Not as warm today but still...bleh

 It honestly  is not going to get too heinous today and there's a nice cool breeze. But not enough to keep it cool inside so... we closed up about an hour ago.

Don't have too many pictures about the garden today. Not much going on, didn't take Rocky out because he was being a lazy butt and enjoying the cool inside. 

Decided to pick the two flowers as there were a lot of side buds coming on. This will give them more energy to bloom and make a showing for the fall. I don't need to keep them for seed, still have some in the package. I also picked two of the tomatoes and the poor cucumber that was getting chewed on. I got a late start today so was not in a mood to cut the other tomato back and yank it. Will see what the situation is tonight for doing that.

I did water because everything but the south bed looked like it needed some. Yeah. The mostly shaded side of the garden in heavier soil, who'd have thought right? Hahaha.

So the west bed with the zinnias and now the cilantro seeds will need more water, that tomato will be gone tonight if not, then tomorrow. I would love to get some diatomaceous earth to sprinkle around the raised bed and under the cucumber especially for those pill bugs. Not pictured is the two strawberry plants that are continuing to put out their leaves. This is very heartening and I just may be taking the other two out and save those for when I do the seeds and have to transplant them. 

But what? Lettuce can be sown in place but given the number of pill bugs I may need larger seedling plants to go in there. Seeds just emerging have no chance against the numbers of them that come out every night. The cucumber survived by my diligence with the cup protection on them. Too soon for the sweet peas as those germinate rather quickly and the tomato and cucumber are still going strong. I don't think I'm going to have a full blank slate bed any time soon. And then there's the need for soil. 

As a side note the brown things in the raised bed are tomato leaves I just tossed there as fodder for the bugs. They'll break down anyway and add to the soil so no big deal. So far, (knock on wood) no mildew on any of the plants.

 I can drop some onion seeds in the cups or use the soil in those for doing a larger seed container like for lettuces or the peas. That's the ticket, I have about ten or twelve pucks left and have to decide what to use those for. The lettuces I keep saying I'll just sow in place then remember the bugs. Lettuce should be sown in rows or large clusters which I don't have room for. The carrots and radishes as well as the cilantro all can be done in place as well.

Cilantro can be tossed anywhere and everywhere and do fine. I have the plan for the raised bed drawn up but it utilizes the entire bed so that plan has to wait until it's completely cleared and amended before planting. So likely October/November for that. 

I'm not much of a 'chaos gardener' where you just put seeds anywhere you want. I like having a plan, I like symmetry and rows of healthy plants ready to harvest. So what I'm getting is somewhere in between. Plant what I can, where and when I can as organized as possible.

Right. About that.