A storm is coming...sort of.

 There's a hurricane coming up the coast of Mexico and is supposed to drop some rain on us. Well right now it's overcast, breezy/windy and still muggy and in the low 90's. Bleh. Likely won't get much in the way of decent rain, if it drizzles or sprits it's so warm it will evaporate before it hits the ground.

I managed to get out and check on things anyway, the last bean is looking a bit toasty and so is the remaining cucumber. Might just rip them both out and leave the bed alone for the remainder of the year. The raised bed is going to have nice, nourishing potting soil so the fertilzer is best used in the ground beds.

 The beetles are still working on aphids and other bugs on it, one of the few reasons why I haven't pulled it yet. Haven't seen any new flowers on this one either and the edges being that way rings a bell in the back of my mind about needing nutrients. Quick investigating and yep, potassium deficiency among other things. So if I want to save it need to use the fertilizer on it but you know what?  It really isn't worth the hassle. It's struggling, the bean behind it had either sunburn or also had the same deficiency so just not going to bother, the bean in front is struggling as well so another bed going fallow for the summer.

That bottom picture looks like it was taken in the 60's right? I wanted to get a picture of the hole size comparison because it's smaller than the other 'gopher holes' near the jade plant. A lot of them as I pointed out last time. I watered those holes really well as you can see in the upper right pictures. That mud patch is where the biggest hole was.

So gophers go at it. Another couple of months and hopefully will have money saved for putting the raised bed up. Oh, now is a good time to review how to use filler in a deep bed like that.

Rounding it down to 24 inches, it seems like it's not that much but actually, it is. Most plants need half that much root room so there's any number of things to do in order to not fill the entire frame with planting soil.

So I have logs, plenty of them, I also have rough mulch, they're calling for plant waste, compost and organic soil. I don't want to take all the logs against the wall because that's a habitat for lizards, I also don't have any green waste but if they mow the lawn around the time I put this up I can use that. As for the compost/organic soil, basically the same for me. 

My layering would go as this: chicken wire, cardboard, logs, rough mulch (as listed on another site) then the soil on top of that with more mulch to top it off. There needs to be a more solid layer on top of the logs like more cardboard or something so the soil doesn't filter down. If I had some window screen or shade cloth that would be ideal. How many logs I'm going to need is going to be the big question and of course this is all predicated on actually doing this  in a few months.

Still don't know whether we're going to be here next year. Money can't buy happiness for those who have more than they can use. For those like us, happiness and living securely comes with more funds to live stress free.