Lightly watered again, pea progress

 The weather is another glorious clear sunny day. We're getting rain in the next few days though so am making the  most of my trips to the garden.  I soaked the spray head about six or eight hours in 4% vinegar to see if it helped. It did. Sort of.

After and before pictures. Definitely needed a brush to clean the rest of the calcium off as you can see. It made some difference and may soak it again and pour some inside as well. 4% is the standard for white vinegar, pickling vinegar is 5%.  Really need a new nozzle and hose of course but not happening any time soon.

The peas now have some tendrils and had to adjust them to contact the supports. I suspect I'll have some good size cilantro in about a month, no onions unless I plant the ones I've started in the glass.

Again, hard to see but they are there. Almost too late now to get something more conducive to the situation.

I noticed a radish seedling that was uprooted and wilted hmmm. Okay toss it aside not worth trying to save. Finished watering and the south bed, of course, didn't need any water. I was trying to level out the soil and discovered (what I thought was) another plant that had been covered up. Turns out it was likely the seedling I had tossed aside. So I just replanted it in the now wet soil.

Gardening is all about nurturing and hope. Will that seedling survive? Most likely not, but there's always a glimmer of hope that it will. Is this any better than the stick or the carnation stem? Yes and no. It's a matter of knowledge giving you a little better edge on the hope.

Knowledge is power as the saying goes and gardening is one of the best ways to show that. And since blogger isn't cooperating with the photos, guess that's it for today.

 

Glorious day, had to water

 So, definitely watered and starting a garlic growing experiment. Still very cold at night but the sun is warm when you're out in it. The lizards are hunkered down in the compost bucket, likely because it's warm there and they're semi-hibernating. When I tried to get one out it slithered here and there then dove down a gap in the scraps so I had to let it stay there. When there's enough in there that it's close to the surface I'm sure they'll figure out how to get out.

Before watering, you can actually see the onions now and it actually looks like I have something growing in there! Even more obvious after watering but not from a distance still.

This one is reversed for the potato bed, after and before left to right. Not much difference really but the plants are looking great though still getting a lot of holes.

Big difference between this dirt and the soil in the raised bed. Very hard to get puddles in the good soil and here, it's very obvious it was puddling to a point. It was mud. Straight up mud, as opposed to wet soil.

I saw a video from the Australian guy about cleaning your spray heads if you have calcium laden water. Which we do. I took a picture best I could of how badly my sprayer is right now and ended up catching a rainbow as well. He used CLR on it and you have to be very careful with that stuff because it is so caustic. Read the directions carefully and if you're harsh chemical-phobic or otherwise like me, get some good 5% vinegar and soak it. I'll have to make do with what I have in the kitchen for mine and see what happens.

Again with the bad contrast picture, the garden neighbor took a stem for a carnation, cut the flower of and stuck it in the dirt. You can start them from cuttings... done properly but I don't think this is the way to do it properly. If it sprouts, she's lucky. 

There was a Dutch Iris blooming in front of an apartment, formerly the manager's office and behind it in the shade was a pot with some hyacinths actually in bloom. So lucky.  Then there's the poor Pygmy Date Palm that has fallen over. Not sure if it was run over or the recent flooding rain did it in, judging from the way the soil is I'm thinking it was flooded.

 

 

I mentioned the whole bulb way of sprouting garlic. I just got a windfall of ab out six smallish heads of garlic from a food distribution leftovers at the table. I had to double check the bottoms because the one on the right, the roots have been scooped out, the one on the left would have a better chance of sprouting. I took another bulb and but the tops off, it was a mish mash of cloves and not really usable for cooking so it went in a small glass of water.

 

 

Will see how it goes since I didn't do it according to the way it was shown. May change it tomorrow now that it's soaked in water overnight.

There was also a little bird looking for nesting material this morning, didn't get a chance to look it up and try to identify it but was hanging around as I was walking Rocky. Had a buzzing kind of call and finally dropped what was in its beak and another joined it to look for other things.

It moved very quick and jerky so hard to get a good picture of it. Wish I still had my bird ID book handy. Will keep looking around to see what it is.There were so many different bird calls this morning, Red Shouldered Hawks, house finches, this little pair... just wonderful to hear nature coming back after the winter.

Different day, changing weather and things.

So I meant to post yesterday and closed the browser to do something else and forgot. Came back to it now and the entire start of the post was missing so here's a restart.

 The hawks woke me up yesterday morning.They quite literally were calling a lot at the nest this morning and if not for them I would have slept in another hour so they are establishing their nest site and building most likely.

No rain for a while, yesterday was high clouds, today it's clear, two days ago it was sort of clear. I went down to dump my scraps and looks like I need to water lightly as the surface of the raised bed is dry. You can see from three days ago (the potato picture) it was still moist underneath and decided to loosen all the soil where I could.

Dug down to see what the potato in the pit was doing and...nothing. A bit soft but no roots yet so pulled it out and put it over with the other potatoes in more sun, along with the other one that was in the raised bed. There were a lot of worms in the south bed with the lettuce, picked up one and dropped it in the compost bucket. One of the lizards was hanging out and the two in there definitely fell in somehow or were transferred because that plastic bucket is not conducive to climbing.

So both the non sprouted potatoes went in the north bed and I  just loosened the dirt with the lettuce. the pictures are from yesterday and the potato bed picture looks like undeveloped film from the 70's. The other picture I took of that bed isn't any better. Cannot figure out how to get better pictures for the life of me with my phone.

 I am trying to grow green onions again from the cuttings. That picture is after only a day of being in that cup so they sprout rather quickly. The lemon bush is blooming and almost causing an issue walking past it. I have two options, one is to wire some of the branches out of the way, the other is to do some pruning, which would likely get me yelled at by whoever thinks that's theirs.

