At least I will have peppers!

 I forgot to mention before that I fertilized day before yesterday and watered in really well. Because it's been in the high 80's and 90's all weekend and continuing into next week. I'm not getting out until midday I try to water in the evening. The little guardian mantis is still there, moved to a different branch but is a bit lighter colored. Hoping that means molting and not dying.

Playing hide and seek on the branch, almost looks like a cricket from that angle. Maybe I should get some kitchen scraps and put them under the bush so it draws flies for it.

That poor older bush is suffering from the heat a lot more than the younger one. It is literally burning because the leaves are browning on some of the tips but the stems snap and are full of water. So it's not really wilting, it's burning from the heat.

I decided to pull up the chives and tossed it on the compost buckets. I wasn't using them, it was getting in the way and Dolores has that massive planter of them and said I could use them if I needed. She's not using them either. I just watered yesterday and that bed is dry down about an inch, cool and dry but definitely not damp. I didn't water tonight but will honestly try and get out before noon to water tomorrow. 

I have peppers! The Jalapeño is definitely the bush on the right and the poblano on the left. I've grown jalapeños before and know they are smaller and pointier, the poblanos are stubby and wider at the stem. Still nothing from the tomatoes, just flowers.

And the potatoes.  Mostly it's just runners coming to the surface with no tubers, it needs deeper soil than that to make potatoes. So once again they'll have to do whatever they do however they can. Oh! As I was digging up the spot where the chives were...  I FOUND A FREAKING POTATO SPUDLING THE SIZE OF A PEA! Another reason to dig everything up that isn't a potato, shore up the sides and it will be my perpetual potato potager (okay maybe not the right word since that means kitchen garden but it works for alliteration).

I also noticed that when I water the raised bed, water is running down and out the bottom, the soil is so low and dry it's just going through. Not good. I am having to water a lot longer, cycling through the three beds watering for about a minute or two as the water puddles, I move on to the next one and keep doing that for about ten or fifteen minutes. 

So once the tomatillos are done and the squash starts winding down I have to see where I can scrape some money together or find some free soil. Driving all the way to the dump is not an option just for some compost that may stink to high heaven. I would have to bring my own bags and that's a lot of bagging to do. Someone on the garden exchange group had some compost left over and of course they were almost an hour drive away. 

As I've said, I need about $60 worth of soil (based on $12 per bag) to refill the raised bed and the other two beds. Gift card to HD for my birthday would be nice. 

I have simple needs for my hobbies, knitting and gardening. It's good therapy for sure but also nerve wracking.