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!

 

Clouds still hanging around but seeds were planted!

 Today is a 'short day' and so compost will have to wait until tomorrow..or the next day. Breezy and cloudy all day and likely for another few days into the weekend for sure. 

The yellow flower that was such a sunny color is now a drab pale cream with pink speckles. Frog is sad to know it didn't last. There are no flowers on the yellow rose bush either but the red canna is blooming as well as multitudes of geraniums.

 

Hard to see because of the small jade plant but there are blue flowers on the tradescantia behind it. Yay for blue flowers! The cilantro keeps leaning and am almost tempted to tie it up because it's shading the onions at the front. Next time I plant that it will be on the far side or the south bed.

That tomato has a side branch coming out but not going to prune it, these are determinate and more pictures will show something. I just wove that side branch through the trellis as well. The pea plants are definitely on the way out, I saw some mildew on some of the leaves so those will be getting pulled maybe tomorrow or the next day. 

These are the tomatoes in the south bed. They managed to hide flower buds from me but you can't hide yellow flowers. I nipped them off of course because they are still way small for producing fruit. What the heck plants?!

I had nothing suitable to make channels for the radish seeds but there's plenty of room for them. So one long track along the front for the Crimson Giant and the other two for the Easter Egg and Red  Devil B.

I figured out how to use text on the picture too! Since the seed packets are labeled in pencil it disappears in the sun so this is good reference for future seed planting as well. Could have even used color on the text but didn't think about it until after edit.

Covered them up making sure they weren't too deep, used all of the Easter Egg that was left and about half the Red Devil, still plenty of Crimson Giant for the fall.  I also watered them in really well and gave the rest of the beds (other than Layla's who watered the other day) a light watering. I noticed they were a similar type as peas and when researching which came up first someone asked if they needed to be soaked. I didn't soak the ones I grew a year or so ago and most of those came up fine. The last batch though barely came up but I think it was too early in the season for them. Will see what happens this time. Much thinning will be done I suspect. Might try to do that seed tape idea in the fall.

Those peppers... the one on the left has a bit of purple around the edge of one of the lower leaves and they are both looking rather weak. With the way the weather turned it really is not ideal for them and they never really rooted in well. I have all three colors of pepper seeds now and will see about starting some in a week or so.

I sorted through my seeds and might try cucumber on that trellis after the peas. I forgot I had them. They're bush type but I remember the last one I grew had one long vine going up a stake. I suspect that was because of it being in more shade because it also never produced.

Once that cilantro is gone... more fun will be had on the trellis for sure.

First seeds in the new bed!

 It's another clear and perfect day and since it was going to be similar weather for the next two weeks I started some seeds. No sign of rain for at least two weeks and partly cloudy weather here and there.

Compost was undisturbed from what I could see and the lettuce as well. Still no sign of the other seeds coming up but that's expected even for radishes since they're in the shade. And in the other bed, full blazing sun that has dried out the top half inch of soil and warmed it up (I had to take pictures in my shadow to see the packages. In the front row most of the way across are the Bunching Onions. In retrospect they should have been toward the back as they get taller but will sprout later than the cilantro.

Then a squarish planting of cilantro on the left. I was going to do a long row but then remembered they like to be a bit crowded it also gives me a bit more than just a long line.

At the back are the Little Marvel peas, when they come up I'll put the trellis up so I can position it better. I almost planted them really close to the back but then realized I needed room for the trellis.

Now this leaves me an almost 2x2 area left to plant and...you guessed it... going to be a tomato plant or two. As warm as that bed is right now, it's still getting down into the 40's at night so still a bit too early for them. Oh, did I forget something? I forgot the fertilizer! The soil is healthy enough right now and as soon as they come up I'll sprinkle some around and water it in.

I watered lightly before I left and marked out the area not planted. A bit bigger than what I marked because things can get a little more cozy than that. I saw a disturbance in the soil in the north bed that exposed one of the potatoes. I covered everything and put the two branches on top. The soil is nice and soft for some cat that needs to do their thing. The shadow line is even closer to the front of the bed now and that trench is now in the sun more. C'mon spuds!

And the babies are getting so big! They completely fill the nest down and are poking their beaks out!

And yes that hair in the previous picture was in the nest, hope they don't get tangled in it. Seriously, it has happened with hair used for bedding gets knotted and tangled around a leg or wing and it's not good. That's why if you're going to put out nest supplies don't use long strands of hair, use cotton (not polyester fiber), if you want to use hair cut it into shorter lengths. They use spiderwebs and their own saliva as cement for the outer part of the nest. When they fledge out I'll take a picture of the flattened nest. I have a picture from years ago at the nursery of a completely demolished nest after the babies fledged out.  These little ones will have their feathers coming in really soon and even at this point there's no room for mamma to sit on them.

What's that you say? A white bird? Nope.... it's a plastic bag that got blown up there by the wind. Another piece of plastic was on the lawn where I was standing, one of those really flimsy bags like for putting veggies in at the store. 

That's also a really good picture of just how clear and blue the sky is right now. Barely a breeze, so it's considered 'calm' which is expected after the storm we had. Perfect weather for a walk in the park or doing gardening... still sweater weather for sure if you aren't out in the sun and being physically active.

 Just a really nice time of year right now and I'm loving it!

Another one down, another tunnel plugged

 Weather continues the same, the garden... I had a dream that another marigold would be gone and remember yelling and trying to pull it away from a gopher. 

 

 It wasn't completely eaten but enough of the roots were gone that it wouldn't have survived. ::insert many rude words:: Both tunnels are now blocked and I shoved the trowel into another soft spot. I also ran water in the new hole and sure enough it didn't fill up for at least a minute. I shoved that log in there and it only blocked it a little, made sure it was good and tight though.

Cucumber is starting to grow faster thankfully, watered everything really well and then planted cucumbers in the south bed. But, I noticed something when I went to do that.

 

 A seedling of something is coming up. Not sure if it's cucumber, bean or sunflower. Where the heck was that when I was digging things up? Either my memory is getting really bad and don't remember planting after I flooded it or it survived and came to the surface enough to sprout.

 Well, good things do happen oddly enough, you lose one another grows to take it's place.

 

 

 

I put in three or four cucumber seeds as evenly spaced as I could. I originally dropped three seeds but then used a stick to poke them in and hit one with a snap so I was going to hedge my bets and say I broke that seed and put another one in the same spot. If they both come up, one will either get moved or will keep them both there.

You think I would markup the photo at the time or put sticks or something to show where they are but nooooo, not that smart because it's hot and I'm in the sun and holding a hose that's spraying water and all that. Can hardly see my phone screen in the sun so I'm lucky to get good photos what I'm doing (and yes I have brightness all the way up, it's the glare).

Anyway, in other places around the complex, the tree is being taken care of and I found where the gopher was following the wall to the garden. I will not likely be here when that clump of trees gets big enough to be a problem. Not my plant, not my garden, not my problem.

We shall see how things develop, just wish there was an easier way of keeping those damn gophers from eating my plants.

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.