Not one but two invertebrates caught!

It is definitely a smokey haze today, there's  wildfires somewhere and the wind is just blowing the smoke all over. So a very brown hazy day today.

The sidewalks are not that brown, it really is that hazy. Okay so the garden sidewalk maybe a bit dirtier but the shade fuzziness tells also how hazy it is. I can't smell anything of smoke thankfully because that would mean really bad conditions.

Larva number one was on the smaller onion in the corner. Very obvious given the coloring so picked that one off and tossed it into the bush. The second one I had seen the rampaging holes in the pepper leaves and finally caught the little bugger armyworm in the act.

A Western (or Common?) Buckeye butterfly stopped by and rested in the shade of the squash plant. It stayed there long enough for not only getting a picture but short video as well (only 13 seconds) because that was the only way I could get a good shot of the wings.

That's all the excitement for today. There's plenty of tomatillo flowers happening and even some fruit forming, four male squash flowers but still waiting for timing on the female opening up. I nipped off some buds on the pepper plant because it's still way too young to be making fruit. Nothing seemed to need watering as I watered yesterday. Even the pots were doing okay so I'll be taking pictures of the tomato seedlings and posting those in the garden group for trade. Not sure what but will see what people have.

Hazy, lazy days of summer for sure.

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.

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. 

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.