Back to clear skies and some seed planting

 It's only going to be in the mid to high 70's today and for the rest of the week or two. It is finally true fall weather for us since it's not cranking up in the 80's or higher. The nights are cooler and the sun is lower angle so that means the soil is staying cooler and not drying out in a day.  This is great for getting out there and contemplating where else to plant things.

Beautiful, beautiful day. Same view out the kitchen window as a comparison from the rainy one. Hardly a breeze and clear blue skies.

The orchid sadly is toast. That last leaf is almost totally black so I took it out to the porch and  unpotted it. The roots are not rotted at all! The bark was moist but not soggy so I'm thinking that the lack of airflow and light is just as much an issue. I'll have to repot it in the nursery pot it was in with the same bark and just leave it on the porch for now.

Lettuce yes, sweet peas and onions no. Dangit! Those were my last pellets too! Despite what they look like the peat is still rather moist so going to leave them there today and then plan o soaking some more peas to direct seed on the trellis.

Some of the Romaine is coming up and another potato is breaking the surface in the raised bed. I just needed to be more patient for the weather to turn more favorable for the seeds to grow. 

Progress on the chives, potato and cilantro at the west bed and then decided to plant some of the older carrot seeds to see what happens (I remembered I can add text on the photo in my phone). That's also the end where I mixed in some of my home compost so maybe that's the magic touch judging from the way the other plants are responding.

This is all for my reference later of course so I can refresh my spotty memory when posting updates later. I almost put out more cilantro then held back because I still have tons of lettuce and cauliflower plants to put out.

 Still plan on putting at least two in the middle of the raised bed, hopefully I'll have some peas of some sort started and planted by the time those are ready to put out.

Going to be an adventure growing cauliflower, it's a bit more fussy from what I read than what I'm used to. After reading about how to take care of them, apparently the one site I was reading said it's better to plant them out in late summer. Yup. The author of the article on Harvest to Table is based in Los Angeles and is a certified horticulturist and nurseryman. He's an expert gardener and author. Not sure when that information was written because where I am in partial desert zone we don't have to worry about frost dates as much. Spring and Fall essentially the same weather patterns just in reverse from each other. Warming to cool, cool to warming. Sounds obvious right? But in actuality I can plant typical 'spring' plants in the fall or early winter with sometimes better results.

 So I think it'll do fine and two in the raised bed is all I can make room for since the actual plant leaves get very wide (max is about 2 feet!). Might even have to plant just one there in the middle and trade out the others. That's going to be a seriously crowded bed if I put two in, then there's the potatoes, possible sweet peas/peas, onions, still haven't planted anything along the front of the raised bed since  I was waiting for cooler weather and keeping the potted seedlings there.

Much to do about some things.