Another sunny day but chilly at night

 It was only in the mid to high 70's today which made for wonderful shorts weather. As soon as the sun went down, winter whooshed in. 59 at 9:30 pm right now, double blanket weather for sure.

Early evening/late afternoon sun on the white azalea and the trees. Fantastic lighting with the angled light around 6 pm. Didn't get out until late afternoon and it was almost too chilly for shorts and a t-shirt. A better shot of the azalea earlier in the previous day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally got the peppers and sweet peas planted out late yesterday. Hard to see because of the shadows but peppers and lettuces are still okay, I'm keeping the fencing cover on them still because just my luck some rampaging opossum or skunk would come through and dig everything up. The peppers and lettuce are doing fine 24 hours later but the sweet peas....not so much. They're fading fast unfortunately and getting even more pale today, oh well, there's always the fall planting. Those tomatoes hopefully will do gangbusters this year. If I'm proactive, will have to tie that trellis to the fence now.

The west bed is still going strong with Oregano, onions and garlic. Oh, I planted cilantro along the back side of the south bed. Hoping those come up and take advantage of this great weather. Can't really plant much else in the west bed, only thing left for growing for the summer is peppers or flowers. 

Just had a brainstorm. Instead of covering the raised bed like a hoop house, run a vertical piece around the edge, maybe like a circle so it's removable. Attach to the trellis with hooks made from the cut ends of the wire..... interesting and complicated idea. Would require a LOT of cutting to get a piece that long and maybe some stakes. Will make do with what I have and work on that other idea for next year. 

Plants are growing and yay for free stuff!

Weather is holding at mild and breezy (dare I say windy?) so again, good weather to be outside in the garden. Windy means opposite of what we had last week so cloudy last week, clear and sunny coming up? I hope? Weather app says it's going to be in the 80's over the weekend and into next week, it's only 69 right now but supposed to be full clear skies and hot dropping 20 degrees tonight but going from 80's to 50's overnight over the weekend. Sheeesh!

Good thing I got out last evening to water, the carrots are still struggling to come up and I noticed a third one has broken the surface. The lettuce is doing fantastic though there's a thin spot in the middle of one row. Thinning won't be a problem with the rest of it, as long as I use tweezers. (I used regular exposure on the phone camera hence the glare off the lettuce).

 

That little seedling is bugging me. A bit too tough for being a tomato and rather tiny for being a radish. So help me if it's a weed that snuck in I'll tear it apart with my bare hands. (heheh)

 

The plants coming up from behind the peas are most likely weeds as well considering one of them turned out to be oxalis. Little twerps.

No more sign of that other thing either. Oh and the picture on the left is from last night after I watered and then on the right from this morning. Things dry out very quickly on the surface for sure.

 

The tomato I planted is looking a bit anemic since I didn't put any extra fertilizer in the hole not surprising. The potted tomato is looking okay at least but just noticed damage on some of the leaves. That may be from either heat against the window or cold and of course needing some fertilizer.

 

The peppers win this race for sure. The beans may need more constant warmth I suspect, going to tear one of them open and see if they're even breaking open yet. The beans from a year or so ago were sown in the open ground in my north bed which got full, full sun. Those peppers should be ready to transplant in a few weeks at least.

 I connected with someone else in the garden exchange group after they posted having extra soil from a local bulk soil company. He said to come on by any time and there would be a shovel there to use. I got two kitchen bags full of good compost for mixing in the ground. In addition to the soil I bought there's more than enough for mixing in the two ground beds to make them so much healthier!

I was carrying one of the bags to the garden and the maintenance guy was walking the same direction, told him what I was carrying and moaned about needing protection from the gophers still. Told him that I'm looking for free hardware cloth or chicken wire (giving the bed dimensions I need it for) and he said he'd keep an eye out for some. Not going to hold my breath on his contribution, he's the head maintenance guy for about three different properties.

So things are popping and growing nicely will fertilize again in about two weeks and might even try my hand at that fertlizer tea but have to find the right container for it. Don't have a bucket or large plastic or glass container, heck don't even think I have any cheese cloth or muslin to use as a filter. 

So much for that project. But I have enough to keep me going and the plants are still showing signs of being happy and mostly healthy.

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.

 

 

All the babies gone, more rain and seedlings!

 Same day I said there was one left, the second one was gone in a few hours. So, empty nest, clear skies and cool, windy, sunny weather now.

 

Since it's been raining, of course no watering necessary so it's assessment day. It got down to frost levels last night and after the fact realized it might have damaged the lettuce but... nope everything is copacetic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The good thing about the garden arrangement is being between two walls it is protected from frost. The forecast for night temperature prior to today was 32 and no wind. Definitely frosty but it's just cold where we are.

 

The potatoes are doing good, that largest one has doubled in size in just a few days. Those are fast growing for sure and going to have to reeallly be patient as they won't be ready until the plants have flowered and the tops starting to wilt down before pulling them.

The garlic is not doing so well and I may decide to pull that and put in either chives, more garlic or bunching onions.

The peas are slowly increasing, again hard to see but there are at least five sprouts coming up. That's good enough for me if they have enough branches. Have to remember to get the net and stakes in there tomorrow before they get too tall. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that the cilantro is starting to sprout I need to start thinking about the tomatoes and peppers. Peppers definitely have to wait for warmer weather, need to experiment with the 'seedling containers' I saved. The onions and in the front of the bed obviously have not come up yet and looking back at where and what I planted, I put the newer potatoes right where I planted the carrots and radishes in front of the garlic. Oh well. Really need to get sowing markers now. Popsicle sticks at least to not just mark the rows but the area involved. 

I decided to shift as much of the compost pile into a bucket. The bucket that had the least amount of leaves got dumped on the logs in the corner next to the jade bush. There was some dirt between the logs, and a few worms, so scooped as much of that as possible and then put the bucket between the raised bed and the aloe/log pile. Will probably move it later as I will need to get in that space soon to set up the pea netting. 

On my way back upstairs I noticed a white mushroom had grown in the lawn. Stopped..mushroom spores... fungus is good. I picked it up and tossed it in the compost bucket then chopped it up as best I could. I might have to ask my sweetie to drill some larger holes in the sides of that bucket. It'll be easier to turn and mix for sure since all I need to do is dig in or dump it and shovel it back in.

This is a picture of a 'water wise/low water' yard near the kids school. That bush in the middle is an Asclepias, aka 'Butterfly Weed'. It is thriving and flowering and has likely been established for a few years. There's aloe, succulents, a bird of paradise and lots of rocks. It's sparse but it doesn't look like a desert. Could use some ground cover plants instead of rocks but this does well. the wood fence at the front is only about three feet tall and adds to the southwest look of the plants. 

Yes, I know I've been taking pictures of the rose before but it's just hard to not admire it when I walk by and will continue to do so but may stop as soon as I find out what variety it is for sure.

We are expecting mostly clear but breezy weather, will be great to be able to out to the garden and see actual progress agian.