Horse latitudes and doldrums of summer

 What does that have to do with gardening? Weather. 

"The Horse Latitudes are zones of calm wind and high pressure at about 30° north and south latitude, where air from the doldrums sinks. Historically, ships in the horse latitudes would run out of food and water while becalmed, sometimes leading to horses being thrown overboard."

 

So that's where we are, heat advisory for the next three days. Not exactly no wind, but it is a hot desert kind of wind. Mornings have that cool heat anticipation feel but it is wonderful as long as you stay in the shade. It is going to be 90+ for the next five days with very little wind but thankfully cooling at night but not until well after dark. We didn't open up last night until after 8pm. I managed to get out yesterday after sunset and fill the bucket almost full with water after almost emptying what I had in it to water the tomato and oregano. 

Clear and crisp skies yesterday and today and will continue for another week. The parrots were having a wonderful time in the trees last night and one last one this morning was left that squawked and flew off as I was letting Rocky roam around.

And formatting for photos has gone FUBAR again. 

 

Roses are blooming again after being stripped in July. The flowers are smaller than they should be because it's a second bloom cycle but that is to be expected. Probably 30+ year old bushes and they've likely been doing this from year one. Sigh.

 The asparagus fern is blooming again, wonderful fragrance depending on the wind. It was a pleasant time hanging out in the area this morning.

Stupid formatting isn't letting me post parallel/in line photos together.

So the tomato had some damaged leaves, something was gnawing on them of the insect variety so I pulled them off and doused it with about a gallon and a half of water. Dumped about a half gallon of water on the oregano as well. You can see how it ran off due to uneven soil but it'll survive. The tomato hasn't grown much and the leaves are really thick. Not thin like spring leaves at all but the water well is helping immensely to keep the water around the root zone, as it should.

Something kicked some dirt around in the south bed. I think it may have been a cat but not going to worry since I'm not watering that bed and only have cilantro seeds scattered around there. After the first rains of winter it'll likely sprout like crazy. If not I have plenty of seeds. 

Definitely more like desert weather than tropics because now the humidity is much lower at 32% when we had the tropical storm last week it was up in the 60's. Blech.

 

Staying inside, staying cool as we can until the afternoon when the sun blasts the front wall. Keep cool as you can, hydrate and low stress.
 

Repeat of the weather and other things

 The only difference today is it didn't get 'quite' as hot, but still had to close up and run the AC all day.

Looking South East when I went out this evening, clouds were a bit more pink than in the photo. Apparently there's rain in those clouds according to the tv weather, not a drop came our way.

I got antsy about moving dirt around so got the cultivator and raked through the West bed and moves some dirt around in the raised bed. I think I even hacked at the south bed. 

 

Pulled out clumps of roots and then decided since it was loose dirt, put the chicken wire cover over it. Just for insurance even though I know it's the wrong time of year for digging, random cats might find their way.

I realized something when I was filling the water bucket, the lemon tree is growing mostly toward the path. Which, happens to be where the most water is from the capped sprinkler and where the hose tends to be shut off. Not to mention more of the sun is on that side.

I saw a Layla again yesterday and she was thanking me for taking care of her plants when she's gone next weekend. I told her where she got the hose from and she said her sister but it was too long so she cut off the end. I told her that long is not a problem but it's not useable short like that and I would try and get a hose mending fix for it so I can use the sprayer. She apologized and said 'she didn't know' and apologized....  

So yeah.. she tells me she got a hose to use for everyone and yet cut it off because it was too long for HER. 'Well meaning but not useful' is a common phrase. 

So what I am doing is pulling some of it out enough that I can put the end in the bucket and run it on medium, filled the milk jug to water the oregano and tomato twice and then filled the bucket up about halfway. 

Not even sure about using her hose at all even if I do fix it. Maybe get a hose splitter to put on the bib and take the ancient hose that's on the hanger in there and put a new one in. Will see what happens, other bills have to be paid next month.

Still hot as blazes...

 Going to be continuing this trend for at least another week but with some high light clouds overhead. Earlier, before we closed up for the day I got a whiff of wildfire smoke which explains some of the odd coloring in the sunlight. Oh and humidity is up above 60% which makes it double icky.

I haven't been out today or yesterday, these are from day before yesterday.  I made a point of making a water well around it just for that reason keeping the water around the roots. Helps immensely. In the other bed is trails from Layla watering on the mostly empty bed after pulling the two peppers. I swear I am going to start pepper seeds in February now because any later and I get no results. Sweet peppers are some of the earliest plants that we would get at the nursery and hot peppers wouldn't come in for another month or so after that. 

 

I decided to open the bag of compost that was on the right side and dig/spread it around. Couldn't stand it anymore and wanted to feel productive. That's just one bag and I  just used the trowel and my hands You can see the difference because of how much perlite is still in the soil from the raised bed mix. It's turning into a really good soil bed. This is a very barky mixture so digging the actual compost from below along with the raised bed soil with the perlite, it's looking really good now. 

