Not much going on, seed planting calculations

 It's back to hot, windy miserably hot outside. Did I say it was hot? Yes, yes I know it's over 100 for multiple days straight elsewhere but it's all relative to what you are used to. 90 is too hot for us, it was 88 outside when we closed up around 11:30am it will be 90 before I finish this blog and it's an hour after that. But first, flowers.

 

The Jacaranda still has a few clusters of flowers on it which early this morning was being visited by bees and as I was typing now a hummingbird was taking advantage of the flowers in two different trips. I didn't mention it but yesterday a Swallowtail butterfly flitted through the garden! I tried to get a picture, hoping it would stop at the lemon bush but it moved too fast and was gone.

The sunflower will be blooming by the weekend, can't wait! Need to get a stronger stick to support it now. Hard to tell in the second picture but there are yellow petals showing compared to the picture from last night. 

Not much going on in the garden, there are two tomatoes that are still firmly attached to the plants but will keep tugging them until they come off easily.As predicted there will be a regular supply of them for the next few weeks. If I see anyone after picking some I usually offer them. Between the store bought ones and the food pantry I have plenty of tomatoes.

 

This morning things are getting baked already but that isn't for lack of water. The mulch is doing it's job and keeping the soil moist. The leaves are wilting because they can't pull up the water faster than they lose it. If I had shade cloth I would have rigged up something by now.

As bright as these pictures are, I have my phone camera on HDR which cuts the glare a lot but it tells you just how freaking hot and bright it is out here. So many tomatoes!

 

Just a shot of the branch I had to kind of hang on the trellis from the front bushes. The garlic is still hanging in there. A little concerned about the scarring on the tomato on the right. It's on the trellis and not anywhere near anything I know that would cause that.

The south bed tomatoes still hanging in there. The ones on the left are right shape but not full size so it's obvious something is stunting that bush . The ones on the other bush in the same bed are just fine. Go figure.

Still hammering in my brain on what to plant and where after these are done. I keep going over this on here because it's all a jumble in my head. I'm going back to the library for another pantry run tomorrow so will be looking again for more seeds.

Seeds I have for fall/winter planting:

Four varieties of carrots left, the two lettuce varieties (will be going back to get more of the red sail, I had to double check if the seeds were still in there).

Turns out the red burgundy is a short day and can be planted in the fall along with the bunching onions and then four varieties of carrots left. Little Finger carrots are gone and the Easter Egg Radishes of course. Still holding out for those, they grew really well. Oh yes and the sweet peas, but those aren't veggies so for some reason I left them out.

Bunching onions have done phenomenal,  I'm still going through the last batch I pulled, cut them up and put them in a baggie in the fridge, been using them mixed in with eggs and also quesadilla cheese. 

The Red Burgundy is 165 days to mature from seeds. That's almost six months! I would need to start those now to plant out next month. "Start seeds 5-8 weeks before last frost". The Ferry-Morse site says 100 days to maturity and 10-12 days to germinate. They both say December-March for planting out. So technically can't start those now and one picture showed using the peat pellets I have to start the seeds. Let's say I start them on my birthday in October, if they successfully germinate and survive I would be able to plant in December. The problem is sometimes we get frost in January.

I'm focusing on the onion because it's kind of daunting to try and grow them. They would need to be off to the side or at the back of a bed so even as shallow as the north bed is, a line of the burgundy with green onions in front and then radishes in front of that? Or lettuce?

The raised bed is going to be sweet peas on the trellis for winter, lettuces in front of that, carrots, green onions (on East and West side) and radishes. That will pretty much fill that bed. I wish I  had the room to start most of these indoors so I can plant out seedlings. I know carrots and radishes need to be sown in place but the lettuce, peas and onions can be started.

So much calculating to do! Ahahhaaaaa!

 

A small harvest of onions another shift in weather

 It was clearing off by noon today, though it was patchy, streaky clouds an hour later. Still more sun than clouds which is fine. It is what it is as they say and not much to be done about it. Not too many pictures today, not many flowers until I go on my walk in the afternoon but here's some progress photos of the garden beds.

I suspect none of the tomatoes are going to get much bigger which is disappointing and good at the same time. I was expecting 'monster' four foot plants but apparently not to be with the Romas. As dry as it looks, I'll delay watering until the evening. Still not sign of the other radishes coming up. Oh and I decided to dump the rest of the romaine that I had in the fridge including the root base. Just wasn't going to wait that long for it and not have anywhere to put it.

 

I had to step way back to get a good shot of the raised bed that includes the leaning tower of Coriander. The tomatoes in this bed are about the same size as the ones in the ground (other than the one on the trellis).  

I decided to pull the largest of the onions and got a nice handful as good as any bunch I've gotten in the store. The ones that are left in the raised bed are getting too much shade and they are at least two weeks behind the ones I pulled. Seriously good green onions, a do again crop for sure and will likely plant a lot more in succession. But where?!

I'm trying to plan the next season (fall/winter) plants and on the list are; potatoes, onions, lettuce, radish, carrots, more cilantro and that's all I can remember. Peas were easy to grow but I have a small baggie of them in the fridge right now and ... honestly I don't die for peas. Same with beans, fun to grow but why waste room in a garden for something I won't 100% eat? I would plant Sweet Peas for the flowers instead absolutely! Spinach and chard are not high on my list of greens either.

So it's a rather pedestrian garden sticking with what I'll eat: Lettuce, potatoes, carrots, radishes, onions and garlic for the winter and spring. As I said, when the three tomatoes in the north bed are done I'm looking for a zucchini plant to put there for mid-summer. I really want peppers but that was a fail the way I did it. Might have to try direct sow.

When you see charts for square foot gardening a lot of times they have everything really close. They suggest 1 tomato per square foot (on center). Doesn't say what kind just one per square foot. That's not one every foot, one in a square foot. So technically, to give them enough room you plant every other foot. Ideal spacing for roma is 2 feet on center. Which is close to what I've planted and roughly follows the square foot gardening method. I have the three in the north bed staggered rather than a straight row so there's a bit more room for them and for anything else I wanted to plant. 

When you have limited space, you do what you can to maximize it.