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.

 

 

Getting warmer, cucumbers are up and tomatoes!

 Warmer weather means soil is drying out faster so I watered again today. Didn't get out there until close to noon and brought with me a pot of water from the kitchen. Whaaat?

I boiled the last of the corn and separately I also did 5 hard boiled eggs. Hmmm....so eggs will release some calcium in the water and the corn will have other nutrients so I let that cool overnight and put it in two of the beds.

 

I didn't want to just dump the water and possibly dislodge soil and seeds so gently tossed it around in the raised and the south bed.

 

Still a long way to go but that one tomato is about half mature size at this point already! Still no sign of the gopher but not holding my breath and am knocking on wood. The cluster on the right has developing tomatoes from back to front, almost a double cluster actually. I'm used to single tomatoes like my previous bush but this is much like the difference between hybrid tea and floribunda tomatoes.

 

Two, possibly three cucumbers up! I will definitely be setting some slug/snail traps tonight to keep them safe. As you can see I watered and didn't notice them until the soil contrasted the leaves better. The seedling on the left may get moved because it's awfully close to the tomato. Will see how long they last and move them if they get big enough to survive the transplant.

Some tomatoes finally showing on the trellis tomato. I suspect that a few factors are causing it to bloom and fruit later than the others despite being older. First is I nipped the early flower buds out and second it was shaded a good portion of it's early life by the coriander so it didn't develop short stout stems and leaves like the others in full sun.

 

Hard to see but there's a small snail shell and a slug in that cup. Sadly it didn't stop them from almost decimating a radish leaf toward the back of the group.

I don't have any citrus left but do have some apples and still some watermelon and cantaloupe. I mentioned using cat food cans but the first one I saved I forgot to tell Jon and he threw it away. I made sure to tell him this time not to throw the can away. It takes about three or four days to go through a can of cat food so a lot of lag time between getting them.

 

Will be reading more about DIY slug traps and other things  I can put out to save my precious seedlings.

 

A small harvest of onions another shift in weather

 It was clearing off by noon today, though it was patchy, streaky clouds an hour later. Still more sun than clouds which is fine. It is what it is as they say and not much to be done about it. Not too many pictures today, not many flowers until I go on my walk in the afternoon but here's some progress photos of the garden beds.

I suspect none of the tomatoes are going to get much bigger which is disappointing and good at the same time. I was expecting 'monster' four foot plants but apparently not to be with the Romas. As dry as it looks, I'll delay watering until the evening. Still not sign of the other radishes coming up. Oh and I decided to dump the rest of the romaine that I had in the fridge including the root base. Just wasn't going to wait that long for it and not have anywhere to put it.

 

I had to step way back to get a good shot of the raised bed that includes the leaning tower of Coriander. The tomatoes in this bed are about the same size as the ones in the ground (other than the one on the trellis).  

I decided to pull the largest of the onions and got a nice handful as good as any bunch I've gotten in the store. The ones that are left in the raised bed are getting too much shade and they are at least two weeks behind the ones I pulled. Seriously good green onions, a do again crop for sure and will likely plant a lot more in succession. But where?!

I'm trying to plan the next season (fall/winter) plants and on the list are; potatoes, onions, lettuce, radish, carrots, more cilantro and that's all I can remember. Peas were easy to grow but I have a small baggie of them in the fridge right now and ... honestly I don't die for peas. Same with beans, fun to grow but why waste room in a garden for something I won't 100% eat? I would plant Sweet Peas for the flowers instead absolutely! Spinach and chard are not high on my list of greens either.

So it's a rather pedestrian garden sticking with what I'll eat: Lettuce, potatoes, carrots, radishes, onions and garlic for the winter and spring. As I said, when the three tomatoes in the north bed are done I'm looking for a zucchini plant to put there for mid-summer. I really want peppers but that was a fail the way I did it. Might have to try direct sow.

