Flowers and sunny day and seed ruminating

 The usual weather for this time of day, starts out with marine layer then clears around 11 and is breezy/windy then the marine layer comes back in around 4 or 5 sometimes later. Birds are chirping outside making a 'beautiful noise' as the phrase goes.The Watsonia now has two branches that are leaning out into the sidewalk so I took my clippers down and cut them for taking inside.

Not the one on the right but I was tempted. the two in the left picture that are seriously in the way. All I had was my aluminum water bottle but it works for what I need.

I also noticed a little rose root stock flower peeking out of the asparagus fern I hadn't noticed before. I was walking Rocky when I saw it and had to make sure it was what I thought it was before getting a picture.

Not sure if I should cut the flowers off the onions as I saw in one video or just pull them at this point. There aren't a whole lot of leaves on them like the seedlings. I also brought down the nozzle because I knew some things needed water.

The seedlings didn't look like there was any new damage on them and the tomatoes are almost solid roots in those cups. Need to get those transplanted asap before they start failing from cramped roots.

The tomatoes after watering. It took two soakings as well as getting the fork and a chopstick to loosen the top to get the water all the way through. Definitely a weight difference once the water was able to soak all the way through. I picked a few more pea pods but suspect that the majority of the peas will be ready by the end of the month.

I also dumped the compost bucket and got that mixed up some more. It's doing much better at not being so soggy since we haven't had any rain. I dumped it all out and mixed it up, scraped the bottom of the bucket and put it all back in. It smelled like wet soil which is an excellent thing. If I had a soil sifter I'd probably have some usable compost to sprinkle around.

Can't see them but the onions in the south bed are still there. Watered that thoroughly and before watering I also noticed a LOT of snail trails between the log pile and the raised bed. Hard to see in a static picture and I tried to get a video of it but that didn't work either so trust me. There were a lot of trails. Might try soaking some bread and letting it sit in a bowl and see if I can catch any. There's no damage to the plants in the bed other than from the cutworms and inchworms on the peas.

 

 I looked at Layla's in ground beds and the biggest one is much bigger than my north bed. It's at least 2 feet longer and a foot deeper so I wouldn't be able to give it the same treatment as mine. Single layer maybe and double on the sides or vice versa. Besides  she still has some onions and a fenugreek plant still in there. That soil has never been amended either, it's just straight up mud when it's wet. So until she wants to buy some compost I'm really not inclined to put in the effort.

Oh I got a cantaloupe from the food delivery at the patio and besides being peak of sweetness and just ugly on the outside I decided to save some of the seeds on a whim and what the heck. Looked up what to do with the seeds and other than making sure they're completely dry before storing, nothing special. I got maybe a seed packet worth of seeds from a very small section of the center. I am always amazed at the seed ratio on plants and realized that 1 cantaloupe is a huge amount of seed. There's about 50 seeds in a 2 gram package and comparatively that's a lot of seeds. But I know there was at least a hundred or more seeds in that one cantaloupe. I only took about ten because I don't have a lot of room and don't know what variety it was to boot.

So more adventures in seed planting! Or should I just say seeds because tomatoes and peppers are higher on the list than the cantaloupe. If I store them in a good container I can try them next year in the north bed.

So other than that, still waiting for another soil windfall to finish off my bed(s). The south bed could still use a bit more compost for sure.