Things are happening in the garden, nothing bad.

 Still cloudy today and despite what the app says they look like rain clouds could let loose any time. It got nippy last night down into the high 40's and won't break out of the 60's today. Forecast says sunny for my area on Christmas day though.

Did I need to water today? Nope.

Serious miscalculation on my part when placing a marker for the potatoes. There is a four inch difference between the spot where the potato actually came up and where I put the stick marker. It's a good thing the carrots grow faster than the potatoes. Not by much but they have a head start at least. That's just the front right corner potato. Seriously misplaced the other marker as well at the back. Unless I planted more potatoes than I thought.

I was attempting to do an overhead shot of the raised bed just by holding my phone as level as possible over my head. Had to crop it a bit for perspective angle but not bad.  Was able to use a second photo for captioning of what's coming up.

Although the one in the upper left corner of the notated picture could be one of the earlier ones I planted. There's also carrots spread all the way to the trellis and peas. The lower right picture shows where carrots have come up and at the bottom left of that picture is where the potato is sprouting. The disturbed soil is where I was trying to see if another potato was coming up anywhere near that stick. I think either a carrot or an onion is coming up on the right hand side as well, about in line with where I thought I had put the green onion seeds.

It's a potato bed for sure, so far six potato plants in that bed with a possible one more to come up in the west bed.

Which reminds me, I was going through trying to delete old photos on my google storage and apparently I had planted potatoes in the south bed on February 6 (initially I thought this was the west bed which would have made more sense). Still hasn't come up and yet the ones in the west bed did. Must have planted these too deep. Oh well.

So now that the solstice has come the days will be getting longer which also means that the sun will creep higher in the sky allowing more warmth on the plants.The containers on the crate are getting some sun, despite the jade bush. Not enough for the cauliflower most likely. 

I'm not sure I'm going to have enough room for the peppers and tomatoes in the summer at this rate.

West bed is maintaining, the cilantro is growing faster now and the potato is still poking along. That bed gets more shade than the raised bed so not surprising. The lemon bush is looking naked, apparently someone is picking the lemons. Not Dolores though because I mentioned it had a lot of fruit a few weeks ago and she said her daughter has a lemon tree and doesn't need any. 

And who says birds don't purposely aim? The one bare spot in several dozen square feet of lawn and that white spot is smack in the middle and almost the same shape as the bare spot. Rather hilarious really. Nicely done bird, made sure no one would step on it for sure.

Yay for the sun coming back again! Seems like it only just got to be winter and now it's still winter but not really?

Forgot to post yesterday and Weather!

 I did get out and take a few pictures yesterday but forgot to post. Big news is we did get the rain storm! Thunder and lightning and wind and all that! It hit around midnight last night (Thursday/Friday) but it's still cloudy and wet today. The funniest thing I saw last night though was as I looked at the wind blowing things around outside my window, an opossum was just tootling along the top stringer of the back fence...just as it was starting to rain. Just trundling along, taking a left at the intersection of fences and then disappeared into the dark. I'm wondering how it got up there. Hurry home little guy/gal, storm is a coming!

From yesterday morning, shadows on the fall leaves and it sprinkled a bit overnight but by the time the sun rose the clouds were mostly gone, a small puddle on our front porch the only sign there had been moisture from the sky. At the time I thought, 'is that it for the rain?'. Nope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wind was blowing a god bit so it was bending the potato plants over, giving the cilantro some sun in the process. Unfortunately the larger plant in front was being blown on top of the chives. Oh well. By the time that chives plant is big the potato will be gone. Which now that I realize, digging up that potato is going to uproot that plant and the cilantro smh 😒. This is why potatoes are usually grown by themselves because you have to dig up the entire plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The romaine seedlings are surviving but struggling. And another potato is breaking the surface! Yay! This one I think is one of the russet sections I planted and mentioned that I checked and it was too close to the surface so I pushed it down a bit.

 

And one of the romaine is gone. You can see how the soil is darker around it, whatever ate it came up from below, not a gopher but most likely pill bugs. It's the one in the upper corner in the other picture. You can see the potato at the bottom of that picture starting to green up and leaf out a bit more. 

Hard to see with dry soil but the carrots are definitely coming up. This is the front of the bed and with the potato being blown around it exposed some lower leaf that got munched a bit. So the bugs are definitely coming out now.

And now for today's comparison

It had stopped raining by the time I got myself together but there are still grey clouds on the horizon, but from what I understand that is what just passed over us. It came from the north west this time so is passing to the south east. Everything was wet yay! I put on my 'rain weather' boots that surprisingly got from the community table about a month ago. They're low hiking boots much like what I used to wear and were my size. Score!

Even with the contrast of dark soil  I marked best I could all the little carrots coming up. There's a lot. Yay! The peas at the trellis are doing spectacular ::knock on wood:: nothing bothers them. The green onion on the right is like a lone soldier there but that just means there's plenty of room for another row of onions to go in there. Or maybe radishes. When I find them.

The other surviving romaine that's getting munched at the back of the bed, it may not be long for this world unfortunately. And the russet potato showing better. This looks like it's going to be my potato bed and everything else will just have to survive being uprooted. The carrots won't be ready until the spring and the potatoes will be after them just in time to start planting the summer veggies.

Better shot of the peas and the missing romaine. It's all good I still have that container of mixed lettuces to spot around the beds. Just have to be aware of proximity to the potatoes.

The other containers on the crate, with the jade bush flowering already. For whatever reason the cauliflower are just kind of stalling out. The older leaves have turned pink and actually some have fallen off. Concerned but if I lose a few I only need four to survive for my use.

Leaves in the west bed with the now much bigger carrots and chives. Again, not thinking about the future and planting stuff close to the potato. Carrots will be fine and so will the cilantro but that chive plant I may be moving to the front of the bed between where the zinnias were. Maybe try and remember that when I'm pulling the carrots up.

 The other two romaine are fine but I noticed a small piece of wood that flattened the little cilantro at the front. When I tried to move the wood piece, the entire cilantro came with it. Looked almost like it had broken off after being smashed. Oh well. Not like I don't have any growing already. I forgot to look for the onion that was coming up at the back of that bed, oh well.

In terms of timing when things will be ready, carrots first,cilantro will be a continual trimming as they grow. After that, green onions whenever I want to pull them, or trim them for tops. The peas don't have to worry about as those harvest above ground.  As I said though, by the time the potatoes are ready to dig up everything around them (except for the chives) will likely be gone or ready to go. The cauliflower may well have to wait until the spring to plant, they're just poking along so slow they'll likely be competing for space when I put peppers and tomatoes in.

Looking at the seed packets, cauliflower needs 6-12 hours of sun a day. I don't think they're getting that much right now. I need to move that container to the middle of the bed because it's getting shade from the jade bush. Also ideal temp is 50-75, welllll it's been getting colder than that at night so another reason why they've slowed down. There's my answer, but maturity timing....65 days in good conditions. So it's another long haul (slow growing) vegetable.The Chantenay are similar timing for maturity so the ones in the west bed are going to be ready first then the ones in the raised bed a few weeks later. They recommend successive planting every three weeks or so. I have succession planting doing already. I'll be good with potatoes and carrots by summer. Hope I have enough room for all the summer stuff I want to plant.

Oh and it's officially Winter Solstice for us now! The longest day and shortest night was yesterday so from here on out we get more sun every day. YAY!