Forgot to post yesterday and Weather!

 I did get out and take a few pictures yesterday but forgot to post. Big news is we did get the rain storm! Thunder and lightning and wind and all that! It hit around midnight last night (Thursday/Friday) but it's still cloudy and wet today. The funniest thing I saw last night though was as I looked at the wind blowing things around outside my window, an opossum was just tootling along the top stringer of the back fence...just as it was starting to rain. Just trundling along, taking a left at the intersection of fences and then disappeared into the dark. I'm wondering how it got up there. Hurry home little guy/gal, storm is a coming!

From yesterday morning, shadows on the fall leaves and it sprinkled a bit overnight but by the time the sun rose the clouds were mostly gone, a small puddle on our front porch the only sign there had been moisture from the sky. At the time I thought, 'is that it for the rain?'. Nope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wind was blowing a god bit so it was bending the potato plants over, giving the cilantro some sun in the process. Unfortunately the larger plant in front was being blown on top of the chives. Oh well. By the time that chives plant is big the potato will be gone. Which now that I realize, digging up that potato is going to uproot that plant and the cilantro smh 😒. This is why potatoes are usually grown by themselves because you have to dig up the entire plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The romaine seedlings are surviving but struggling. And another potato is breaking the surface! Yay! This one I think is one of the russet sections I planted and mentioned that I checked and it was too close to the surface so I pushed it down a bit.

 

And one of the romaine is gone. You can see how the soil is darker around it, whatever ate it came up from below, not a gopher but most likely pill bugs. It's the one in the upper corner in the other picture. You can see the potato at the bottom of that picture starting to green up and leaf out a bit more. 

Hard to see with dry soil but the carrots are definitely coming up. This is the front of the bed and with the potato being blown around it exposed some lower leaf that got munched a bit. So the bugs are definitely coming out now.

And now for today's comparison

It had stopped raining by the time I got myself together but there are still grey clouds on the horizon, but from what I understand that is what just passed over us. It came from the north west this time so is passing to the south east. Everything was wet yay! I put on my 'rain weather' boots that surprisingly got from the community table about a month ago. They're low hiking boots much like what I used to wear and were my size. Score!

Even with the contrast of dark soil  I marked best I could all the little carrots coming up. There's a lot. Yay! The peas at the trellis are doing spectacular ::knock on wood:: nothing bothers them. The green onion on the right is like a lone soldier there but that just means there's plenty of room for another row of onions to go in there. Or maybe radishes. When I find them.

The other surviving romaine that's getting munched at the back of the bed, it may not be long for this world unfortunately. And the russet potato showing better. This looks like it's going to be my potato bed and everything else will just have to survive being uprooted. The carrots won't be ready until the spring and the potatoes will be after them just in time to start planting the summer veggies.

Better shot of the peas and the missing romaine. It's all good I still have that container of mixed lettuces to spot around the beds. Just have to be aware of proximity to the potatoes.

The other containers on the crate, with the jade bush flowering already. For whatever reason the cauliflower are just kind of stalling out. The older leaves have turned pink and actually some have fallen off. Concerned but if I lose a few I only need four to survive for my use.

Leaves in the west bed with the now much bigger carrots and chives. Again, not thinking about the future and planting stuff close to the potato. Carrots will be fine and so will the cilantro but that chive plant I may be moving to the front of the bed between where the zinnias were. Maybe try and remember that when I'm pulling the carrots up.

 The other two romaine are fine but I noticed a small piece of wood that flattened the little cilantro at the front. When I tried to move the wood piece, the entire cilantro came with it. Looked almost like it had broken off after being smashed. Oh well. Not like I don't have any growing already. I forgot to look for the onion that was coming up at the back of that bed, oh well.

In terms of timing when things will be ready, carrots first,cilantro will be a continual trimming as they grow. After that, green onions whenever I want to pull them, or trim them for tops. The peas don't have to worry about as those harvest above ground.  As I said though, by the time the potatoes are ready to dig up everything around them (except for the chives) will likely be gone or ready to go. The cauliflower may well have to wait until the spring to plant, they're just poking along so slow they'll likely be competing for space when I put peppers and tomatoes in.

Looking at the seed packets, cauliflower needs 6-12 hours of sun a day. I don't think they're getting that much right now. I need to move that container to the middle of the bed because it's getting shade from the jade bush. Also ideal temp is 50-75, welllll it's been getting colder than that at night so another reason why they've slowed down. There's my answer, but maturity timing....65 days in good conditions. So it's another long haul (slow growing) vegetable.The Chantenay are similar timing for maturity so the ones in the west bed are going to be ready first then the ones in the raised bed a few weeks later. They recommend successive planting every three weeks or so. I have succession planting doing already. I'll be good with potatoes and carrots by summer. Hope I have enough room for all the summer stuff I want to plant.

