And more rain starting early

 Rain on and off all day today. Woke around 6 am to pounding rain outside and it's been cloudy and sporadic all morning. Cleared enough just now so I ran down to check on things  but first, some comparisons of how far my garden has come in a year.

A year ago almost to the day I had two potatoes growing in the 'fence bed' that by June was devastated by gophers. They took the huge marigold first by then though I had pulled the potatoes and was considering growing something else.

This year, a well protected, elevated and healthy soil bed. These pictures were just after filling it on January 28. You can see where the soil level is at the first 'rib' of the walls. I didn't pack it down very much, always conscientious of compacted soil but that is from dealing with hard ground dirt. I didn't want to get too high on the walls for fear of it running off in the rain I knew was coming.

 

This was the other day. It has sunk at least 3 inches which I did not count on but too late now. If I had straw I would be putting that on the surface to help the soil stay moist. All said and done, should have taken the extra bag of soil.

I joined a Raised Bed Gardening group on FB to see what things people were growing and techniques and stuff. some people call having a single height frame on the ground just amending the soil a raised bed. Well if it's ground level, it's not technically 'raised' if I could add a 12" frame around my in ground beds and add soil, I would do it. Adding in more poultry wire of course on the bottom, because gophers.

I realized that with no job and having the opportunity to grow things, gardening is going to be my focus. I do other things on the computer but with summer coming up I want to do more things outside for sure. 

The north bed has been through a lot as well.

A year ago I had a tomato I had let grow over, radishes along the front and I  think those are sunflowers that I had to build a shade structure over due to the incredible sun. This year, rain, clouds and low temperatures befitting of Spring and not Summer.

No sunflower seeds left but that's okay, got radishes and carrots in the raised bed that I think will do much better than last year. Crossing fingers.

Now, as for today and what it looks like. Snails are still doing a number on the potatoes so I tossed out some orange peels from the compost bucket to hopefully lure them away.

Patches of blue sky before the next wave of rain comes through. Windy and cold of course and the ground is saturated. Which is a good thing and very welcome compared to a year ago that had scorching sun this time of year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They're growing great but being absolutely eaten up by the snails. Best I could do is orange peels from compost and some badly eaten leaves as bait. Might boil some eggs later and crush up the shells to sprinkle around.

The hard rain early this morning certainly splattered mud everywhere. No rain predicted but cloudy and eventually warming up to the low 70's in another week and a half. This is good, perfect spring weather, nice slow warming trend rather than the light switch to 80's.

This is why you keep a garden journal. If you think it wasn't like this last year, go back through your posts/ notes and check. The electronic age is a boon to record keeping especially for gardeners.

 

Well, it's raining as predicted

 Weather this morning said rain around noon, started misting/sprinkle around 11 and now it is raining steady. Glad I got out to the garden to snap a few pictures this morning. 

Reference photos compared to yesterday because weather is what it is. I saw an article espousing the benefits of Sweetgum trees. I had to post 'do not plant in a lawn or near a foundation!' and used a photo from the lawns here of what those and the Sycamores are doing to the lawns.

Anyway back in the garden. All is quiet for the rainy weather, getting a good gentle soaking rain right now and don't have to worry about watering for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of reference photos, it's the same potato leaf a day apart. Doesn't seem to be any new damage on the plant but looks like that leaf I picked did get some more chewing. That's what trap plants are for, redirecting snails and slugs away from the plants.  As long as I can put some other soft and delicate plant leaves out around the potatoes I might be able to deter the little mollusks from attacking the potatoes more.

The whole row of plants (actually really excited about having so many plants for potatoes). Hope they survive to summer for harvesting. Then I looked at the lettuce.

Dangnabit... I know those snails are hiding under that board and did what I could running a stick under it but didn't dislodge any thing other than an empty shell.

I made a decision to sacrifice two of the really stretched out single seedlings and plant two peppers.

May well tug those last two out as well and put the green peppers in but then where am I going to planet everything?!

The other tomatoes are getting their true leaves just fine now and am debating whether to thin those to 1 plant per pod. They're all sitting in the window today because some natural light is better than none and closed the little side windows for less cold wind.

I threw all the logs and pieces of bark on the log pile away from the plants, giving mollusks fewer places to conveniently hide. There is a pile of leaves in the corner to the left of that picture that I halfheartedly pulled out with my foot into the divot the dripping water from the roof had made. That pea is outperforming all the others, not sure what's in that root zone but it's stronger and taller than all the rest. There's a big gap between that one and the one on the end to the right that really makes me want to plant another pea but would need to buy maybe two plants to fill in the line and they don't come in singles, only 6's. Might have to check the little nursery up the street and see if they have a four pack or a four inch container. But then again I planted some lettuce in the gaps and have those carrots coming soon. Hopefully.

 After on and off again rain this week and weekend then all next week and then some will be sunny and partly cloudy days in the 70's in about a week. Yippeeee! 

