Cloudy skies but did some gardening

 High winds yesterday but it didn't blow the clouds away. Still overcast but only breezy today. I was out at the garden a little after 11 and took pictures of the same flowers and plants.

You can see by the angle on the second picture I had to really reach to get a picture of them about 7 or 8 feet up. The epi surprisingly is still blooming and open, they typically only last for a day, must be the cool weather making it think it's extended dusk or something.

The Easter lily plant is starting to bloom at about a third of  the height it did last year. At least I could swear it was taller last year. The gloom continues on the garden making everything a bit more even colored.

 

I decided to thin a few more of the radishes out, still no sign of the others coming up. I only pulled three or four out so here's hoping the rest continue well. They won't be mature technically for another couple of months but then given how fast they came up could have them by July 4.

I'm letting the flowers develop on the tall tomato because it's doing fine at that height. Kind of concerned that all of them have terminal buds instead of branches with buds. Will see how everything develops.

The lettuce I'm making a call on to pull today. It's starting to get a stem on it and that says it's going to bolt soon so I pulled it. I noticed something next to the cage leg and realized it was a tiny mushroom, perfectly normal of course. I again realized I will need to add another three or four bags of soil to the bed at the end of the summer. It's going to need it for sure because I've lost half the volume due to compaction and breaking down underneath. 

So not a bad handful of lettuce and it frees up more room of course. I decided to also give everything a watering despite the cloudy weather but here are some pictures of a comparison of the three different soils I have.

Top left is the north bed with mostly raised bed soil with a little bit of native dirt. I'd say it's probably about a 2-1 ratio of soil to dirt. Doesn't need any watering because I watered it yesterday, technically it gets as much sun as the raised bed and yet it's holding more water.  I think I can say that it's a 50/50 soil to dirt.

Top right is the south bed which is the opposite composition of maybe 2 to 1 dirt to soil. It gets a little more shade and yet it isn't as wet as the north bed.

Then there's the raised bed which is all soil and therefore has more air incorporated into it and no native soil whatever, which means it dries out faster. I may be adding some of my home compost to that at the end of the season because the compost has a little dirt in it and is heftier if you will. I mean, that's why I'm making compost right? To use it in the beds?

So the only bed that didn't get watered is the north bed with the radishes because it doesn't need it. I didn't get out last evening to water or check on things so judging from the soil, it'll still be good bby tomorrow even if we get a little sun break.

I think I might be pulling the larger onions this week or the weekend as those are getting to a good size. Not sure if  I'm going to plant anything with the tomatoes in the south bed though. Not sure what would do well. 

So that's all for today, it is now just after 1pm and it's now partly cloudy outside, clouds are puffy things traveling fast enough to watch them move. 

Oh and I have accomplished baking a loaf of bread from scratch. Going to try again tomorrow when I have more time.