When that tomato is done, or I give up on it, or something else happens  I'll dig the other two or three bags into that bed. Definitely will need the shovel to dig everything through and three more bags would be about right to raise the soil level almost tot the top...uncompacted. And of course, by the time all that is ready I'll hopefully have a repaired hose or new hose to use.

 

Oh! I saw a memory on FB that I got my surprise raised bed frame 3 years ago! Woohoo! Didn't plant anything until the following late winter/spring because I remember collecting leaves and logs for it in the winter. 

Between FB and this blog, it's a good journal for what happens in my life, gardening and other things. Everyone should do it, even if you think you're life is boring. George Washington kept a farm journal and when he was away, his wife would tally the temperature and weather conditions for him and send that off in a letter. 

Odd question for the day; Where did the song Old McDonald's Farm come from?

Some changes made, still hot.

 It has been in the mid to high 90's for the third day in a row so needless to say I don't get out to the garden until after sunset. 

This is one of the peppers in the west bed. Confused me for a few until I investigated and discovered a spider had pulled all the leaves together for a home. Sorry little one but the plant has to go. I pulled both the peppers and tossed them on the compost pile. The soil was barely damp and they pulled up easily because, hot and no water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pulled the last three peppers off the jalapeño and then pulled it up. Leaves were coming off easily as well as one, lone flower. It was trying but there were yellowing leaves so it had to go. 

Filled the milk bottle with water, then dumped a handful of fertilizer in the spot and mixed everything in before transplanting the little tomato. I was hoping the cage would go down further but it's hitting the logs at the bottom even after rotating it a few times that was the best I could do. If the little thing survives and grows, I have stakes to help. Yesterday I unhooked the hose and used the cat litter bucket to fill with some water. I realized  I can't lift anything heavy so likely only put in about a half gallon because, you know how well faucets spew out water. 

I don't think I left any water in the milk jug so might have to fill that again. Somehow. Might have to pull the hose out enough to fill the bucket and then use jug, I'll figure it out. Oregano is even yellowing a bit and like everything else, no growth in this heat and lack of water. I watered it well with the new hose a few days ago thankfully that is a tough plant. 

So anyway, not going to be a reasonable temp today until after dark but will try and go out while it's still light and check on the tomato.

Disastrous to say the least.

 I tried watering with the 'new' hose. Many cuss words were flying through my head, but lets start at the beginning.

I pulled the hose out and started uncoiling it. I swear they got this from some yard sale or some relative or something. Coiled that badly and it was cut off on the end, I have no idea why and it shortened the hose by about 5 feet. So turned on the water and immediately it started leaking from the faucet. SIGH. Shut it off and discover that they hadn't tightened the collar on the hose bib enough. I then slid the white 'anti kink' collar back up to where it was supposed to be and no leak. Gee, ya think?

That space between the wet dirt is where I had to stand because the amount of hose cut off was about 5 feet. I will be trying to get a water wand and the hose end mend kit next month. So I was watering using my thumb over the uneven cut off hose and yes, again it went as well as expected. Trying not to water drill the soil (fail) make sure that everything got wet enough (fail) and try not to get too soaked myself (fail).

Everything was as wet as I could get it, had to move soil back around the pepper plant and into the tomato pot. The soil, even as much as I watered, was still only wet about half an inch down. So dismal failure and will use the milk jug next time. I looked at the two bell peppers and sighed heavily. I am just done with everything this year. Going to pull those two out, pick the two jalapeños even if they are smaller than mature size, pull that plant,  then will consider planting the tomato.  At least it's growing and after I pulled off the lower leaves that seemed to have mites it's doing better. More than enough stem to bury for stability.

It's been a really frustrating and depressing late summer with everything else going on. Fall is still months away but now is the time to start seeds. Which I don't have the set up for yet and the weather is not entirely ready either.

So I will go price out the water wand and mending kit and hope I have wiggle room in the budget next month.

Well, not much in the way of pictures

 Or progress for that matter. Been a busy week and didn't even get out yesterday because it was too warm. It is cooler now than it has been but weather says it's going to ramp up again in a few days. Bleh. And me still without a hose... double bad.

So I was out with Rocky in the evening and saw someone over in the garden, a man and someone else and they were looking in the electrical closet. I walked over quickly and discovered it was Layla and her husband. She said they got a new hose and had hooked it up already and put it in the closet. She tried to open the sliding door wrong and so I fixed the problem, saw the hose and didn't quite understand what I was seeing but thanked them and then had to go make sure Rocky hadn't wandered off.

I got Rocky upstairs a little while later so I could go back and see about using the 'new' hose. You see what's missing? THERE'S NO FREAKING CONNECTOR ON THE END OF THE HOSE! It's coiled like it's new but for whatever reason the end has been cut off, there's a kink in the middle of it and that white plastic collar is supposed to be up where the female end is I think. And she wants me to water what's left of her plants when she goes to Egypt again on the 27th for 2 weeks. That's a whole other topic entirely.

