Summer is a'coming down the line....

 Clouds receded very quickly this morning or they cleared off over night. Very warm but breezy compared to the sweltering overcast warm and no wind day yesterday. Not much in the way of 'beauty' photos this week, flowers are blooming, garden is growing and sun is shining.

I opened a bag of the compost and spread it around on the surface of the raised bed. Just got tired of seeing the flat and compacted soil that was drying out. So using the compost as a mulch for now. I buried the pepper seeds that were sprouting, oh well. The other three in the west bed are growing fine. I also threw down some fertilizer just on top before watering it all in so

The garlic plants are turning brown and falling over before they've flowered, the neck was getting soft so I tugged on the farthest one and the tops came right off. Had to go hunt for the trowel to dig around and see if the bulb had formed. I GREW GARLIC!! It's currently drying in the basket on the front porch. Letting the other one grow a bit longer as it's greener than this one. Yay! Will see how it dries out and if it's edible in about a week.

 

Can't tell, but I swear those tomatoes have doubled in size in just a week. I just bought six roma's at the store today because these wont' be ready for another few weeks. These will probably be ready by the end of the month and I can tell every single flower has been pollinated. They are all bent over and not a single flower has dropped. Just an amazing bush to grow, not supposed to plant tomatoes in the same place every year but I alternate over the winter with peas or sweet peas and turn everything over. I am tempted to plant another crop of tomatoes after these are done since we have such a long growing season. I might give that Thorburn's Terracotta a try in the west bed since it's 'semi-determinate' but also takes 75 days to mature and is definitely a summer variety not cool season. Hmmm. If I started the seeds now they would be maturing into September, that's kind of iffy considering that bed gets shade more after the summer. Hmmmm.... something to think about. Nope, can't take the chance since  I have peppers in that bed, maybe when the Romaine comes out? No matter what, need to start the seeds now because they sprout in about two weeks, then it'll be another few weeks before they're big enough to plant out. 

What the heck, I'll give it a shot.

 

I decided to cut back about half the oregano stems that were toward the middle of the bed. Given the warm temperatures and breeze I chose to hang them along the upper shelf on the bakers rack outside. I stripped off some of the lower leaf clusters and, not letting anything to to waste, put them on a paper towel in the oven (did not turn it on!) just because I don't have anything secure that would work for drying them. That rack will be getting full blazing sun in about an hour or two so those will dry up quickly.

As soon as the tomatoes are ripe I'll have the makings of some great sauce! 

 

Some odd divots in the soil yesterday. Definite scraping of some sort looking for bugs and such. West bed and south bed only. No plants were harmed and since I watered again today, hoping they don't come back. If they sniff around and investigate the raised bed due to the fresh mulch, oh well. 

Another note, one of the other residents, named Michelle I've spoken with several times and she lives upstairs in the building where the garden is. She saw me putting my hose away yesterday and asked if I had a new hose, I said yes. She visits the garden occasionally, not when I've ever been around but the end of the conversation was her saying she was going to buy a hose for the garden for us. I already have a hose and so does Dolores. She asked what kind of hose I was  using and I told her and how much I remembered it costing so will wait and see if she does get a hose. Then... I'll have a hose that I won't need to use??? That will be nice not having to untangle and then put it away every time but whether she gets a nozzle to go on the end is another thing. Will see what happens.

 

Summer, El Cajon