When you see charts for square foot gardening a lot of times they have everything really close. They suggest 1 tomato per square foot (on center). Doesn't say what kind just one per square foot. That's not one every foot, one in a square foot. So technically, to give them enough room you plant every other foot. Ideal spacing for roma is 2 feet on center. Which is close to what I've planted and roughly follows the square foot gardening method. I have the three in the north bed staggered rather than a straight row so there's a bit more room for them and for anything else I wanted to plant. 

When you have limited space, you do what you can to maximize it.

One plant in, gorgeous weather out

 Another glorious day to work outside...in the morning. Warming up just enough that I'm hot and sweaty if I'm out around noon. It started overcast/cloudy this morning but it burned off quickly and it's now powder blue clear skies with a good breeze going.

I wanted the first photo of this to be a beautiful flowering plant and I got it. A good full shot of the bougie in bloom. I think it has a heavier bloom this year than last. What's interesting is the one across from this has been topiaried and is in less sun. Not a single flower since I've been here. Too much shade for it and this one is just throwing blooms like crazy. The Watsonia flowers are climbing up, a second stalk that is kind of laid over was blooming also and there's about six more stalks in bud.  You can see the entrance to the garden in the background there.

 

No further damage on the onions  today, yay! Coriander is bolting really well now and the lettuce behind it is going strong. This means I have to leave the coriander at that end in place for some shade on those little plants, but then that would also shade the tomato that is also doing very well. It just topped the first rung of the trellis so it's doubled in size at 4".

I examined the tomatoes and saw there were some that had some yellowing at the very tip. That could be from the fertilizer or the soil but they still look pretty good. I looked at them, looked at the empty spot in the bed and.... did it.

I planted one of the single plants with the most roots showing in the cup. No need to bury really deep and actually, there isn't a lot of soil left down deep. I was trying to dig as far as I could and I was bringing up leaf bits and felt like I was hitting logs. This is not good. I am going to need another four bags of raised bed mix at the end of summer at this rate.

So I also watered, because as you can see the soil is moist underneath but dry about half an inch down. I set my timer for ten minutes and got bored at 5 and thought it was enough. Watered the other two beds because I'm getting impatient with those as well, then finished up watering the bed. When I realized I forgot to put fertlizer in the hole I got that out, gently scooped out the tomato and threw a small handful in and replanted it. In scraping the soil it hadn't gotten wet all the way through the dry soil in front of the peas. No great calamity but it shows that my timing for watering is right and have to trust the process.

I then remembered I wanted to dump the compost and  mix it but, again didn't bring down anything to dump it on and I was getting hot. Grabbed the trowel and did my best to stir it as far down as I could go. It smelled like dirt. YAY! It's doing much better and the consistency is now more like soil but still has lots of bits of shell, potato skins and other stuff in it. Most of my kitchen scraps are now coffee grounds which I'm going to have to tell my sweetie to either put in the garbage or in the disposal until further notice. We're running shy on fresh veggies lately and may have to pass on doing that for a few months. If I had the other two buckets free I would do a roundabout dumping from one to the other and back to mix it up.

 

 Still itching to get those tomatoes planted and the peppers are not far off from going into cups next. All four pellets with 2 seeds have germinated and are growing primary leaves now. Have to find room for all of those too. They may be able to survive in the window box if I mix about 2 to 1 compost and soil. Their roots aren't nearly as extensive as tomatoes but I won't only plant maybe two or three in the window box. So many plants and so little to put them in!

The lady downstairs across from our building. That spot over the last six months has had bedding begonioas, pansies, a chrysanthemum and a rosemary bush/tree. I think she's the one that's cut down the hibiscus bush to almost nothing because it was shading too much. It was twice that tall and had lots of flowers two years ago. It is now chopped and one lone flower is budding. Grrrrrr. She now has the spider plants that were there already and planted two succulents, one is a jade bush. She likes to putter in that garden and keep the weeds out but honestly... Oh and that is a lantana next to it that has also been hacked back at least once.

