More good weather and compost airing

 Yes, indeed the weather has been wonderful! Low to mid 70's during the day and chilly at night but didn't need my bigger fluffy blanket last night. Woke up at 4 am due to Rocky and there wasn't a whisper of a breeze outside. Was rather eerie. It is now a pleasantly gusting breeze with the wind chimes going off. Winds bring weather change for sure.

So firstly, I decided to just dig up the potato plants and see what I had. There were a couple of potatoes that were of good size so I pulled those then continued to dig and this thing showed up. At first I thought, what the heck is that root? then picked it up and it is a goddang pecan nut sprouting! The top is obviously burned out for whatever reason but how did it get there? That had to be buried pretty deep for me to dig it up. I worked that bed a lot last year and this never showed. We don't have squirrels so the only thing I can think of is the gophers stored it in the ground from somewhere else, I tossed it in the corner and now am thinking  maybe go find it and see if it survives. There aren't any pecan trees that I know of around here either.

I am walking the length of the block near the kids school for more exercise and there are an abundance of yards with gorgeous flowers and interesting plants in their front yards. The morning glory was covering an ivy and jasmine front fence. Morning glories have been one of my favorite flowers since I was a teenager. I now know how much of a pest it can be so I will be happy to enjoy it in someone else's yard.

Beautiful bright orange roses. That picture is almost spot on for the coloring so I can only thing Tropicana as the variety. True orange is rare, I would have smelled it but it was up close to the house and there was about 8 feet of lawn so wasn't going to trespass. Then in front of someone elses house... pellets. Rabbits absolutely, which is a surprise given the extreme suburban/city landscape in the area. There is a canyon near by so must have found it's way up there somehow. 

Turned the compost bucket out since it was sunny and warm. Was not a pretty sight or smell. It was soggy wet at the bottom which is not good. Definitely smelled like rotting trash not breaking down. Good news is, lots of worms. I moved it around, turned it over and was trying to be careful not to hurt any of the worms. No sight of that black beetle though. 

Doesn't look like it's very wet inside the bucket but it was and it stank. You can see the holes I had made for making it for planting. Not big enough for good drainage. I'll have to get either some large yard bags or tarp material or something to be able to turn that compost out on a weekly basis.

It still has a long time to go before putting it back in the dirt and hopefully by that time I'll have figured out a containment for the north bed to keep the gophers out.

Put today's contribution in the bottom of the bucket and then shoveled the, now drier, compost back in. I let it sit out in the sun for a good couple of hours while we went shopping so it was nicely warmed and hopefully cooking correctly. 

Peas are putting out flowers for sure, the big one and the end one and maybe one in the middle. Will likely go out and water this evening and clip some of that cilantro. Dangit, remembered I wanted to fertilize so will do that tonight. I did the compost instead of fertilizing this morning.

Still no sign of the carrots. Lettuce for sure, which will need thinning when they get bigger. 

Stupid gophers. That is a perfectly good 2x5' planting area and can't use it until I get some protection in there. The soil is soft enough I could just hammer metal plates in but they'd likely find a way to get in there. Best way is to completely trench that area as deep as possible and get a double layer of chicken wire or single layer of hardware cloth with stakes in the corners. When I say trench that means I need somewhere to put the soil while I do that. Which means I need a tarp or something to put it on. The dirt is pretty good on it's own, a little amending would help of course but other than that, the potatoes, tomato and marigolds loved it.

If I get the 1/4" mesh that means I can also use it to screen the home made compost as well as the soil. Win win for sure. Will see what I can do today on our next trip out.