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.

 

Sigh....

 Skies were cloudy this morning but cleared off by 11 a.m. which makes for a cooler day and not as much need for water, but because of seeds watered anyway. Very nice blustery breeze as well so a lovely day for being in the garden. 

If I had an idyllic garden with burgeoning crops and beautiful flowers. Instead, gopher sign and dusty gritty dirt.

 

New dirt was pushed up from the second marigold hole, I flooded it anyway. The peppers are doing really well actually and the one sunflower that came up on the corner I am going to have to move, it's going to get too big and encroach the walkway. For some reason that corner has the best growing conditions, the radishes loved it and so did the tomato.

The seed package said to plant them about 18 inches apart and yet the beans they wanted almost on top of each other. Go figure. It will be moved maybe over to the fence bed.

There's enough room at least to put it on the other side of the cucumber so that's the best as long as the beans come up... sigh. I also put sticks where the three cucumbers were planted and I circled the other one coming up. It might be a sunflower and if it is, off to the other bed it will go. That's the problem with having the first leaves looking so similar, you know what you've got when the first real leaves come out.

The bark around the peppers is actually doing a good job of keeping the soil moist, they are growing really well and I made sure to fertilize today. You can see the lighter dots of it after I watered in the fence bed.  I moved the bark away from the base of the peppers and the soil was nice and dark, testament to mulching. Just wish I could buy some to put on the other beds.

As I water little pebbles and rock bits will surface and I pick them out. Some of them no bigger than  a quarter inch, others a little bigger so if I had decided to use mesh to sift out the pebbles I have to use essentially window screen. There are some people that say rocks to a certain size are good for aeration and obviously they've never gardened in actual dirt like this. Sandy, gritty clay soil that may be high in iron (indicated by the red color) but not a heckuva lot else in nutrients.

Which brings me to an observation on the peppers. They're growing and putting out big dark green leaves, just like the tomato did, they are also stretched out a bit as if they were growing in shade. That's a problem and that's why I fertilized today (oh the package said to use a tablespoon per square foot. Oops) Not enough phosphorous or potassium to get them stronger and putting out flowers and fruit. Yes I pinched them back but that is a survival thing as well, which I have covered previously. 

Anyway, gorgeous breezy day which I will spend most of inside because there's not much else to do. 

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.