Yay for cooler weather, and black dirt

 It is cool enough today that I put my long pants on again instead of my shorts. Only in the 70's today with a lovely gentle breeze. Just wish I could get going on that north bed, I want to mix in the amendment but then I'd want to plant in it and I Know the gophers are over there, they ate the potatoes a few weeks ago.

These are pictures from yesterday evening when I dug up the north bed. So I don't think anything disturbed the south bed but there were suspicious wet spots. Hmmm. In my deep digging I discovered this root. It caught my attention when I saw the white roots and wondered what the heck was there. Didn't smell like anything familiar but glad I discovered it because it may be from the tree or something else.

And then just breaking up the soil, removing rocks that hit the shovel, stirring it around and.... black hand. I didn't expect to be doing that so I didn't bring my gloves with me. That is some sticky mud for sure. When it's dry it certainly doesn't look black and if that's any indication it explains green plants for sure. Lots of iron. Oh I did see a couple of worms trying to survive in that clay. 

Montbretia/Crocosmia? I can't remember what this plant is but it's flowering again and will be able to do a positive ID again when it blooms. The irises are budding as well and I knew I remembered they were yellow. Looking at pictures of Crocosmia it is not that because the flower stalk is straight up on mine and the other bends over.

 

Again with the difference in color for the pictures. It's moist under the surface but if I had plants in there I would water today. Just dark brown dirt. Technically if I want to have that amended properly half that dirt needs to come out and the amendment put in. If I do that the dirt will go in the corner where nothing but weeds are growing.

Hands are twitching to plant something in the middle but the speed they would grow would likely get in the way when the peas have to come out. Which... they are rapidly ripening their pods  and the cilantro is getting taller, onions are doing good so it's coming along nicely.

Something mowed down some of the lettuce, before picture on the right, today when I watered on the left. Goshdarn varmints, most likely another of those cutworms getting in there dangit! I dug/scraped the weeds out behind the peas They didn't look like anything I had planted and, of course, the oxalis was showing again. Good thing that is really soft soil and easy to get all the roots with the plant.

 

The tomatoes are concerning me with how yellow they look. I gave them a little fertilizer after the fact when I put them in the cups but being organic it takes a while for it to get to the roots. Really needed a liquid fertilizer but I have no way of making it.

It's Watsonia! Had to look up 'spring bulb flowers for hummingbirds'. It is definitely a hummingbird attracter and possibly bees and the hawk moth. This bush never goes dormant, it has green leaves most of the year, gets a few brown leaves in the fall/winter but this sucker is there all the time. If I remember it's a pinkish lavender variety which is very pretty and, you can't tell from the picture, but it's got four or five stalks coming up. 

I'll have lots of pictures when it starts blooming for sure, it's a good plant for back of the bed in this area but somewhere that would get some snow or more cold it would die back to the ground. 

So that's it for today, got this post out while it's still daylight out at least.

 

Rigging and meeting garden neighbor

 It is a wonderfully glorious clear (ish) day today. Got out at my usual time with the compost bucket and checked things out. First, put the seedlings in the window for some air and better light. Noticed a root or two showing under the mesh.

The iris looking plants I think are Dutch Iris that come up every year, I remember yellow flowers on this clump last year. Hoping they bloom better this year but it's not tended very well and spreading every year. Not my garden, not going to say anything.

As I expected, the radish didn't make it so I pulled it out and tossed it on the compost. Not much to be done other than that, though the lettuce is coming out with enough leaves I may have to snip some either today or tomorrow. We're expecting rain Wednesday/Thursday so not going to worry about watering. 

Seeing the peas struggling to reach far enough for the next rung on the trellis I decided to string some of the green wire in a zigzag patter as far as I could go. Didn't bring my gloves so hands got all dusty orange on them. That was about when Layla, the garden neighbor came in to check on her beds.

The gophers have ravaged her bed of fenugreek and whatever else she had planted. She pointed out they were even under the lemon bush. I told her the lemon will survive, it has a lot of heavy roots. She has a thick Spanish (not Mexican) or Middle Eastern accent so it's difficult to have a conversation. She is upset rightly so and said she bought some containers to grow her plants in now.

 They pulled a lot of her plants down just in a few hours from when she checked it this morning to when she came back. I know the pain, believe me. She got a couple of 3 gallon pots and started digging up dirt to put in them. Whatever, gotta make do with what you have. The Fenugreek seemed to do just fine with it so not going to tell her otherwise. Again, so thankful I have the raised bed and am hoping to figure something out after the potatoes are done to grow the tomatoes and maybe some other things there. 

I only have two panels left from the raised bed and that's not enough. I would have to dig a huge trench somehow to use those in some way. Will look at the poultry netting again or maybe gopher baskets (which is just as much digging honestly). I would need a 5 gallon size basket for each tomato. If I'm planting more than one, it makes sense to just do a trench. I have more room in the north bed than I did for the south bed and in doing s a little research gophers do come out at night (again not going far from their hole) and that's how one of my marigolds and peas got eaten above ground. Good thing I left a few inches above ground with the netting in the south bed.

 So that's the next project I guess, planning a 2x4 foot trench and line it with poultry netting to plant tomatoes. As soon as those potatoes are done, the digging shall commence!