At least I got out and watered yesterday.

 The heat is ramping up and hitting 90 two days in a row. I went out around 7:30 last night and it was downright pleasant as long as you didn't stand in the sun too long. Absolutely no wind this morning which worried me but now it's gusty breezes, when we are closed up and running the AC.

 

This was when I had to take out the trash and water last night. Just clear skies and afternoon sun slanting in, the sound of air conditioners running in everyone's windows. Which means the garden was baked.

Nipping off the terminal growth on the peppers seems to have helped.They're not full and lush like they should be but they are budding at least. This was after I watered so the mulch is darker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one mystery seedling is growing a stem, with my luck these are going to be some noxious weed because that's what it's starting to look like. 

Pollinated another flower and the other fruit hasn't grown much, oh well. Lots of those really tiny sugar ants in the flowers at least. I had hoped to get out early in the morning to do the flowers but it warmed up entirely too fast.

I also remembered to plant some beans (the dark soil spots are where I tested to see moisture level and deemed beds needed watering). Six plants is likely entirely too much if they all sprout, especially the ones in the raised bed. I made sure to plug the seeds down at least an inch and a half before watering everything thoroughly. The beans, should they survive, in the west bed will be just fine I suspect since those peppers are so slow growing. When I looked at the directions for planting beans it said the soil temperature needed to be above 50 degrees. Oh let me tell you that soil was certainly warm enough.

Last years squash and this years squash. Tomato fail in the background and almost a fail this year as well. As soon as the tomatoes are done they are coming out and will wait until November to plant something else. I can't grow enough peas to be useful but might plant some sweet peas if I can find the seeds. 

Really can't wait until I can dig the beds up again so I can mix all that compost in there and add in more soil to get that raised bed up to the depth it should be. But other than lettuce and hopefully potatoes in that bed not sure what else besides root crops to plant. I haven't had a chance to get to the library and see what seeds they have, may not be able to for a long while.

Will see how this all works out as usual.

Got eggs traded for tomatoes

 It's going to be a bit warmer today, still patchy overcast but not as cold as yesterday. I am happy to have multi colored eggs from someone who was happy to trade two of my tomato starts for a dozen. That is an amazing deal given the cost of eggs. I might start growing things just to trade them to people for things I need.

I don't think the beans are going to come up. It's been well over 10 days which is the longer time that they say beans will sprout.  The peppers are coming up very nicely though, just overnight two of them appeared. Left picture is this morning, right picture is yesterday.

 So I may not have beans this year and that trellis may be for my tomatoes instead. The peppers are two seeds per pellet so again with double planting works out. 

Meanwhile, out in the garden, the lettuce is leaping! That little sprout I'm still unsure whether it's tomato or radish, I planted both there.

The tomato I planted is still doing fine (I scraped a little fertilizer on the surface around it) and whatever was behind the trellis is gone. Still thinking it's likely from the fungus shroom I knocked over.

Just some reference shots for comparison down the road and just so dang proud of my tiny garden. If I have a tomato on the left, there's plenty of room on the right for another one and hope that the garlic doesn't mind it being there.

The peas are poppin' and seem to be on track for being the average height for the variety. Filling in that trellis well enough and hope there's enough to use when they start pumping out more pods.

The lettuce is loving this weather! I trimmed that day before yesterday and it's already looking shaggy again. I'm tempted to drop some beans seeds there when those are done. Despite the lettuce doing so well the soil really needs to be amended again. 

Of course I already knew the soil was good for greening, as evidenced by the tomato from two years ago going gangbusters on everything but fruit. I might just chop these down for some salad and then do a thorough turning of the soil, add in a little of that compost I bought and see what I want to do then.

The soil comparison between that and my raised bed is day and night and yet things grow in the most unlikely situations.

 

 

Early start today because....it's haht.

 Hardly a breeze out there to move the trees, clear blue sky and the neighborhood is eerily quiet for a Saturday morning. I think I got sunburn on my neck the other day and got heat rash as well. Another hot sticky day and will be buttoning up before we make one more trip to the store.

The sky is blue but not that blue. Just had to show the rare occurrence of a cloudless sky considering it's still morning.

Got a picture of 'Stumpy' the lizard scurrying up a tree on my walk this morning which Rocky totally missed. Then on our way back to the apartment he honed in on something behind the pipes. This is after a tiny baby lizard scooted around the middle pipe and ducked into the insulation. So there are lizard hatchings, just wish they would come to my garden.

Because everything was going good, the mulch did it's thing and barely had to water the north bed but of course the fence bed needed to be hit. As I was watering the south bed I noticed things hopping.

Remember that grasshopper that I let live?

Grasshopper nymphs. A lot of them, no more than maybe a quarter inch long. You know why she laid eggs and was hanging around? They lay their eggs in the dirt of undisturbed areas. What area is the most undisturbed?

 Yup. The one that doesn't weed, puts random plant cuttings and seeds in her plots and lets everything go wild. See the holes in the leaf? Technically grasshoppers eat the edges of leaves because of their anatomy but these little boogers could eat that.