Oh and it's officially Winter Solstice for us now! The longest day and shortest night was yesterday so from here on out we get more sun every day. YAY!

 

More seeds and cat deterrent in place

 With the wind today it does herald change of weather this weekend hopefully. App and news still says rain on Saturday so we will see how much we get. I watered since there are seeds in the ground. Will be keeping that damp as much as possible.

But first, a friendly garden helper spotted. I don't think it's the same one as the other was a bit longer and brown, this one looks a little younger or it could be this is the next instar of the one I saw and it's just not grown out yet. A potted ficus on the patio is where I saw it and if not for Rocky going in that direction I would not have caught it up close. It had it's eyes on me and stayed hunkered down until I backed away and held still a moment.

The pepper seems to have lost more leaves but is recovering. I am not watering it at all purposely but did get a bit of a splash when I was watering the cilantro sprigs.

So you know how it goes, water, water, water... okay I think that's enough. Moved a piece of bark aside and then shifted some of the soil to cover the cilantro seeds... bone dry right under the surface. Alrighty then, back to the hose, I've learned not to turn it off unless I know for sure everything is watered well. 

After watering I pulled out the Danvers 1/2 long and the Red Core Chantenay seeds and sprinkled those in the two rows in front of the peas. Talk about tiny seeds for those Danvers! I'm getting the hang of how to shake the envelope to get them to come out mostly in a row. The Chantenay were a bit bigger and I had a lot more of those so they came out a bit more than I was expecting but that's what thinning is for right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cat deterrent was temporarily placed last night. I had it still attached to the roll because I was rushed. Just stomped on it on the ground to get it mostly flat. I cut it off this morning and it gives good coverage and it slightly domed so I can take those logs out tonight and maybe put some lettuce and green onion seeds in there. Going to try and do the same thing for the raised bed but that one seems to be unmolested at this point. 

The one onion is shooting up but the other, since it was crumpled, is having a harder time. I need to plant some green onions over there and on the opposite side that I mistakenly sowed cilantro. It's all good and there's plenty of room. Could even do an in between seeding of the carrots and radishes with onion if I want, still have some of the bunching onion seed left. Had to go find that as I had it in my warm season seeds.
I moved the lettuce trays back to the shade since it's still very warm out. If those don't take I still have plenty of the lettuce seed left for successive planting.

So there it is, raised bed is seeded, I was supposed to put lettuce in front of the peas but oh well. I didn't have very good success with radish and carrots in the ground, will see what happens in the raised bed.

 And that's all the plants that are fit to plant.

It is going to be warmb as we say.

 Weather says it'll get close to 90 today and it's already 85. Clear as far as the horizon and hot sun beating down. Weather app says it'll slowly cool down over the next two weeks so eventually be cloudy and cooler again. For today I have shorts and a t-shirt on. We may end up turning the AC on for the first time in over six months.

I 'plowed under' the not thriving row of lettuce before watering. It seriously looked like something had eaten most of it so no great loss. I left them in place and just stirred the dirt a bit so they'll break down in place. The carrots are still there luckily but I am considering pulling those as well and putting a tomato right in the middle. Then again I have peppers coming on so I might end up putting peppers against the trellis (no they don't need it but I'm not going to move it and the beans aren't coming up). I am also tempted to pull up the weak and tiny garlic to make room for the tomatoes and peppers as well. The tops can be chopped for 'imitation' chives at least.

The white azalea is in full bloom again. Still don't know which one it is but doesn't matter at this point, I don't need the name to enjoy it.  And the bag of soil has a hole or two in it. I know there were no holes when I pulled them from the car. I wonder if something decided to try and get into it. It's a tear not a bite so not sure what's going on. I might have to mix that into the north bed soil now and maybe use the extra panels from the raised bed as a partial barrier. Still no luck or money to get the netting I need.

Unknown (likely weed) seedlings and the rather rough looking tomato seedling. I suspect something got to it for sure and it's struggling.

The peas are pumping out pods and given the weather and timing they'll be done enough in about a month to pull up. (The two unknown seedlings are in front of that right side pea plant against the wall of the bed.)

 The cilantro after watering looks bad but it's doing just fine, it'll be dried off in an hour or so and is still shading the lettuce and the tomato at the back. Onions are holding their own and really looking forward to harvesting those at the end of the summer. I had to buy some onions and cut the bottoms off about 2 inches and put them in water for the next crop.

I watered for almost ten minutes and there were still some spots that were dry under the surface but not pockets of dry soil. Later this evening I'll go back and and likely harvest the last of the other lettuce and carefully move the tomato cups out of the way. I thought I got a picture of them but guess not. They survived their first 24 hours being outside completely just fine. My worry was insects and the gophers or other rodents but crossing fingers/knock on wood they'll continue to do fine. 

