The birds! The birds!

 The local parrot flock came in last night and decided to roost in our trees. A wonderful cacophony of squawking a bit familiar from the parrots that resided at the nursery for years. See my fb main account for video as blogger only gets video from youtube or my computer. As quickly and as noisy as they were, within five minutes they were so quiet you wouldn't even know they were in the trees.

Suspicious disturbance around two holes. Scraped dirt and the one on the left looks like dirt was kicked up and then it was plugged. Sigh. This is why I can't have a nice garden.

What's left of the peppers. Two that are not coloring and two that are. Still much too small for much of anything to eat. I'm going to chalk it up to lack of food and quality of soil, not to mention too much heat at one point.

To quote one site:

"Despite being a warm weather loving plant, too much heat while blossoms are forming can cause your bell pepper plants to produce smaller & unusual looking peppers."

So there you have it, exactly what happened. I am going to have to plant earlier in the season or start planning for a crop for the fall/winter. It's going to be about 80 today so no work in the garden today. The pictures here are all from yesterday and nothing really has changed.

I have realized and learned so much about gardening in my particular location over the past year. Basically it boils down to, don't. Well actually, don't expect prime results due to local conditions. So once the bed gets put in I am hoping for better results over the next few seasons. Better soil, have mulch, north side of garden facing south so more winter sun should be good for almost anything.

I keep putting off getting the bed frame down there because of the amount of work involved as well as not having the money for the soil. It will all fall into place eventually but for now just wishing and planning and whining.

Still out here walking around

 Weather continues to cool down at night and is comfortable during the day. Perfect gardening weather right? If I had a garden to work in.

I kicked the woodpile a bit, the south bed is finally dried out again, took about three or four days and some signs of the gophers still out there.

 The peppers are starting to color and are still way to small. It just never recovered from the drought damage so I will likely have to pitch it soon. The picture of the inside of the bucket is after I flooded it yesterday.

Still trying to be patient about getting the new frame set up. I am going to see if I can convince my sweetie to do that this weekend. The weather continues to be wonderful and not too heinous during the day. When that frame gets set up and the soil purchased, if the pepper is still there I 'might' try and transplant it again. See what happens.

More pictures than text this time around due to not getting to posting this until way late. I am not a very ambitious gardener. Well I  have ambitions, just not the willpower or money to get things done.

Not much has changed.

 Again with the nice weather, clear absolutely beautiful blue skies wiht not a hint of clouds.

Blue is a little darker than it really was but what a contrast! Had to get a picture of it because it was that pretty. It drizzled again the other day, well it may have been rain but very light and just enough to cause dust streaks on my car.

I also found out from one of the managers that the garden area actually had been a multi bed and person effort to grow mostly tomatoes but it was a 'community' effort and anyone could come and pick the fruit when it was ripe. Then all it took was one old biddy to tell people the plants were hers and no one could pick from them. That was the end of the management caring about the garden beds and being only for tenants use. Very sad, I tried to let the manager know that I'd be willing to help get it back to a nicer area but for the gophers. He put up his hands and gave me the impression of 'they came from the front and we can't do anything about it'. 

The one pepper that was bigger than the other but damaged from the lack of water and extreme heat the other day.. had to pick it.

 Very much sun damaged poor thing, the rest of the fruits are still okay now that it's cooler and it got some water.

It did rain as I said so the south bed was still very wet despite the rest of the dirt being dry. Big difference in having shade more and the small amount of amendment I put in. 

So there are still a lot of good peppers on the bush, just hoping that they continue to gain size so I can use them. The lemon bush is getting wider, see the one lemon on the left, yeah I keep hitting it with my shin when I go by.

And another picture of the BoP flowers. This one is already putting out a second bud right under the first one. Silly plant.

I discovered I still have about $20 in my paypal account and could either save that for emergency things like cat food or something or..... get some soil. Decisions, decisions. The cat food is good for a while, we have paper goods, medicine cabinet is stocked up.... not enough money to put anything to a bill so... garden it is.

Byutiful, byutiful day.

 Partly cloudy, breezy almost windy and no hot temperatures at all. Breathing sigh of relief despite not getting enough sleep last night. So I watered when I went out this morning, even watered down the south bed bedause it looked like it deserved it.

 

That is a before picture doesn't seem to be disturbed much so I smoothed it out some more with a piece of bark and then watered. The 'drum' sound of loose soil was pretty uniform all through it which is good. The pepper.... deep sigh. Permanently droopy due to stress, will keep it watered of course but it's done for.

Then, as I was taking the long way back to the apartment, because any walking is good, I  noticed something missing again.. Someone really, really doesn't like plants.

