Lots of flower pictures this time, the tree in bloom, roses, irises, the Watsonia, almost bloom time for the cilantro. Or should I say Coriander? It's a Saturday so I suspect the majority of people in the city are at the beach or parks enjoying a fantastic day in our fair city.
Me? I went to the garden and took pictures, then to the store to pick up two needed items for meal today, started that cooking and am back at the computer again. I swear that if I ever got a yard I would be out there doing all kinds of things.
The culprits were found last evening when I went out to check on things.
First, the damage. Almost all of the onions, just the onions, have been chewed again. Some seedlings are almost nubs to the ground. I decided on a hunch to dig around the wall of the bed and sure enough...cutworms. Little bastards.
I found three but suspect there may be another. The coriander has put a thick mat of roots all around so it's doubtful they are under there. Biggest one in the second picture was curled up the size of a dime. I made sure to stir up the rest of the soil as much as possible to loosen things a bit. They're the same color as the soil so with failing eyesight and evening light it was hard to see if there were any I missed.
Considering they loved the onions and didn't touch the cilantro I think I found a good deterrent for them.
The garden in the evening. Doesn't look like much when you look down the wall, it holds so much promise and yet, can't plant anything because of subterranean rodents.
Peas, tomatoes and coriander all doing wonderful. The picture of the coriander is to show the ferny flower stalk leaves showing up. All the tomato starts are looking fantastic now! That's a shot of the roots showing and the tops are so much greener now!
The peas are fattening up and as much as I want to pick them, still a
bit too soon and I would only have a few. Really pleased with the
tomatoes looking better now that they got a good dose of fertilizer.
As soon as the coriander finishes they'll be pulled and two tomatoes will go in the raised bed. I have to plan that carefully since I only have the three poles, and despite the romas being determinate and bushy, I don't trust them not to get five feet tall.
There is damage on the lower leaves of the peas more so now. The damage is consistent with slugs/snails. But given that's the only damage of that type (other than the lettuce being mowed down) not sure it's cutworms. Definitely gastropod/mollusk due to the type of damage, the whole mouth on the bottom thing and they typically eat between the ribs on leaves.
Since it's only the lower leaves and no damage any higher I'm not going to worry about it right now. Big difference in the way the soil looks but that's just the surface. You can see between the peas at the back it's much lighter where I didn't ruffle it. Still wondering if I want to put beans in there despite the failed attempt in the pellets.
The Watsonia is indeed opening. Love those flowers, and as I said, not a fan of pink generally but this is a nice pink. I don't wear pink, coral maybe and pink mixed in with something else but not all pink. It is always a welcome color in the garden however.
I was walking Rocky and we were at the far side of the lawn area and I remembered there was an Angel Face rose between the bushes, I saw a bud that was already out and then noticed an orange seed hip as well. Yoink! Carefully bent the stem over and was able to break it off without damaging the bush. Looking at it closer I saw some red seeds peeking out of the center. YES! (not pictured but they are there).
The Bougainvillea at the bottom of the stairs in full bloom and the tree I can't remember the name of the fragrant tree. Also full of flowers. The hawks have a nest higher up in the eucalyptus again and, since Rocky took me that way I got pictures but was noticing a lot of white bird poo on the ground.. and something else. Leftovers from their lunch/dinner.
Definitely rabbit skin piece, no bigger than the center of my palm, so at least they are eating well and feeding their babies. The white splotch is likely from the adults, maybe the crows that pester them constantly.
The other thing is a black nightshade that is wild around here and of course if it isn't a tomato a lot of people tend to avoid them. Black nightshade is actually the supposedly edible one, the red one is the deadly night shade. There was another plant that looked familiar from my childhood days of walking the dirt road sides of our neighborhood.
It's being chewed on and a bit wilted due to the sun, I'll be doing cropping and close up of it to get an id on it. Only ID that comes up is Common Iceplant which is a native but I don't think that's it. The leaves are too thin. Will take another picture of it tomorrow and see what I can come up with.
And to round things out, the 'Bench Garden' as I call it.
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