Evening is the better time for gardening

 Not nearly as hot and the lighting is perfect when the sun isn't directly overhead for taking pictures. Nights are definitely cooling down, getting into the 60's and daytimes are in the 80's this week. Much more pleasant and manageable even during the day. Still have the AC on but turning it off when the sun goes down.

 

The parrots have returned on their biennial migration pattern. Small groups right now but in the next few weeks I suspect the flocks will be larger. The tomatillo guardian mantis is still there, hanging out on the same branch today. It moved from when I took that picture in the morning and when I went out in the evening but is still there. I hope it's finding enough food.

 

 

I need more dirt for those potatoes. Two more roots have sprouted up but if they don't have any soil there won't be any tubers formed. I fertilized another squash, used one today in dinner so still two more in the fridge. There are fewer fruit flowers coming on now so hopefully the crossovers will happen easier. Tiny teeny ants are acting as pollinator vectors hopefully. I see them in the flowers but never on the stems or plant.

The one puny tomato that was left I decided to plant in the corner. Not going to be worried if it doesn't survive, the ones I 'gave' to Layla are doing okay, I water them whenever I see they're dry.I cut another leaf out of the way for the fish pepper, it's getting kind of leggy from all the shade and the squash won't be harmed losing another leaf.

Yeah, I don't think it's going to miss that one leaf. Or the other one at the back that's damaged from water/sun. I suspect that there might be an abundance of nitrogen in that soil if that plant is so dang happy.

Lots of flowers on the peppers and tomatoes but still too early for fruit. Hope it's still warm enough in a month for them to fruit. They're all in the nightshade family with the tomatillos so here's hoping for bumper crops of fruit in a month.

I can't believe I forgot to mention the baby lizard I saw three days ago! It held still long enough for that picture then turned and headed into the grass and under the bush. I hope that's the one I almost stepped on. If not one of it's nest mates, still gives me a great thrill to see so many lizards and birds and butterflies around.

That's it for today and yesterday, all is quiet and cool at night.

Test test-yes it's summer

I was trying alternate browsers to see if it's the browser or Blogger and the consensus seems to be Blogger. The same photo issue is on all browsers so I will just continue on using Firefox because that's what I'm used to and just deal with the picture issue.

This was my afternoon visit around 4pm so the west bed is shaded but the raised bed is still in full sun.I watered anyway because it was hot and dry. 

Yesterday and this morning. Size and color difference and the one in the fridge is about the same size as the one on the right. According to pictures they're a bit bigger than prime size and a bit paler in color but still within reason. I thought they were supposed to be a bit smoother but some pictures show the bumpy size. 4-7" is well within range so I might even pick the other ones on the bush as well.

 

Leaf edges are getting burned and curled from the intense heat. I am trying not to water more than once a day when it's this hot. The ground beds can go every other day and now with the shade of the huge squash leaves, the soil in the raised bed is staying moist longer as well. Around the edges, not so much so I will likely monitor those areas closer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tomatoes are growing well still, several flowers on the taller plant and the peppers are going to be just fine getting fruit soon  hopefully. Probably by end of August for sure, really late season and kind of  miffed about it. 

Tomatillo flower, shredded squash flower after I pollinated and the little jalapeños. Talk about late season for those! 

I watered the log pile for the lizards and as you can see on the right in that photo, Layla still has not dug up her tomatoes to replant with my gifted ones so I'll be posting on the exchange group for them and might give her some seeds for the larger variety tomatoes I have. The potatoes. Continue to put up growth because the roots are close to the surface. I need about four inches of soil in that bed and about a foot in the raised bed. 

If I could get four corners like the raised bed and some bolts I could put together another long narrow bed for that area, I still have two straight pieces. Talk about a perpetual potato bed if that happens.

Hoping for my birthday to get enough soil and supplies for fall/winter planting. The garden bed website says it would end up 2' x 3.5'. That works out perfectly for what I need. I just need to find out how much the corners are. I had to go waaayyy back and find when I got it to make sure I was looking for the right company. It is a Birdies not Vego which is hte other company and even though they look similar, the height, thickness and holes could be off by 'just enough' to not work. 

As always will see what happens and hope for birthday gift for myself in October.

Off I go, still too hot outside and tolerable inside. 

Another squash success and a critter visitor

Weather has not changed, still hot, a bit muggy and so getting out before noon has been a difficult thing. By the time the evening rolls around I'm busy with other things and have to make a point of taking my 'temperature' walk to the garden around dusk.

 I updated the photos app on my phone and lo and behold there is a 'adjust sky color' option now that makes the colors closer to actual colors! No change in the photo editing on blogger unfortunately.

The dirt was disturbed around all the beds yesterday when I got out there. Just shuffled the dirt around looking for bugs or something. Didn't get into the raised bed thankfully, probably due to it being tall and there's a huge prickly squash plant overtaking the entire bed.

 

 

 

Nothing left behind, they didn't dig up the cilantro but the left hand tomatillo was dug under a bit so I just moved the dirt around and packed it all back in again. I watered last (that) night so no dirt was disturbed today. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, I decided to yank the strawberry. It was not recovering well and when I pulled it out and washed the rootball, there was one tiny cluster of white roots, everything else was black and soft. Into the compost pile it went. Will try again next year.

 

Another squash has taken off! Top two pictures are from yesterday and the bottom one from today. You can see the four unfertilized fruit lined up compared to the one that is growing. There's male flowers but not open enough for the females to take So will be letting that one get a bit more yellow than the first one and I also realized like the cucumber the squash is growing in the direction of the front left corner. I have no idea why other than that's west and has the most sun on it?? No clue.

I noticed some good size flowers on the peppers! Just because it is so late in the season I'm letting them flower and do whatever they want. The Fish pepper continues to grow thankfully and I am pushing the leaves aside to get it as much sun as possible, no flowers on that yet, still too young. Will be bringing out my paint brush tomorrow and try to get pollen on all the flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still nothing on the beast tomatillos other than flowers. They are incredibly happy and hoping that they get to the point where they start growing fruit! Wondering if there's not enough phosphorus for making fruit?

Potato is still blooming so that will be finishing up in another month and the tomatoes I'm letting flower as well. After I took the pictures of the cilantro I decided to yank them because I noticed they were bolting even at that size. Still no clue what that larger leaf plant is at the back.

While examining the tomatillos something caught my eye with movement and I almost batted it away thinking it was a spider. Glad I didn't! Judging from the curled abdomen I think this is a male praying mantis! Not many bugs around but you go ahead and hang out little guy! Yay! 

 

 I decided to plant the last two jalapeños in the 'nightshade bed'. Still have those two tomatoes that I am really wondering if Layla even wants them. She seems to want to keep her spindly tomatoes even though they aren't going to grow very well. I certainly don't have any room to plant them, not even any dirt if I wanted to do pots. Will have to take pictures of them and see what I can get for trade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking to the garden today I saw something that looked like a caterpillar on the sidewalk and bent down to check. It was a caterpillar but not moving. Not sure what happened to it and glad Rocky wasn't there to check it out. It looks like it was eating that piece of leaf, the little specks on the sidewalk are seeds from the liquidambar even if they do look like poop, they're very crunchy. It is a Red Humped Caterpillar and turns into a nondescript small moth.

Yay for advances and critter patrol in the garden!