Busy day, short post

 I am up and at the computer at 9:11 am because I have a date with a little girl at a library today. It is wonderfully cool, clear and no sign of any clouds that will be coming in the next twenty-four hours. A blissful 71 outside because it got down to the low 60's last night. Oh, there is also no wind whatsoever at the moment. 

I picked the two tomatoes and am taking half my collection to my friend today and the other half will go to my daughter next week. I actually cut one up to put in a one pan meal the other day along with canned tomatoes. It worked out really well so may be doing that more often as long as the tomatoes keep coming.

I pollinated this cucumber flower (hopefully) just picking a male flower or two and doing best I could. There is a smaller one coming up next to it that might be ready in a few days. Examining the rest of the vines and sure enough, pill bugs are eating the vine and the flowers. Can't count on them to pollinate at all though. 

 

They are pretty much going to town on this and luckily the plants are thriving and producing enough flowers to get me some fruit. Wish I could train it up on something but that may be a project for another time.

 

Pictures from last night's foray. Little tiny proto cukes sporadically on the vine but if the flower is already dried up at that stage it's not fertilized at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bit more of a close up on the larger one I pollinated this morning and the smaller one next to it as well as two others further back on the vine.  That larger one is about 3/4 inch long so pretty good size. Will have to figure out something to put down to keep the pill bugs off them when they start growing more. Good thick layer of straw is traditional but not convenient for me to get or store.

Another person in the garden group posted about a huge pile of compost they got and people were free to come get some. Another one had a chip drop that they had used all they could, though the chip drop looked like it had huge branches and larger chunks of things that is not fitting for my tiny space. Both were not too inconvenient for me to get to but compared to others that were going to come with pick ups and trash cans... don't have a chance of getting any. I'm glad to be in those groups but it's still frustrating because I don't have the means to take advantage of what people are offering.

Okay time to get going and start my adventure going back to one of my old neighborhoods. Maybe I'll look at what gardening books they have. Bringing my knitting and ipad along just in case.