I just thought of something to do in the corner of the garden. Birdbath. I don't think they'll allow a feeder and I can't afford to get bird seed on top of everything else. The doves outside are foraging the leaf pile on the roof of the house over the fence. Doves are ground feeders so if I put seed out or a feeder it would have to be cracked seed. One of the main reasons they don't want seed feeders is rats and mice. Understandable and who knows what's living in that jade bush right? Oh well, good idea but not for this garden.

I forgot to cover up the compost darn it!

Clear and calm before the storm

 It is just that but maybe not an actual storm, just rain. Crystal clear skies, barely a breeze and wonderful temperatures. I checked the weather and still says 91% chance of rain tomorrow. Supposed to get cloudy tonight sometime and then continue tomorrow through Thursday for rain. Not going to water today unless it doesn't rain tomorrow.

The trees are busting out with flowers and leaves against a clear blue sky, yes it is that blue. The jade bush and lemon are full of flowers and I can smell the lemon flowers when I'm at the entrance. Spring has sprung!

 

The seedlings are showing true leaves! Yay! Need to find some bigger pots to put them in soon I think. Peat pots will likely be the choice. Just last night I was concerned because they were awfully stretched out and hadn't shown new leaves yet. Well I think the window treatment has helped get them on track for growing but still have to move them out of the window at night so Rocky can sit in there. I am exceedingly lucky he hasn't considered them a snack food. Unlike my African Violet several years ago that he demolished.

Someone trimmed the spent Iris stems from the plant, so someone is taking care of it at least. The aloe flowers fell over but are still blooming. This is orange and the one in the actual garden is going to have yellow flowers for sure. They are both Aloe vera but the  yellow one may be the hybrid called 'Lode's Yellow' I found images for both but the only place with info was for the yellow one. Standard one is that orange color.

You know how the saying goes, 'a watched pot never boils' well 'a watched garden never grows' is another good one. The lettuce is continuing but I won't be planting it after this season anymore. As soon as I cut it starts wilting. I had the leaves I cut yesterday in a sandwich but they were very soft. Will hope to leave the leaves on a bit longer to grow more and get to be an actual head of lettuce. Too impatient I guess. Will see what happens when it starts growing in the other bed.

I don't think the potatoes are getting damaged anymore but I took a couple of pictures of two leaves that are laying on the ground and will compare them tomorrow. I've told people about this technique and now have a chance to try it. Because the question always came up, 'how do I know if all the bugs are gone?'. Take a picture of the leaves you sprayed that have holes and then go back the next day or so and check against the picture. Before current technology there was just relying on memory of how many holes there were.

The azalea downstairs is blooming again, still not entirely sure what variety it is but I think I surmised last time it was an Encore Azalea but that bush I think is older than when the Encore first were introduced. According to a website Encores were first introduced in the late 1990's so it's possible it can be that. It's a huge bush, almost 5 feet tall and the Amethyst Royalty variety gets about 4..5 feet so that checks out. Flower size they say is over 3" wide... not these, they're closer to 2" but that could be something to do with conditions it's growing in. 

See the amount of sleuthing is involved in identifying a plant? Sometimes it even involves the leaves but I could even be wrong with this as well. so many different varieties out there that may not be on the internet. So at this point it's a pretty purple azalea ha!

(Oh and the wind has started to pick up now and will likely increase until the evening, like it does.)

 

And back to a sunny day garden.

 Need to get the gardening in before it rains in a few days and gets cold again. Hardly any breeze today but was windy last night. I could hear the wind chimes going off for a while. Which, as I've said is a good sign the weather will be changing. 

I took my entire garden basket down because I didn't know if I would need my gloves or clippers or seeds so brought the whole thing with me. 

She dug up everything and harvested what she could and put the remainder in the two pots. Some cilantro and fenugreek is all that was kept. I know there were a few onions she had going so she must have taken those with her. At least she realized the stick wasn't growing.

I decided to throw some lettuce seeds in the spare areas, barely scraped the soil and patted them down then watered in lightly. Can't tell but some went in between the peas and garlic and parallel between the two garlic rows.

The soil was rather crusty again on the surface but still rather damp underneath hence watering lightly. Just enough to get the seeds damp because the soil was warm but was only dry about an eight of an inch down. The ends of the black edging keep coming up on the back so I had to push that down again, the end on the left I had to coerce with the blade on my clippers to fit over the seam. should have done a bit longer so it fit over the seams and stayed down. Oh well, not critical.

The compost is loading up again, trimmed some of the lettuce and the lemon bush is loaded with flowers and bees. Yay!

The DIY seed tape in my mind is a bust, what is useful is the little origami envelopes that a friend made when she sent me some of her seeds. I've taken pictures of them before and figured out how they were made but now have instructions for others to use ( took pictures of one of my seed packets but apparently my phone and blogger aren't talking to each other anymore).

 There was another variation I saw that I'll have to try as well for larger seeds that is more vertical rectangle rather than trapezoid. This style is kind of fiddly as the two side flaps are loose when you open the top but that makes also for a nice pointy seeding chute which I used for planting the lettuce seeds.

Not much else to do, potatoes won't be done for a while, planted more lettuce and carrots are in so just more waiting and see what the rain brings.