Big rain last night! No pictures of it.

 Sometime after it got dark, maybe around 6 or 7 I heard Jon say something about moisture from the sky. I had the fan on next to me so even the low sound of that drowned out the sound of rain coming down. It was some serious rain though! Two good downpours over the course of an hour or two. Now it's heavy large clouds that show promise of more rain but so far the app only says high wind watch and mostly cloudy.  Nothing above 71 for the next week and then maybe a day or two in the mid 70's and might touch 80 for one day with patchy clouds. Yay! Perfect weather for planting!

A lizard scootered across the wall when I got to the garden taking advantage of that south wall warmth no doubt. That log pile is still their haven and I am reluctant to disturb it despite needing more garden space. At least a half inch of water in the containers for the pellets. I am thinking I want to dig out the pea seeds and replant in those. I have no choice as seedlings in the bed would likely be eaten before they cleared the soil. 

 

Potatoes are still doing good in the raised bed and there's three romaine seedlings coming up in the west bed so far. Every day they survive above ground is good.

The lettuces are a roaring success! It's hard to see but a good portion of them are ruffled even at this young age. Not sure how much I'm going to thin them and might just take entire clumps to plant out to the in ground beds.

I'm really happy for the rain and cooler weather, it means more success with seeds starting now. I started my peas and onions a bit too soon being an Impatient Gardener. There is someone that has marketed that title so I can't trademark it unfortunately even though that person lives in Wisconsin!  

Impatient... hmmph, you don't know impatient until you live in SoCal and have rollercoaster weather in Spring and Fall. Cool, cloudy warm, rain, hot, cloudy, cool, warm hot, cold, cloudy, cloudy warm, clear, sunny. 

We don't have rain dances, we have weather dances that feel like a Rumba.

Back to clear skies and some seed planting

 It's only going to be in the mid to high 70's today and for the rest of the week or two. It is finally true fall weather for us since it's not cranking up in the 80's or higher. The nights are cooler and the sun is lower angle so that means the soil is staying cooler and not drying out in a day.  This is great for getting out there and contemplating where else to plant things.

Beautiful, beautiful day. Same view out the kitchen window as a comparison from the rainy one. Hardly a breeze and clear blue skies.

The orchid sadly is toast. That last leaf is almost totally black so I took it out to the porch and  unpotted it. The roots are not rotted at all! The bark was moist but not soggy so I'm thinking that the lack of airflow and light is just as much an issue. I'll have to repot it in the nursery pot it was in with the same bark and just leave it on the porch for now.

Lettuce yes, sweet peas and onions no. Dangit! Those were my last pellets too! Despite what they look like the peat is still rather moist so going to leave them there today and then plan o soaking some more peas to direct seed on the trellis.

Some of the Romaine is coming up and another potato is breaking the surface in the raised bed. I just needed to be more patient for the weather to turn more favorable for the seeds to grow. 

Progress on the chives, potato and cilantro at the west bed and then decided to plant some of the older carrot seeds to see what happens (I remembered I can add text on the photo in my phone). That's also the end where I mixed in some of my home compost so maybe that's the magic touch judging from the way the other plants are responding.

This is all for my reference later of course so I can refresh my spotty memory when posting updates later. I almost put out more cilantro then held back because I still have tons of lettuce and cauliflower plants to put out.

 Still plan on putting at least two in the middle of the raised bed, hopefully I'll have some peas of some sort started and planted by the time those are ready to put out.

Going to be an adventure growing cauliflower, it's a bit more fussy from what I read than what I'm used to. After reading about how to take care of them, apparently the one site I was reading said it's better to plant them out in late summer. Yup. The author of the article on Harvest to Table is based in Los Angeles and is a certified horticulturist and nurseryman. He's an expert gardener and author. Not sure when that information was written because where I am in partial desert zone we don't have to worry about frost dates as much. Spring and Fall essentially the same weather patterns just in reverse from each other. Warming to cool, cool to warming. Sounds obvious right? But in actuality I can plant typical 'spring' plants in the fall or early winter with sometimes better results.

 So I think it'll do fine and two in the raised bed is all I can make room for since the actual plant leaves get very wide (max is about 2 feet!). Might even have to plant just one there in the middle and trade out the others. That's going to be a seriously crowded bed if I put two in, then there's the potatoes, possible sweet peas/peas, onions, still haven't planted anything along the front of the raised bed since  I was waiting for cooler weather and keeping the potted seedlings there.

Much to do about some things.

A little progress and lighter clouds

The clouds were lifted today and a bit later in the afternoon there were breaks in the clouds. It's a kind of frustrating day personally but there's progress in the garden at least.

The lily is at least opened,there might be another bud on one of the other branches and I do remember more than one flower two years ago. It needs fertilizer and a bit more care than it's getting so eventually it will likely not grow at all.

