatoes from when I harvested? They haven't shriveled up or sprouted yet! And yet a bag of russets I got after those were pulled were sprouting in about three weeks. Thinking about it now, the gold potatoes are off by themselves, not in a bag or bowl. The bagged potatoes are all crammed together and if they are like apples they will create their own gasses to promote growth/aging. So that's the key.

Anyway, a surprise gift has given me hope again for an actual garden.