Caring for the one remaining plant.

Grabbed my fertilzer this morning and got out to the garden to water and feed. It's going to be in the 90's for a week so needed to get it done. Poor thing really needed that water.

Should have watered yesterday or last night but oh well. Technically not supposed to feed a dry plant but since I flooded it and I'm  using organic fertilizer I just mixed the pellets in with the water before it completely drained.

And because I propped it up on pieces of bark the drainage holes are functioning.  I got the trowel and dug around the soil in the bucket and there was a lot of loose soil around the edges which means I will likely give it another soaking tonight before dark. It will be perked up by then of course but will likely still need the water.

 Oh yes and First day of Fall folks!

Fall always confused me when I was in grade school living in SoCal. We didn't get fall color but yet all the decorations had orange and yellow leaves and signs saying 'it's fall!'. Pumpkins and gourds and all that, it was what you did in the fall and it never occurred to me that it actually happened somewhere. I thought it was just what you did. It wasn't until I was able to go to Massachusetts in October that I got to see actual Fall color and it clicked. When I was a full grown adult. I realized it of course before then but it's nothing like having it right there in front of you. I actually brought two small maple leaves back with me and had them in a floating frame for a few years. That was a trip to see my first grandchild also so it had some meaning.

I do want to live somewhere before too long that when it's the first day of fall, it feels like it. Right now it's going to be 90 and we just turned on the AC and closed up. Of course the weather doesn't follow the calendar any longer. The earth tilts but the weather patterns are shifting as well to the point where it's warmer longer and colder later. At least where I am.

99% of all fall greetings and images are orange and are based on only half (maybe 2/3) of the country's landscape and ecology. The closest thing I have is the Sycamore and Liquidamber trees, which luckily do change color but it's not the same because it could be 85 or 90 and the nights get cool enough to trigger the color change in only some of the trees. There weren't any of those trees where I lived growing up. It was oak trees, eucalyptus and scrub brush that never changed color. 

Oh yeah and the other 'autumn color' is from the Chinese Flame Tree, aka Golden Rain Tree aka Koelreuteria bipinnata (may it's seeds wither and die). The large clusters of yellow flowers, almost unnoticed, to large clusters of yellow then orange and salmon papery balloons.

The leaves turn yellow and drop as well but most people only notice this tree when it's in fall seed color. The seeds are VERY fertile and come up everywhere they drop. It's a pest tree in my mind and some cities won't plant them any longer because of that.

So anyway, it's fall/autumn for what it's worth. Not time to plant yet, nor do I have the money for the soil.

So mostly fallow soil in the ground and one pepper still plugging along.

 

 (oddly enough the branch that's pictured seems to be an Australian tree, go figure.)