Still growing and looking good for the in ground tomatoes. Still no watering needed of course as I think it may have drizzled overnight. I pulled the onions that were in front of the tomatoes in the south bed because they were just being shaded too much.

Again with the wonky photo for the front of the bed onions. I can't get a good angle no matter what. The coriander is still leaning off to the right of the cage but that's again due to the breeze blowing that direction.

Just some pictures of the tomato flowers on some of the bushes. I did clip off a side branch of one in the raised bed because it was just going way off to the side and no way of hooking it back to the main bush on the stake.

North bed tomatoes are also looking good, so feeling rather confident about the amount of tomatoes I'll be getting. Crossing fingers the weather co-operates and the plants can survive without any fertilizer.

One cucumber is up out of the six! And in the middle of the line to boot! Well that's just very convenient but was hoping at least a few others would be up. If that one makes it I'll be happy, it should be growing and thriving with the warm weather coming up. 

So that's basically it for today. Yay for cucumber and tomatoes!

 

 

 

Soil phase completed! Tomatoes planted!

 Warmer today because the cloud cover broke earlier. It was mostly sunny and warm by  11 which is when I got out to do my planting. But first, flowers.

I was able to go to HD last yesterday and get two bags of soil I needed. When we were bringing them to the garden I was able to get a better picture of the Angel Face rose.

It's not as pink as the picture, a little more lavender color but still gorgeous. Not exactly pruned correctly but look at that, four flowers with another two buds coming! Sigh.

 

I didn't notice this epi flowering in the bench garden until today. It's another huge flower and one of my favorite colorings. The Tiffany rose has four or five buds on it, that's the biggest one to bloom next.

And now.... to the garden!

I used some precious dollars to get soil but at a bargain. I don't normally buy broken bags but since I worked at HD I am taking advantage of the 'broken bag' policy. It varies store to store but if you get a cashier that's not worn down and the bag is ripped sufficiently you can get 50% off.  I was standing in front of the pallet that had the soil and looked at the other soils but really, for the money this was the best thing. I put one on my cart and then considered getting a second one. I knew that if I didn't get a second one, I would need it. These are 2 cf bags and the same stuff I used in the raised bed so I know it's good stuff.

I then noticed a bag standing between two pallets of soil that had huge rips in the side. I know exactly how that sort of thing happens and knew why it was put there. I hauled it out and put it on my cart, then considered putting the unbroken one back. I went to the register still wondering if I wanted to put it back and thought, 'screw it, I need both of them'. I asked the cashier if I could get half off the broken one and she said sure. So regular price is 9.97 and got the broken one for about 5.  Score! $16 and change for two bags that would cost $21.

So here we go. Full light of day and plants are ready. I didn't water yesterday or before I added the soil. I didn't remember the fertilizer once again until everything was planted. I did use the cultivator and loosened the soil in the bottom of the bed.

The plastic edging is not level all the way around so it looks deeper at the far end but in fact, the soil is level. There wasn't much really missing from the broken bag so that's one full 2 cf bag of soil in and it's almost to the top. Without compacting it much, of course so that would happen after I added more from the second bag.

Oh, I measured the soil depth and I got my trowel all the way down to handle depth so that's at least as deep as the raw soil was for my tomato two years ago. The soil spillage at the front shows that I already broke open the second bag and added about half that in.

Gave the soil a 'focaccia' treatment for compacting. If you've seen the videos on how they make it dimpled, I just spread my fingers and pushed down all over the bed. I could have used even more soil actually and, even though the tomatoes are planted, I can still add more because they don't mind.

 

Before and after planting and before fertilizer. I can't see well when I'm bent over and eyes watering and all that being half blind so I didn't see the difference in the soil. You can see how the soil was already drying out just in a matter of minutes after putting it in. 

Bag of fertilizer to show that I actually did put some in. Just scraped a moat around the plants and sprinkled it in best I could (more like dumped accidentally but scooped some and distributed it. Running low on the fertilizer too, going to run out with the next feeding.

And then the south bed. Had to be more careful here due to the onions being there, otherwise it would have gotten a lot more digging and amending. Not quite centered but that's okay. Will see what the difference between amended soil like this is compared to the mostly raised bed in the other bed.

I already know how well the plants do in straight potting soil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remaining soil and the cups ready for the pepper plants next. Will be potting those up tomorrow on the patio and put them out on the window box where the tomatoes were. I'm going to offer some of that leftover soil to Layla when she gets back, maybe even put the window box over there as well for her to use until she can manage to work her garden. 

Well, now it's time for a shower and then head off to get grandkids. Gardening is done for now, will check back this evening and maybe do the pepper potting then.

Yay! Garden is looking good! Hope that chicken wire keeps the snails away too...maybe?

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.