So far, so good and... a potato?

 Not as hot today, I think we can stick it out without the AC since it's only going to be about 80. Nice light breeze going so as long as we can keep the front door and back window open we should be good. When the sun hits the front door, we have to close up and may run the AC a bit in the afternoon

So went out to the garden last night, Dolores came after I had cut and pulled out the west bed tomato and we chatted for a bit. It's nice to have someone to talk to about gardening and what's happening with our plants and what we're planning.

So as I was cutting back the tomato and putting it in a bag I noticed a completely new sprout at the base. I sighed because if it was a sprout from the tomato I was remembering last year, do I keep it because it's so pristine or yank it anyway because I don't want to take a chance of it ending up like the other bush. Well it turns out, it's a potato sprout!  I pulled the tomato stump out and that little thing stayed behind. Not connected to it at all.

I suspect it's from one of the small spuds I left behind accidentally in the spring or from last year and it's now coming up. Well, I'm all for that! Guess what is going to be in that bed now? Allll my root crops. As soon as the sunflower is done, will put in some of the radish seeds and maybe one of the carrots. Or just potatoes. All potatoes all the time. Technically that's not a good thing to follow a tomato with a potato but hey,  I didn't choose it. Most certainly am not going to dig it out, that's just kind of ludicrous to even think.

 

Two largest cucumbers, that really curved one, not holding out for that one, I already broke off the almost U shaped one that was smaller and tossed it to the compost before taking these pictures.

A skipper butterfly stopped by and apparently was enjoying the nectar from the cucumber flower. It didn't even move when I decided to shade it for a better picture. They are usually rather skittish but I suspect it was rather hungry and figured it was safe enough.

Another cucumber may or may not be forming. It's one of those that I believe I pollinated or it may be one that never opened completely while I was out in the garden. The strawberries are doing great. I pulled the two that had failed and tossed them to the compost. I am tickled that at least two of them survived and I showed them to Dolores when she was out there. Crossing fingers they both survive and will be planted in that box when they get big enough next year.

 

That is Dorlores' pepper and says the baby she gave me came from that plant which, in turn was given to her by one of the Mexican guys. She says he told her it was a hot pepper but not too hot. I'm looking at the size of the leaves and flowers and thinking, 'okay this is not going to be a mild chile' the smaller the hotter but she said it's not going to be as hot as her thai chilies. Will believe it when I see it.

What she thought was the pumpkin vine is obviously not and is actually a butternut squash. She swears she has a pumpkin vine as well but had to cut off all the leaves due to mildew. I pollinated the flower on that one so she's getting a fruit going there. I told her that butternut was about ready to pick, she says she's waiting for it to turn more yellow and I replied they don't get that yellow.

Speaking of chilies I picked up a couple of Hatch Chilies  from the food thing today, there was a whole bag but (mostly there was a fly that got in the bag from one of the holes) I have no idea what to use them in so just grabbed two large ones. I  will be saving the seeds for next year and hope to have a pepper and tomato garden going. 

Apparently true Hatch Chilies only grow in the Hatch Valley in New Mexico and have a sweet, smokey and hot flavor due to the valley soil and temperatures. They plant the seeds in June and when the season is over, it's done. Judging from that, I'd say it's worth a shot to grow some in my ground soil to see what I get.

I have some gifted jalapeños and am saving the seeds from those as well since this year the pepper seed market was all boogered up. 

I also have some watermelon seeds from a delicious watermelon I was given. I honestly don't have room for a watermelon, that would take up all the space in the raised bed. Just fun to experiment and use the seedlings for trade.

 

I also cut off the long runner from the right hand cucumber since all it had were male flowers and one fruit. I will likely yank those early as soon as the other fruit are picked. Still about a dozen tomatoes on that bush so that will still wait for a while. Kind of annoyed that they are all getting the unripe shoulders on them due to the heat. So now I know this is an early season tomato to get the best fruit ripening.

Regarding temperatures today: had to close blogger because pictures weren't loading and waited a bit, so here it is around 3 and we have closed up for the day. I had the ac fan going and it said it was 83 in my bedroom which means it was another 5 degrees warmer in the front of the apartment.

That's about it for today, almost time to go check ont eh garden in a few hours. It's getting earlier and earlier now, best time is around 6 now and a month ago it was 7.

Fall is a'coming!