Even the stump of the jade that was there is gone. Only thing thriving in that spot is the calendula. The palm in the pot is questionable as it's living, not thriving. I would have to do some research to put some flowers in there, and of course, it's not my bed as it's part of the complex but the resident that used to live there had the flowers in it. I don't think the lady that's in that apartment cares, she has a small fluffy dog that barks at just about everything. Also I think the older black gentleman that took care of the pine tree lives in that building so even if he does know how to take care of plants, he isn't a 'gardener'.

I'm feeling a bit cranky today due to lack of sleep and  money. Hopefully will have a topic for tomorrow to expound on.

Got out later today, dug around.

 The pepper is still holding up but it definitely shows signs of heat stress. I can't toss it at this point, so it will continue to survive. The weather is cooling again thankfully so I got out in the evening and did my walking and visit to the garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall color for San Diego is the Bird of Paradise in bloom. Wonderful vibrant colors on the just opened flowers. They are a tropical, as I've mentioned, so for them this is the time of year to bloom.

The iris in front of the former office is still going strong with a few new leaves, even though it should be cut back by now. Someone is taking care of the whitefly on the leaves it looks like.

And near that iris is a window box with what looks like ginger of some sort. Could be turmeric or actual ginger but then I did some searching for images.

 Comparing the leaves, it's actual ginger. Which is not surprising really but they must use it a lot to want to grow it and bring it with them.

Then there's my garden, where I decided to get some extra exercise and dig in the south bed.

What surprised (and mildly concerned) about digging deep is the sound of roots being pulled. I dug that one up that had a clump of new white roots on it. It could be from the neighbor bed so when I heard the sound I pulled the shovel up and pulled as much out as possible. I even smelled them but nothing of note from the smell. Sometimes you can tell where a root came from by the smell, don't laugh.

Loosened the soil as much as possible with the shovel. As you can see it's quite dark though not very moist, it will be dry as a bone tomorrow but am not going to plant anything in it until I get more amendment. I move a little of what mulch was around the corner to the middle and dug it around as well but that won't be doing anything beneficial for a while.

 

That's what it looked like and if I were to guess it might be from the grass that was growing on her side of the edging. It was on that side and toward the back so that's likely it.

Other than that, still waiting for the weather to cool sufficiently and then for some extra money to come in again for the soil. It felt good to do something in the garden for once, instead of walking in, sighing, planning and walking back out again. I really want to throw some seeds in there but it would end in disappointment and misery.

I am hoping there will not be any signs of gopher activity there. I consulted with a friend after sending her pictures and she said it looked like squirrels but told her no signs of squirrels so she agreed it was likely gopher passage holes (periodic holes in long tunnels for air).

Crossing fingers on that south bed they don't go back there. I smoothed out the dirt so if there's any signs of divots I'll know who made them.

'nuf said.

Still hot today, no bueno

 The pepper plant still didn't look good so I think it went too long in the heat with hot soil. The dirt in the bucket is staying wet on the top but the plastic walls are so thin it bakes the soil further down. No peppers coming from that plant unfortunately.

The dirt is also dry in the other bed, not bothering to use water on it as long as it's hot. Doesn't do any good and even though I'm not paying for the water, every little bit counts.

I wanted to show that the other lady hasn't done anything in her beds either due to the gophers. Or voles or whatever they are. Given my research, those are either baby gophers or voles. Gophers 9 times out of 10 leave a mound, so far 9 out of 10 of these holes don't have a mound. No matter what they are, it is a rodent that needs to go away.

We are just wanting to have some satisfaction of growing vegetables for ourselves and management is not taking any responsibility for the area because it's up to the tenant to do it. Does that seem logical? They provide a garden area and yet when a pest comes in verified from the rest of the complex it's suddenly not their problem because the garden areas are our responsibility.

Well if I had more money to spend on remediation I would totally do it.

Oopsies, I think I done bad.

 I forgot to get out in the morning yesterday before the 90 degree weather hit. I didn't water....

Even the fruit were looking shriveled, so I am not expecting good fruit off this and it's all on me. I had to run errands yesterday and other things kept distracting me. Next week the weather will be more tolerable and fall like so will likely dump that pepper when I get the new bed built. Nothing else seemed disturbed although the south bed I dug the trowel in seemed to have been watered. The marks could barely be seen but maybe that was just because it was dry now and it shifted.  