That is a near useless hose.It needs the male end repair kit so I can use the sprayer on it. I don't even know if it's 50 feet either. I had to shove that back into the closet and not water tonight even though everything is desperate for water. Oh and what is not shown is at that end there is a flattened cloth type hose that has likely been hung up in that closet for at least a few decades. It's so stiff I'm afraid it'll crack and come apart if I try to move it. But now that I know there's a hose hanger right there inside the closet near the hose bib... that's going to be the Fall/Winter project for sure. I won't be able to use my right side for a while due to surgery and coming surgery until likely December. 

 Not freshly watered but later in the evening so the soil was still dark. Honestly the other two or three peppers left on this bush and I'm done. I don't have the money or watering ability to keep things going right now. I'll dig that little tomato in and if it survives, so be it. The other two pepper plants have not grown an inch so I'm giving up on those also. Unless I want to try and dig them up and move them over to this bed. ::throws hands up in frustration::

 It's not been a good day today personally nothing horrendous just dealing with internet persons and gaming people then the hose fiasco and stress about transportationa. 

So I'm just done with the day and the week.The garden is bottom of my list of things to be worrying about right now.

Watering was done... it's still hot

 Not ragingly hot but hot enough for the AC middle of the day to sunset. Still debating on ripping everything but the oregano out for now. Yes, it's been over almost two weeks since I last posted, been busy with things and staying inside for most of it. Shouldn't really have done heavy watering but the poor dirt was so dry.

 

First day I was able to get out I just filled the little half gallon jug with water a few times and made sure the plants got water. The jalapeno has had 'taco' leaves for a week despite watering heavily yesterday. The other two peppers seem to be at a stand still as well.

 

There is a haze over the city due to fires which is making it difficult for me to get a full breath which is unheard of. It also makes doing anything outside rather well planned and careful. Hard to see in the pictures but there is definitely a brown haze close to the horizon.

 

Something did a number on my pinwheel, one of the petals was off so I just pulled it out and put it on the crate. You can see the 'taco' shape of the pepper leaves, that's before I watered like crazy (which I shouldn't have). And one lone little cluster of hawthorn flowers on a bush.

 

Rocky doing his typical 'master of all I see' pose. Flat surface, not the grass and in the shade. Speaking of shade... the stripping has begun. The Mourning Cloak caterpillars have hatched and started to strip the tips of the branches on the liquid amber trees.

After what I thought was a thorough watering with the absolute travesty of a leaky hose. Got my feet and 'garden shoes' soaked, shorts wet, sprayed my face... Last two peppers, half size and the plant still is suffering looking like it's not getting enough water. The peppers even at that size are plenty spicy enough so I'll have to wait another day or two to pull them and the plant. It's not wilting per se, but it's definitely stressed. The little tomato is still hanging in there and again, deciding whether to just dump everything and prep for winter crops or keep plugging away with what I've got and hope they survive.

A little spider in one of the other pepper plants making a home. The leaves were all cupped together so I had to double check and make sure it wasn't stressed. Nope, being held together by this little garden helper.

Not much else to say or do.

Really not much going on

 Weather is holding steady with warm/hot days and light breezes. Watering is still being done by bucket and bottle until I can get a new hose.

Basically all that's left is three peppers and that small tomato that seems to be doing good. I had put some more soil on top because using the bucket and jug just washed the soil out. Which also means the fertilizer pellets I had put in there also washed out. Oh well. I made a watering well for the jalapeno to keep the water from just slip sliding over the surface all over.

Certainly does make a different of course. Another trick I've told people about and never used it in my own garden. Go figure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These last two peppers are actually getting good size, that larger one will be typical size first obviously which makes me a bit less anxious. No blemishes or bites as yet and with the watering basin it's staying hydrated properly. Will be watering again tonight and some more tomorrow so they're good for another day or two after I have surgery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I told Dolores that her potato plant had mites really bad, so what did she do? Just cut off the leaves. I don't even think she's worried about the potato as this was another volunteer from her compost. Then  there's my 'compost pile' with the last of the cilantro plants, and someone pulled weeds and put them on top. That will be in the 'to do' list for another month because that would involve getting the shovel and my tarp out to chop it all up.  If I have the energy and weather is right tomorrow evening I might try it.

 

As I was taking my shoes off on the front porch movement caught my eye and realized there was a good size lizard that just scooted behind our elephant. Yay! There have been scurrying and such noises and visuals in the garden of course, leaves rustling as I walk by so it's a good thing.

I have a video of Rocky checking out the mantid on the screen the other  night but need to edit it down to upload it. It was adorable to say the least. That will be for next time.

I don't take very many pictures if nothing is happening but I do check on things, or try to every day and with the heat and waking up later I am usually going out in the evening. We're about to close up for the day right now since it's 1pm and edging up to 88.