I do also need to upend that compost bucket again and get that aerated in the heat but not going to do that in the middle of the day, another task for late evening or early morning. The gardening chores start mounting up with the warm weather trending for the next week or so.

I saw a 1b/1ba 'house' for rent in the vicinity where I live for less than our rent. It's a brand new ADU (accessory dwelling unit) someone built in their back/side yard on a cul de sac. Came with an 8x10 storage shed, big kitchen, AC and heating and separate parking. It mentioned laundry was available so I can only imagine it was the 'landlords' in the house. I thought, 'fantastic! less than our rent, seems to be about our sq footage or a bit more with a flat piece of yard right next to it. Wonderful! It was not listed anymore this morning. The other issue I thought of is 'I just got my garden going! I can't move right now!' 

I can't pull up my garden right now which is what the manager said was the only stipulation for having it. I would have to take it with me and even though I could gift it to the other lady I doubt she would be able to do it justice given her style of gardening.

So hot weather now which means more watering to do and a harbinger of what's to come in another month.

Gopher.... grrrrr

 Another late start to the day as I just finished having lunch. Got out to the garden about an hour ago but had wanted to go earlier, the devastation I saw was the stuff of nightmares. I was a bit hungry when Igot there so it did not improve my mood much.

The other cilantro was down and the carrot on the end of the row had been pulled down through a hole. See the dirt piled along the back? That is from the gopher tunneling.

 

Bastard... not bothering the peas for some reason, didn't do anything to the tomatoes next to mine and I think the onion was incidental damage in that bed. If it's following the wall then it will be in the corner and the jade plant. Go eat the weeds and work the compost pile ya nasty varmint!

So, what to do. I checked on the potatoes and tomato bed, got the hose and started watering. Remembering my childhood of flooding gopher tunnels I got an idea.

 

I first got the shovel and started digging where the tunnels were, collapsing them but also loosening the dirt unfortunately. That bed is really nice and loose now at least, no wonder the carrots are doing so well. So dug around and avoided the lettuces as much as possible then got the hose...watered then ... the big gun came out. 'Hydro blasting' with the strong jet and flooded the area.

One thing that gophers don't like is muddy soil.  Remember that one lettuce sprout that was so big in the front? It's gone as well but no sign of it being pulled down, just gone so most likely a surface muncher with that one. I waited for the water to recede then started transplanting the rest of the lettuce and bean seedlings to the other beds. The one larger lettuce that I tried to put in the bed wouldn't have made it, the soil came away from the root and it had been chomped. Drat it! I moved the other two to the potatoes and another bean to the tomato bed.

As a finale, I got one of the spare cages and plopped it on top of the pea cage. Didn't tie it down, will do that in a bit, not too windy so far but it won't stay on it's own and will use the green wire to secure it.

The shovel stayed in that bed, I moved it to kind of shield the carrots but it stayed. I have nothing like a barrier to put in the bed and telling the manager won't result in anything because....this is a bonus garden area and the gardeners can't do anything about it that won't poison the ground and ruin the beds. Will see what it looks like in the morning.

Now, if you don't know the life cycle of gophers here's the story. Pocket gophers are primarily solitary animals, tunneling for food and making small dens on the way to sleep. They only look for other gophers during mating season in the spring. Tadaaaa! It's interesting because I haven't seen any signs of gopher activity in the lawns or along the wall until now. Anyway, the male goes in search of a female tunneling along so when he does find one they are both making tunnels to ready for a den to have her kits. He then goes on his merry way and leaves her to her business.

Gophers do not come above ground very far or very often. They most definitely will not come out of the ground to cross the street to a neighbors yard. You don't know they're there until the tell tale mound appears and then it's too late. That mound is an air tunnel, not an escape tunnel, they dig up from about ten to twelve inches below the surface and then make an angled tunnel to the surface, take a look around, leave it open for a little air then close it back up with dirt. An open hole means no one is home or it's a snake hole.

Pocket gophers are no bigger than the palm of your hand, have a short tail and big front teeth as we have seen in cartoons and movies. They can move a lot of dirt in 24 hours and I can only hope that with all the flooding I did it will deter it from going any further. Even if it goes across the garden to the woodpile is okay. Go eat the tomato roots and knock that down for me will ya! Leave the potatoes alone by all means!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher

"Gophers eat plant roots, shrubs, and other vegetables such as carrots, lettuce, radishes, and any other vegetables with juice."

Yah yah... Obviously the gopher in Winnie the Pooh had plenty of forest to dig around in and wasn't inclined to visit Rabbits garden.