Did some clipping last night and strawberry pups

 I had other things to do today so am posting way later than usual. Temperatures were reasonable until a few hours ago then we decided to close up for the day. It's been dropping almost 30 degrees overnight making it very pleasant in the morning. Today was a lazy day getting up and going though so didn't get out until noon. 

Tomatoes are slowly dying as they should. Still plenty to pick though on the trellis bush and the other. Looks messy and horrid but actually not that bad. 

Not exactly sure what happened on this one, it's scabbed over and has signs of insect damage. I brought it in and will be cutting it open to see what's going on. It was tucked behind the trellis so that could be rubbing damage that a bug took advantage of.

 

I decided to hack back that front tomato. I noticed pill bugs were taking refuge on some of the fruit tucked in the branches so time to clear out the dead stuff.

Pile of what I cut off then noticed the garlic as I was checking the back side of the tomatoes. Poor thing, never had a chance. Will try again this winter and see what I can do. Green onions do just fine but can't plant any right now on the trellis because that's going to be for the sweet peas.

 

I didn't feel like pulling the bag off the other bucket so just stuffed the cuttings into the other one. Will figure it out tonight. Have to also clean up the tomatoes I keep tossing on the ground over there.

 

Still plenty of tomatoes but they are showing damage in various forms. The one on the left is from being up against the trellis. The one on the right has a hole from the pill bugs. What looks like a green caterpillar there is actually another tomato.

Those two came off in my hand for obvious reasons. There is no lack of other tomatoes thankfully and am pulling off small ones that are growing. Otherwise I'll still have a tomato bush by December giving fruit.

The cucumber on the left is definitely growing, the one on the right was fully open this morning and I had to run back upstairs for my paint brush. Which I couldn't find and had to get another one out. 

So plenty of cucumbers coming in thankfully, here's hoping they turn out as well as the tomatoes.

The view this morning. That cucumber is just going wild and now that the other tomato is cut back I can angle the second plant to go that direction.

This is the one that was closed last night and grabbed as much pollen as I could from the few male flowers to do that one and another one. People marvel at how fast zucchini grow, this is about the same speed.

Just like the tomatoes, getting pictures of every one I find because they grow so fast. Hope the male flowers can keep up.

So on to the strawberries. I only grabbed a few because of space, have no idea what type they are but they have huge leaves. There's five there but for some reason I ended up with four finally. Also... I have never seen a snail and this one made an appearance in the bag from the strawberry cuttings. I tossed it in the jade bush because, even though it could lay eggs, I still didn't have the heart to just kill it and toss it over the wall. I'll pay for that weakness later.

So I punched holes in the cereal cups  and used them to plant the plantlets. Kind of difficult to not plant them too deep as they don't have much of a crown. I brought the sprayer but didn't bother hooking it up. The soil was still very wet from the rain and being in the corner. I also moved the cages out of the way and pushed that box closer to the wall for more shade. Will give them a sprinkle of water tonight hopefully.

 

Well, we've got spiders, rainstorm, and now fungus. That's a stump behind the recycling dumpster here. Thing is covered in what looks like Turkey Tail or shelf type fungus. No, did not even enter my mind to cut some because I am not a fungus expert, and if that's a stump from an oleander, even more of a big nope.

I keep wanting to grab seeds to take with me down to the garden and have to stop myself. I know I have plans but it's still too soon. It was too warm this morning for chopping down the tomatoes in the West bed, none of the tomatoes are developing well and they may be red but they're the size and shape of a ping pong ball or smaller with blossom rot.  I have enough tomatoes luckily so its not a total failure.

Have to remember my paintbrush tonight because I know there will be another cuke flower ready to pollinate.

If this is the tropics I'm not moving there

 I slept better last night thankfully but we are closed up at 10:30 AM because it's already 87 and projected to be 92 today. It didn't cool down last night to below 80 until close to 9pm. That's important because with the AC we keep it about that all day inside. Cooler where I sit at the desk because I'm in the same room with it.

The tropical storm coming up is supposed to hit Sunday with a 80% chance of rain and temperature in the 80's and wind may be 10-20 mph. Some people in my garden groups are all panicking about what to do with the wind and rain coming. Oh for heaven's sake! Yes we'll get wind and rain but it isn't a hurricane! 

Meanwhile, back at the garden. No wind right now and the obligatory flower pictures.

Paradise and Tiffany are blooming even though the flowers are small, they still are gorgeous and smell wonderful.

Some wildlife was seen as well. Two butterflies that moved entirely too fast to get a picture, one was a little blue grey one and the other was a pale cream. Then there was the Swallowtail that decided to rest in the sycamore tree. I've also seen the buttery yellow Sulphur butterflies that only are seen when the Cassia trees are in bloom. Coincidence? I think not! 

 

That was the best picture I could get using zoom on my camera. It was a lot closer than it looks but you know phone cameras.... 

 

 

Dolores' pumpkin vine is blooming and has a female flower now. She doesn't care about the fruit she's just growing it for the leaves.

 

In comparison, my cucumber flowers are only about an inch across. Mostly males again, some are opening with really short stems so definitely not females.

 

 Pill bugs are climbing into the flowers apparently and doing something. Hiding is my guess, hope they aren't eating the stamens. There are plenty of flowers thankfully and the vine is rapidly escaping the confines of the bed. 

Those two tomatoes should be ready to pick but I've gently tugged on them for two days and neither are coming off easily. Will try again tonight, not like I don't have any other tomatoes to use. I have an entire bag full in the fridge of tomatoes I need to pull out and see if they're still good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can see why this is a popular tomato to use for canning and sauces. Most of these came from just two bushes!  Now, they are not bright red ripe, mostly a scarlet orange but I returned them to the fridge with an apple in the bag to help speed the process.

This hose is getting ridiculous. There are now four breaks and the original one I taped up is now failing. I don't have the money for a new hose or even the tape to repair this one. Frankly, it's not worth repairing and I might even spring for the 50' 'pocket' hose eventually, but the other two gardeners might not know how to use it properly. Wonder if they'd pitch in ten dollars for the cost of a new one? They don't have a nozzle like I do and usually stick it in the aloe or the orange tree while they go back to turn it off. It comes with a nozzle on it and that's another level of complication. I would have to post the instructions for them in the garden.

I took pictures of me watering, not just for the hose but so I can not doubt myself on when I watered. The soil in that west bed was dry down about two inches already. The raised bed and the south bed were still damp on the surface. What a difference the soil makes! And position as well.

Another day, another heatwave.  I hate being shut inside all day and looking forward to having the windows and door open all day with a breeze blowing through.

 

 

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!