Slight change in the weather and ho hum garden.

 Weather started out cloudy both yesterday and today and has cleared off but there is a definite haze, almost smog layer as far as teh eye can see. Powder blue smudgy skies but no fires reported. Various birds are chirping and singing as well. I can hear the Bewick's (which I found out is pronounced like Buick) Wren, there was a Towhee earlier and doves. No finch in my window though.

First of may it was better weather, the sweet peas still going off like crazy so no fear there won't be any for Mother's Day. Breeze is still blowing, air is cool but sun is warm, you know, typical spring weather. These pictures were obviously taken in the afternoon because I was very busy all day on the first.

Bougainvillea is in full bloom and they trimmed it up a bit about a week or so ago ad there were a few straggly vines hanging down. The other picture is Dolores' new garden area in front of her apartment. You can see how much it's shaded in the afternoon, she has too many flowers for that area. Marigolds, vinca, two vines, a hibiscus, I think some daisies and calendula, gerber daisy, tooo much in that area for sure. She got some of the Kellog's in ground compost and I don't know if she mixed it in or just laid it on top but either way, she didn't account for the possible sprinkler heads in the area. It's going to be too crowded and by summer there's going to be a lot of dying plants, probably sooner. According to one of the other residents, the hummingbirds have already found all those flowers so I'm sure butterflies may find them too, when the sun is on them.

The Watsonia is still going, but have only seen maybe two or three other stems for flowers. Ah well, and the Easter Lilies are still hanging in there but are being very slow to bloom.

 

This is the jalapeño seeds coming up, nothing from the poblanos that is visible yet. The difference in the pictures is only one day. The two top ones are from May 1 and the bottom one with two, possibly three coming up is from yesterday. Those other peppers though, nothing, nada, zip, zilch.

Those are almost all purple tomatillos coming up. There might be a pepper but can't tell at this point. Luckily the secondary (first real leaves) are different enough on the two I will be able to tell in about a week who's who. The squash is looking a bit yellow so will probably be planting that tomorrow morning. When I lifted it today there were about a dozen tiny millipedes under the pot. 

"Millipedes are attracted to dark, cool, moist environments that are rich in organic matter such as compost piles, heavily mulched shrub or flower beds (Figure 3), rotting logs, or the soil under logs and stones. They usually go unnoticed because they live in these relatively hidden habitats." So there you go, considering it was a moist area in a dark cool area, not surprising and I only found one pill bug, so we'll see what happens after I plant it. Hoping I don't have the same problem with the squash as I did with the cucumber.

Yesterday's discovery was a hole or more like a scrape that was dug in the west bed. Not gopher and not a cat, most likely possum or skunk looking for grubs. Obviously didn't find anything or if they did it was likely a worm. We had skunk smell the other night so not surprising. And an experiment on my part, I got some celery from the store and cut off the end with the intent to plant it and hope for the best. I know they need a lot of water and I am likely screwing up the lettuce seeds in that area but here goes nothing. I'll be tickled if I end up with some celery sprouts for sure. I did water it really well.

That's enough catching up for today, picked more flowers and cilantro, lots more things going on, more pictures and posting tomorrow.