One plant in, gorgeous weather out

 Another glorious day to work outside...in the morning. Warming up just enough that I'm hot and sweaty if I'm out around noon. It started overcast/cloudy this morning but it burned off quickly and it's now powder blue clear skies with a good breeze going.

I wanted the first photo of this to be a beautiful flowering plant and I got it. A good full shot of the bougie in bloom. I think it has a heavier bloom this year than last. What's interesting is the one across from this has been topiaried and is in less sun. Not a single flower since I've been here. Too much shade for it and this one is just throwing blooms like crazy. The Watsonia flowers are climbing up, a second stalk that is kind of laid over was blooming also and there's about six more stalks in bud.  You can see the entrance to the garden in the background there.

 

No further damage on the onions  today, yay! Coriander is bolting really well now and the lettuce behind it is going strong. This means I have to leave the coriander at that end in place for some shade on those little plants, but then that would also shade the tomato that is also doing very well. It just topped the first rung of the trellis so it's doubled in size at 4".

I examined the tomatoes and saw there were some that had some yellowing at the very tip. That could be from the fertilizer or the soil but they still look pretty good. I looked at them, looked at the empty spot in the bed and.... did it.

I planted one of the single plants with the most roots showing in the cup. No need to bury really deep and actually, there isn't a lot of soil left down deep. I was trying to dig as far as I could and I was bringing up leaf bits and felt like I was hitting logs. This is not good. I am going to need another four bags of raised bed mix at the end of summer at this rate.

So I also watered, because as you can see the soil is moist underneath but dry about half an inch down. I set my timer for ten minutes and got bored at 5 and thought it was enough. Watered the other two beds because I'm getting impatient with those as well, then finished up watering the bed. When I realized I forgot to put fertlizer in the hole I got that out, gently scooped out the tomato and threw a small handful in and replanted it. In scraping the soil it hadn't gotten wet all the way through the dry soil in front of the peas. No great calamity but it shows that my timing for watering is right and have to trust the process.

I then remembered I wanted to dump the compost and  mix it but, again didn't bring down anything to dump it on and I was getting hot. Grabbed the trowel and did my best to stir it as far down as I could go. It smelled like dirt. YAY! It's doing much better and the consistency is now more like soil but still has lots of bits of shell, potato skins and other stuff in it. Most of my kitchen scraps are now coffee grounds which I'm going to have to tell my sweetie to either put in the garbage or in the disposal until further notice. We're running shy on fresh veggies lately and may have to pass on doing that for a few months. If I had the other two buckets free I would do a roundabout dumping from one to the other and back to mix it up.

 

 Still itching to get those tomatoes planted and the peppers are not far off from going into cups next. All four pellets with 2 seeds have germinated and are growing primary leaves now. Have to find room for all of those too. They may be able to survive in the window box if I mix about 2 to 1 compost and soil. Their roots aren't nearly as extensive as tomatoes but I won't only plant maybe two or three in the window box. So many plants and so little to put them in!

The lady downstairs across from our building. That spot over the last six months has had bedding begonioas, pansies, a chrysanthemum and a rosemary bush/tree. I think she's the one that's cut down the hibiscus bush to almost nothing because it was shading too much. It was twice that tall and had lots of flowers two years ago. It is now chopped and one lone flower is budding. Grrrrrr. She now has the spider plants that were there already and planted two succulents, one is a jade bush. She likes to putter in that garden and keep the weeds out but honestly... Oh and that is a lantana next to it that has also been hacked back at least once.

I hate seeing gardening done so badly. I'm sure she thinks this is wonderful and weed free and all that but that hibiscus is going to take years to recover, IF she doesn't decide to hack it back again.

So that's all for today. Enjoying the breeze and hope to get back out to the garden in the evening and maybe amend that north bed and take my chances with the tomatoes.