Despite working for 20 years in the plant industry and years of giving advice, I'm a terrible gardener. I am not an 'expert' by any means, amateur hobbyist for sure given my lackluster and sometimes catastrophic results. I would like to put that all on me but it is what I have to work with and my budget that is a large factor as well. Given better soil and no rodents, and perhaps different weather I might have had a wonderful garden. It took a matter of two months for the gophers to completely decimate all my work. 

First and second year in any garden is usually periods of finding out what works and what doesn't. I know the gophers sure worked hard. I did too in spurts here and there, but with a new bed soon I hope to have better results next year. Third time's the charm right?

More and better things in the future is the hope. It's windy today so that is a harbinger of weather changing. This is a quick Santa Ana condition before it starts settling into fall weather. At least that's the plan.

It rained enough I suppose

 The ground was relatively wet when I checked on the garden so it must have rained a bit more after dark. Loving this weather though, not too hot, not too cold so it's 'sweater weather' to a point. Then it goes back to being heinous in a few days but not for long.

Definitely dark dirt. The dark stripe behind the bucket is the loose dirt from the gopher being right under the drip line for the roof. The other bed is definitely moist enough to actually plant but instead I just dug my trowel in an oval to see the consistency of the dirt. It was loose at the back left corner and some on that end but much harder on the right where they hadn't dug tunnels. If I had to do that bed for growing I would take half that dirt out, toss it in the corner and mix in planter mix. After putting down a layer of the chicken wire on the bottom and backside.

I knew I wouldn't have money left for getting soil and screen. I was hopeful but unless I went out immediately and bought it, it wasn't going to happen. I can't store things like that outside or in the apartment so would have had to chance putting it in the electrical closet. I still have time though and hoping for a miracle of some sort.

Going to look through my seeds and check expiration on the packets if they have it. Carrots, radishes and a few others from my friend are from this year? Even if they're from last year they should still be good being kept inside.  Hands are twitching to try and get going and plant stuff for winter.

 

Rain! Not spitting either.

Nice little short shower that got the pavement wet is all. Good thing I got out to the garden beforehand even if there wasn't anything to do. Temps are going to climb gradually until peaking at 90 by mid next week then decline again. So at least I got the netting out and down before that and still have about 12 feet left for other needs.

 The peppers are still going, I counted ten fruit with three more coming on. Might give it another dose of food but don't need to water for sure given the cloudy weather this week. 

 

Two branches with three noticeable fruit and the third branch has four fruit. As long as it keeps going and the fruit keep growing I'm a happy camper. Lone survivor of the great Summer Rodent Invation.

Right now (just before dark) it is downright nippy outside with a breeze coming through the window that smells of wet pavement and trees. Definitely feeling that autumn weather creeping in, at least for the next few days.

It's fall y'all!!

As for planting things, still waiting on some extra money since my other money went to bills and groceries. But one stage is done at least and will see what happens the next few days of getting that frame up and half filled with logs. I actually have less area than the other two beds but still enough to do some good stuff like peas and lettuce. Have to find some cilantro seeds and hope the carrot and radish seeds are still good.

I can still plan and dream right?

Not even close to being hot today

 It's only going to be in the low 70's, 71 according to the weather app so this gardener pulled out her long pants and a heavier shirt to wear. Looking further down the days it's going to hit 90 next week so I'm getting the raised bed set up this weekend for sure.

Gloomy? Perhaps, overcast for sure but I'm taking what I can get at this point. Despite the look of the clouds if any moisture leaks from them it will be a fine spray. The fall color of lantana and some mini mums in a neighbors planter. The mums are a bit brighter than in the picture, pink/lavender, orange and yellow.

Hard to see but one of the gardeners yesterday took a rake to the path. I'm fine with that, don't need the leaves really for what I'm doing. So with the combination of cool weather and determination, on with the first stage of a new garden.

 

I had enough for a triple layer of mesh. The holes are an inch so I didn't want to take any chances with a smaller rodent slipping through. It's not 100% triple layer due to the holes lining up here and there but it's better coverage overall. My only concern is the long edges because the width of the frame is 24" (give or take 50mm according to the directions) and the mesh is 24 also. Since it's tripled over the edges aren't exact and offer a bit of protection on the sides. Even if some enterprising and lucky rodent makes it through, they are going to go through logs then whatever coverage I have on top of that before they get to the soil. I'm good.

I added the logs to keep it flat and if the weather is like this tomorrow I'm going to bribe my sweetie into helping put the frame up. 

Never did get to HD to see what the price of screen or mesh was and am not going there on the weekend so next week it is for more supplies.

 

The peppers are looking hopeful, only one dropped off that was tiny but the bigger ones I'm still thinking won't make it to full size. Better luck in the new bed next year.