I hate seeing gardening done so badly. I'm sure she thinks this is wonderful and weed free and all that but that hibiscus is going to take years to recover, IF she doesn't decide to hack it back again.

So that's all for today. Enjoying the breeze and hope to get back out to the garden in the evening and maybe amend that north bed and take my chances with the tomatoes.

Warmer and the tree is in bloom

 It smells wonderful outside with the light breeze and warm air mixing coming through the window. Warm enough that I only spent about twenty minutes or so in the garden before I got too warm to even comtemplate dumping the compost bucket. Besides I forgot the bag to put it on so will try and do that tonight. Starting with yesterday evening's foray to the garden. Cool enough I needed my jacket.

I yanked another large cilantro plant to make more room for the tomato and lettuce. Until it gets big enough to peek over the tops of the cilantro, will keep yanking it.

Watsonia is getting ready to bloom and there is a small rose bush (likely root stock coming up) trying to compete with the bigger bush. Hoping it can try and bloom this year just to see what it is.

Just a difference between last evening and today. Yes, the second picture is closer but it also shows that the lettuce in that spot is doing very well. I suspect it's happy to be shaded compared to the line out in full sun. 

 

Fungus coming back up again behind the peas and just gonna leave them. The tomatoes are still looking rather sickly and hope that the shot of fertilizer I gave them (and the trauma) helps them improve a bit more.

There is something nibbling on the lower leaves of the peas. Those are definitely snail/slug chew marks and knowing where they like to hide they are likely digging into the soil rather than climbing all the way back up and out of the bed. Cutworms would eat in a different pattern and they aren't touching the garlic or onions.

The tomato is a bit more in the clear but I also was holding the cilantro back to get a clear photo. It's much better looking than the other seedlings but there's still time for the others to catch up. I suspect this tomato is going to grow up and through that trellis but that's one of the reasons why I put it there. Self-supporting situation. Will be difficult to get to any tomatoes at the back and there's not a lot of room but will see what happens. I almost unplanted it when I pulled the cilantro out. Due to the soil being so loose and open tiny roots were going everywhere.

Speaking of cilantro, that stuff is about ready to flower I suspect. Will be looking at ways to preserve it or dry it to have for salsas and dishes. The peas are still just pumping out the pods, still tucking them in here and there to help them spread out a bit more. You can see it's slightly darker in the  middle of the bed, I roughed up the soil and it wasn't dark enough for my liking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard to see but some of the white you see on the dirt and rocks...it's mollusk trails. There was a LOT of them all over the logs and rocks, and under the jade bush even. I have not seen any on the soil of the raised bed so not sure how my logic is working on that. So it's not like I'm keeping the ground wet all the time, these little snails can survived going over rough broken ground. Eggshells aren't going to deter them very much.

Given the temperatures today I made sure to bring my nozzle with me to water the beds. I decided to show the difference between the raised bed and the not so raised dirt bed. I watered for about 8-10 minutes on each bed. The first picture there is immediately while I was watering and five minutes later.

 

Same length of time for the raised bed. No puddles at all and it soaked in faster than I was watering. Now, both situations are good to a point. It's great to have good drainage but it's also good to have the water stick around for a while. Yesterday the soil in the raised bed was still that dark under the surface but much less so today. The other bed in the ground with just dirt, about the same but it was harder to dig when it was dry.

 

And the roses are finally blooming. I know for a fact now that rose is called Paradise. Looking at it I remember it being the rose that my son picked out but it had no tag. I researched it and discovered what it was back then and it came to me today. Very fragrant and a lovely variety.

The irises are starting to pop as well and the yellow rose busted out a couple of flowers. The rose doesn't have as much fragrance if I remember so still not sure what variety it is.

That's about it for today in the gardens. Unless something momentous happens might not do a big post tomorrow.