Yay for not being as hot! And stuff.

 It's only supposed to get in the high 70's today. Kind of hazy but not in a cloud way but more like stuff that was blown in from L.A. on the wind. Might be a little moisture in the air mixed in with the light breeze coming through. 

Trivia for those that don't know; the word Smog was coined back in the early 1900's (it was a common word already when I was in grade school) that was a combination of smoke and fog. It was coined due to the mix of smoke in the early industrial factories and the moist fog and haze from cities on the East coast.

Meanwhile, back at the garden:

The Aloe is blooming fine, the garden is looking good. I realized that if I had a home with a garden area the size of this garden area, half would be flowers and the other half would be veggies. More on that later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the soil basically stayed moist where the tomato tray sat. I didn't water that area at all yesterday. That was all latent moisture in the compost I put in. It's still looking more dusty and dirt like than well amended soil but it's better than nothing. I  moved the tomatoes to another spot with the intention of watering and totally forgot by the time I turned off the water and unhooked the sprayer.

Same bed different angles and different color..go figure. The actual color is somewhere in between these two pictures.

 

Just using the 'Enhance' feature on my phone and get much better color results. The one on the right is spot on because the trowel waay in the upper right corner is the correct coloring and so are the weeds.

Anyway the point of this is to show the difference between this unamended dirt (before watering) and the soil I just amended and the raised bed. When it is dry this is rock hard clay soil, lots of pieces of wood (from the mulch I put in) rocks and pebbles and bits of roots. I really need a sifter to separate everything out for sure.

 

Soaking the dirt before putting those two bags of amendment in tomorrow.

That's probably after about ten minutes of watering on the left. Totally flooded with puddles and lakes. I got my hand in there and dug around to mix it a bit as I was watering. Picture on the left and below is about ten to fifteen minutes after watering.

 No worms whatsoever in this bed that I could find. It is technically 'dead dirt' as there's no real life in it other than the weeds at the edges. I will need to dig some more and hopefully get some of the mesh I need next month.

Oh and I remember when I first started this bed it did have amendment in it which is why I chose it first. I had to put that front wood barrier back in place to contain it. Hoping to level the soil a bit more front to back but there's not much depth to work with unless I find more wood with the mesh I need.

And back to the verdant and fertile raised bed. Might thin out the lettuce behind the cilantro which, given the current weather trend, may be sending up flowers in a week. I pulled the thinnest garlic plants close to the middle of the bed, only two but one of them gave me a sad face when I washed it off. I'll chop the tops for chives on my potato tonight.

 

I left the tomatoes in the sun on the edging ring after giving them a light watering. I was doing more garden math in my head as I was watering. I have two tomatoes in the raised bed in opposite corners, enough room after the cilantro is pulled to put in another one, maybe two. The north bed that I just watered can hold two or three tomatoes. So I technically have room for all of them but would like a slicing tomato instead of the Roma's as a little variation.

Oh dang, almost forgot about the peppers! Beans are a bust but that's okay. I will use peppers way more than beans anyway.

Technically I have eight pepper plants but if I plant them as is that's four spots I need room for. South bed? Front of north bed? Have to make some graphics to get an idea but of course, you know what happens when I plan in detail for something... it never works out.

Giving it a shot anyway.

Like planning for a garden I'll never have, it's nice to dream. Given the amount of space in the current garden area if there were no walls the possibilities would be staggering. Well, that is if I had unlimited money to do such a thing of course. First condition: An area of the country that I could grow things like tulips and peonies and rhododendrons without problems. The money condition takes care of everything else.

Raised beds like the metal one I have now, a few low beds but maybe only one or two for plants that like to roam like zucchini and squash. I have no reason to plant pumpkins but maybe an apple or pear tree or two. Once things get going, put out word that my garden would be open for planting lessons and classes once a month to neighbors, schools or whoever is interested. All that is asked is donations or help when hard work needs to be done.

So yeah... I want to be that 'old famer lady down the road that always gives away fruits and flowers and stuff and complains about what failed that year but knows about some of the wild plants and what they're good for'. 

I'd like that before I get too old to even walk or chew my own food.