The soil surface of the raised bed is troubling. It was a definite crust and I can see how the seedlings would have an issue breaking through it. I don't have a hand cultivator so I had to break it up with my hands. When the seedlings get bigger I can put down some mulch to keep the surface softer between rain or watering.

This makes it really obvious for the soil condition going backward in time. Oldest picture on bottom newest one on top. There is still a lot of room available to plant and I plan on putting the onion starts on the edge closest to the compost bucket. since the potato is gone and there's only a few radishes I will have to start tossing lettuce or carrots over there. I put some tomato seeds to the right of the garlic but nothing yet. That was at least two weeks ago, so it's still too cold for them I guess.

I saw a video from a guy that plants seeds with a clear plexiglass front and then does a time lapse. Fascinating and fun to watch but people misunderstood his caption when he did a 'potato plant' video. He didn't intend to plant it for growing potatoes. Just dug a potato down and took a video. No potatoes developed because he grew it in loamy sand or whatever so you could see the roots and shoots growing. Looked nothing like the ones I have of course. These are going gangbusters and the ones in the video were grown indoors under lights so they were all top growth and lanky. Really looking forward to seeing these finally die and I can dig them up.

Okay that's three days worth of photos and content for now. Need to figure out what to put in that lettuce bed that will thrive in four months of total shade and the rest of the year brutal sun. And likely gophers.

Another fine, clear day.

 Sunny and cool. The hawks are calling in the tree, heard the Eurasian doves as well almost right outside my window. Must have been in the Jacaranda tree. Hummingbird baby is chasing mom around, next thing you know it will be coyotes in the distance in the evening.

Oh yes and bees buzzing in the jade bush. Why can't it bloom in summer and draw in the bees when I need the pollination? Not that I'm going to grow squash again but I might. Once the cilantro starts growing and blooming that will draw the bees back in. Need to look for some more flower seeds as well, I did say I wanted to plant alyssum and never got any.

I have started to get gardening pages coming up on my Fb feed and a afew are informative, others are just because they have pictures of flowers. One that came up was a seed company that was advertising Chinese Pink Celery. At first I thought it was a variety of rhubarb or something but saw that it was celery. Research time! 

Beautiful coloring, it's described as having a much stronger flavor than European celery but it can be cooked slightly and bring the flavor down. The stalks are thinner than the standard celery and retain their color even when cooked so it could liven up some soups or other dishes.This just is a color variant of the usual Chinese Celery that is used in Asian dishes. If I decided to grow that (available only as seed) then I would need a market or restaurant that would want to use it.

I realize now in hindsight I should have taken four bags and not three of the soil. The rain has compressed the soil down a lot. Which means that by the end of summer I'm going to need at least one or two more bags. Also I erred on the side of less is more with planting. There is plenty of room on the left side near the cilantro for a row of carrots or scallions. Nothing is still coming up in the middle other than a few random radishes. Will have to sow a lot more all over to get better results. 

I am still disgustipated with the trellis but have to wait another week to get some of the metal mesh. Weave the stakes through three of the sides, maybe get some zip ties to hold it together (why didn't I think of that before?). Going to be another $20 for the larger rigid metal mesh, essentially remesh sheet for doing concrete. Chicken wire comes in rolls that are too long but that's the only way they make it. Has more uses if I want to line the other bed where the potatoes are and can pile soil up higher as well with a little support.

They really had no idea about gardening when they created this area. The soil is terrible and unless you are younger and more nimble the ground at ankle high is not attractive for gardening. I am thankful every day going out and seeing my raised garden. Thank you

First fully clear day with no rain in sight

 We had more Graupel (hail/rain) and a lot of it in some areas most of the day yesterday. It cleared a little bit early in the day so I was able to get out and get some pictures but had to take pictures of the hail on the roof from inside.

 

Doesn't look like much but it was slightly larger than the previous session and was worried if it got bigger it would crack the kitchen greenhouse window, we dubbed it 'noisy rain'. The downspout may be clogged or it was just a lot more rain than it could handle.

I am just tickled at how well the potatoes are growing. I recall I had an early harvest last time but nothing during the summer. The two pictures of the puddle are actually after and before and after. The one on the right was taken before the rain but after the previous deluge. The picture of the filled puddle was taken yesterday to give a perspective. Enough rain that the line of seeds was washed away in the latest storm.

Daylight difference for sure but on closer examination the onions are getting bigger and it's all very exciting to see things come up and sprout finally. The hail separated one leaf from the cilantro and am glad it didn't get pelted any worse. I need to remember to bring the rubber edging with me to put on the rim of that planter. I couldn't see the lizards in the compost pile, noticed one or two of the egg shells hadn't been crushed so I got the trowel and smashed them but was careful to not dig in. It's going to need turning soon so they'll get disturbed and will find them a new hibernation spot.

Onions and radishes close up. I am certain that when it starts to really warm up I'll toss more radish and lettuce seeds out there and maybe even try sprouting more garlic. I just can't wrap my head around using an entire head of garlic just to plant. It's.. a waste haha! I'll figure out how to do it without having to sprout an entire head, only need three or four.  Green onions on the other hand I can sprout with existing onions, did it last year but never got a chance to plant them. Yes, I have seeds but it takes soooo long for gratification!

The iris is still going strong and got a name for it now. It's an interesting coloring for sure but without other colors for it to contrast or meld with it's okay. From a visual search it appears to be a variety called 'Tennison Ridge' introduced in 1988, early to mid-season re-bloomer and tolerates light shade. Have no freaking clue who's it is but if I want to get some irises to plant for myself I'll go look for a mixed bag of them. Because I love color!

I need another raised bed or a planter box just for flowers.