I can't do a darn thing about it either. Hoping they continue to munch on allll her greenery and move on by the time my plants are up and growing. Even if I had killed/chased off that hopper she may well have laid her eggs already and it wouldn't have changed anything. Sigh. Heeerreee leezard leezard leeezard!

 So anyway, seems the sunflowers are busting out first and still waiting on the beans. Those flowers will be up and blooming by the time the beans are even half grown at this rate. Cucumber might be the one coming up in the south bed but given the leaf it's likely a sunflower. Could swear I put cucumbers there. Whatever comes up will be watched with a hawk eye on pests for sure. 

So that bed got a more soaking watering than the other beds. At this time of year, with my soil and exposure watering every day is a must. That fence bed sure could use some actual mulch though. Keep the soil cool and shaded, give the seeds a chance to come up.

Sigh. Dirt gardening.

Way late start due to morning being boooked.

 Another day in the low 90's so before heading out at 9:30 this morning, we buttoned up and came home to comfortable temperatures inside. Hardly a breeze stirring these days making it very stifling outside on top of the heat.

Didn't get out to water until 1pm and was relieved to see the last marigold still there but dismayed there were digging signs.

Two dirt piles, one on either side of the border, I had noticed the one on the outside before but now... it's heading straight for the other marigold if not there already. It was too hot or I would have grabbed the shovel and dug it in on that side of the marigold and leave it there to delay the inevitable. There was also a dirt pile in the neighbor bed as well, she had gotten out earlier to water.

Another sunflower is popping up and maybe cucumbers?? You can see a seedling in the south bed..(soon to be renamed 'the gopher bed' at this rate) which I thought I had planted cucumbers there but the leaves are the same as the sunflowers coming up in the north bed.

You can also see how the pieces of bark are trapping the water around it in the bed. It was definitely bone dry where it was exposed to the sun. I was too much in a hurry to water and get back inside to flip pieces over before watering. Hard to see the sunflowers coming up and am surprised those are coming up faster than the beans.

I saw a quick video where a woman was moaning about the fact that she planted beans early and her brother planted his late and his are leaps and bounds ahead of hers. Now, that's likely in the midwest somewhere and she was complaining because it was a contest between the two and she has to listen to his boasting for a whole year. Hahaha.

I am not expecting the other marigold to be there tomorrow. If it's still there I will take some of my precious garlic and cut it into pieces to dig into the soil around it and the seedling at the back. All over basically just for insurance. Have to find a good strong onion as well and do the same, hot pepper flakes maybe?

Can only cross my fingers that it leaves my north bed and fence bed alone.

Interesting weather and tnnels

 Due to a small jet flying overhead at 7:30 am and then a trash truck backing up a half hour later...combined with the muggy warm weather. I was up early today. It's going to be 90 today so by the time lunch rolls around we're going to be buttoned up for the day. I wanted to get up early anyhow to water first thing but a more gentle waking would have been nice.

Got out to the garden thinking I was going to see bone dry soil from hot and sunny yesterday. Keep forgetting how much clay is in the soil and also it clouded over last night. There was distant heat lightning/thunderstorm that I saw the lightning but never heard the thunder.

Doesn't look like it but that south bed is pretty much okay for water. If I didn't have seeds in the ground.

North bed was just fine, fence bed was drier than the other two so watered lightly. First I decided to dig out the purslane and a few other weeds. Surprisingly it was easy to dig between the fence and bed to a point.

I got the big ones dug out then turned to the north bed and decided to pinch out the tops of the peppers. Not a very neat job but they were already forming flowers and it is way too early for them to do that. Pinching out the tip will encourage side growth as well as putting more energy into a bigger bush.

The right one I did a little too far back, will see what happens.

After pinching out I moved to dig out some other weeds near the south bed and looky what I found.

Hmmm a small hole....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Didn't take much to chip away the surrounding soil to find a tunnel access. 

Hmmm, the new hole is at the bottom of the picture, the other holes that I thought were lizard holes... I don't think so anymore. A progression of holes leading to the jade bush. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Scary that. The other holes that have been there now make more sense. They're air holes and just big enough for a gopher to pop it's head up, get bearings and then dig back down again.

 Digging out the weeds near the south bed....I found the main tunnel.

Right in line with the marigolds. I dug down then explored it a little for direction and that is a right turn to the bed.

Before and after flooding it. I put water down there and it never backed up in about 20 seconds or so. As I've said, I could run the water for ten minutes but not going to waste water in our current drought.

Will likely see that hole backed up tomorrow. I started pushing dirt back in but then remembered they don't like open holes, it means a predator might find them. I left it open and still want to find someone with a gopher snake.

That little plant in the corner of the neighbor bed... I was thinking it was grape but did a leaf ident on it and Leaf Snap says it could be okra? What the... that lady.... no words really. Okra get big and it's in the back corner and will likely crowd a lot of other things out. Including my bed.

And then there's all the weeds and grass growing in the bed. Sigh. If we had completely separate raised beds I wouldn't be so cranky about it but honestly. Throwing seeds in anywhere without knowing how big they get... ludicrous in this sort of planting situation. Will see what it really is in the coming weeks.

Just realized I still haven't put the zinnia seeds out yet. Might do that tomorrow. Just sprinkle them around in the beds. Because I know how big they get and what I have planted there.