Well things were done yesterday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer in the garden, blasting hot sun and clear blue skies by noon. It's been downright overcast and wonderfully cool in the morning but it doesn't last long. It'll be up to 80+ again this weekend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't go out all day because of the heat so I made sure to bring a trash bag and my clippers down to the garden when the sun went down. It was time to pull up the tomatoes. I had left three tomatoes on the crate, not really caring if they were there the next day. Well, some thing decided to snack on just one. They were all on that pink cloth before.

     

I was cutting away with the bag on the ground propped over the edge of the bed then remembered my trick from last year. Tomato cage with bag, genius! The first plant I cut and pulled was the one on the right. One long root went all the way to the squash plant, just kept going and going and the soil, despite watering the other day, was still rather dry so easy to pull it up. The second one was the middle plant and those roots were mostly contained in that area but also relatively smaller root ball than the other one. The third was the larger plant and root ball that matched it's height. I took a video of me trying to pull it up. Hard to hold a phone and pull something one handed so forgive the off center and shaky camera moves.

 They all came up fairly easy actually, which is a testament to the soil in there. As soon as the squash and peppers are done, another two bags of soil go in and gets mixed. I used my hands to stir the dirt around and remove the major clumps of roots. When I stuck the tomato cage in, it hit the logs at the bottom fairly short. Which isn't good. 

All clean, all pretty as we say. Next up will be peas/sweet peas possibly on that trellis. I also trimmed off a few of the squash leaves that were old and had large patches of mildew. While I was inspecting the peppers, this one came off fairly easy as well as another one. So this is why I can't get them to size, they're just popping off when they feel like they're done. I used one in some pico salsa and let me tell you.... they are spicy! No need to let them get any bigger, which is another reason why I think they're actually serranos. Will try not to bother the rest of the peppers and see what happens. 

The squash I am just about to give up on, that one at the top *may* be pollinated as it's dropped a bit but the others not so much. Not going to bother planting the other squash seedling, really need two or three bushes to get good pollination so that will be next year.

The day of watering heavily above, and the bottom is the day after. I used the shovel and the hose to get the soil completely soaked in the south bed. The soil sank a good half inch in the area I had dug up. That soil also needs another bag or half bag of amendment as well. Before I plant anything else there I really want to get a frame at least 12 inches above ground to contain the soil needed. The whole garden is jury rigged from decades ago so if I can swing it, I want to help that last bed. I worked my ass off for the west bed to get it gopher prevented and the south bed is kind of half assed gopher protection. I just need a 12 x 12 x 1/2 inch board cut into specific lengths then need corner posts to nail/screw them into. So that's the 'proper' way to do it which I will likely not have energy/money to do. Will see what happens in another three or four months.

This whole complex is built and designed when they though that seniors 55+ were more active. HA! The garden is one of those spaces that should very well have been all raised beds not in ground and also maintained. From what I was told it was a kind of community type area but then some resident got a twist in her panties and the complex management released any liability or responsibility for it. As a result it fell into disrepair because most seniors aren't interested in gardening or don't have the money/energy to do so. As a result it's a trip/fall hazard, hoses and supplies are up to the gardener to supply and so there's only three of us that ...well two of us that have any idea of what we're doing with very little funds to do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not even sure if I want to plant that tiny tomato seedling either. Sure we have another two or three months of warm weather but the only place to plant it is where the other tomatoes were. Which is bad. Need to find some shelling peas to go in there for September and am really disappointed the beans didn't come up, but from what someone else said they didn't have luck this year either. So maybe it was just timing or the seeds. Maybe now that I've stirred up the dirt and watered well they're going to say 'wow let's grow!' I didn't see anything that looked like seeds but then they'd been buried in black soil for weeks and are not likely white anymore. Didn't even see anything resembling a stem either so not holding out any hope for them.

So that's it for today, plants are out, still no hose, doing what I can with what I've got.