Still warm maybe even hot, windy outside

 Another day with the AC on started around 1pm.  It is really windy outside but we can't take advantage of it due to it being in the high 80's outside. I was going to water today but decided to postpone it to the evening. Not much else to report on the weather or garden so here's the pictures and commentary.

Evening photos, burgeoning tomatoes and the sunflower has totally evaded my attention until I noticed there were five or six new leaves. I snapped this picture and sent it go the previous owner. It's still rather leggy but it's growing.

 

It's a never ending surprise seeing the tomatoes growing so well and all different shapes despite being the same type. Still on the watch for other caterpillars since it's rarely just one on a bush.

There's just tons of fruit on these two bushes and it's actually covering up one or two of the onions. I  might have to transplant them behind it more out in the open. The garlic is still hanging in there as well. I covered all the little seedlings and will have to leave the cucumber uncovered tonight. It's outgrowing the cover and the new leaves are getting big enough. I might use the ziploc container tonight on it and see if it is big enough to cover one of the other zinnia seedlings too.

 

All the plants have all the flowers and fruit, it will be exciting if I end up with more than a handful at a time. The way they're sizing up it's going to be September before they start winding down. I tried to tape the leak in the hose. The tape was dirty and didn't stick so I had to rinse it off upstairs and hope it was clean enough to stay on. I ended up not watering last night and this morning so it's had plenty of time to 'cure'. 

 

New leaves now very visible and the cotyledon (seedling) leaves are touching the sides of the cup. It's aliiiive! Still don't trust the slugs to not eat any of them. the tiny zinnias show signs of something eating at least one leaf so they will all be covered over night for sure.

And just showing the difference in shape and size of the tomatoes. The two large ones are on the trellis and the small one is on one of the south bed bushes. The largest one is almost the size of market tomatoes at this point. There's a good month or more between them so this is going to be tons of fun with such a long harvest time between all the bushes.

 

So that's it until this evening when I go out and water in about three or four hours. Have to remember to bring the container with me, maybe do something creative and cut two cups vertically and tape them together into a bigger circle. Hmmmm.

 

Is it possible to have too  many tomatoes? I don't think so.

 

Weather really isn't that warm, but it is.

 Because of the box we live in we have now shut everything up at noon to keep it comfortable inside. It felt like blazingly hot outside in the garden but, in fact it was only 84. Still hot enough to bake the soil and make plants wilt a bit. Clear blue skies with no clouds in sight, perfect for fireworks and picnics in the shade. 

 

The caterpillar was nowhere to be seen in the evening only the dried leaf where it had been found. The leaf was completely desiccated but the caterpillar was gone. I can only imagine it had crawled to the ground to look for food and shade. It is far enough away it would get to the point of pupating before it got back to the garden if it had a sense of direction at all.

 

I pulled out the slug trap, it wasn't catching anything else in the north bed and filled the hole, keeping the piece of bark there. The seedlings are all doing okay but the zinnias are very slow to grow. I noticed the soil was still dark under the surface but due to the extreme heat, I decided to water anyway to cool things down and make sure the seedlings didn't completely shrivel.

Still itching to plant something on the trellis but there's the danger of being eaten and I'm not going to risk moving that cucumber again. Beans would do well as long as they grow fast enough but how many beans am I going to eat?

Just so looking forward to all the tomatoes! Last tomato I grew I thought one bush would be enough to keep me in tomatoes... well that failed miserably so I doubled down and not only planted a determinate variety but a bumper crop producer.

The one zinnia seedling on the left was rather leggy and rather than trying to push down around it I moves some soil closer to it for support. I don't dare not cover them because I think I saw slug trails nearby so will have to find a larger clear container to protect them all overnight. I don't have plastic baggies or sticks enough to do that, I do have one of those blue lid plastic containers I got from the community table that might be big enough. I am reluctant to cut into it though since it is a perfectly good container. Will keep looking. 

 

Same bushes. Someone decided erroneously that July you are supposed to completely strip the rose bushes. THAT'S NOT WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE DONE! ::steam blowing out my ears and face turning red::

You are supposed to prune lightly and trim sparingly not completely reset their clock! Thiis makes me soooo livid I could spit nails. They were fine a day or two before, I know, I looked at them and thought they might need some midseason pruning.

They will survive but this is like doing construction wrong way round in front of a professional contractor. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same lady that completely annihilated the hibiscus and lantana. 

Just .... I don't know.... so frustrating not being able to inform people anymore and frankly it wouldn't do any good because I'm dealing with people older than me that don't think I know what I'm talking about.

Gee, sounds a lot like retail gardening.

Camouflaged Caterpillar Culprit Caught!

But before we get to the main story, here's the regularly schedule weather report and garden status.

So it being consistently warm I am watering every other day. As I've said, if I had the right materials I would be mulching and watering much less. I put extra cups over the small zinnia babies overnight and removed all the covers this morning. The cucumber is showing signs of real leaves  now so it will be outgrowing the cup very soon.

The garden this morning (just after 11am) and the Giant Bird of Paradise.  I will never forget the one at an apartment complex that was that tall and I lived on the second floor near the stairwell where it was planted. We were eye level with the flowers with more plant above it.

Don't plant them near buildings. Bad idea... The flowers dripped sap on the walkway although it made it easier to prune flowers off. Not my plant, not my job.

 

 

All the others that were left uncovered survived the night but was concerned for the ones in the bed with the radishes that are getting munched.

I think it's pill bugs that are eating the radishes because there were at least two in the slug trap this morning. Poor things are getting ravaged.

 

And now for the big news, 'Camouflaged Caterpillar Culprit Caught!'

 

While watering today I shifted the tomatoes around, marveling and being very proud of myself at all the fruit, then noticed something... signs of munching on one of the smaller tomatoes ::cue dramatic music duhnduhnduhnnnn bongodrums::

First it was the tomato with definite chew holes so I picked it off then noticed a flower next to it had been plucked as well.... searching diligently, I found it! Remembering the position I had seen it the first time I looked at the curve of leaves and there it was. On the other side of the bush but not far from the damaged tomato.

It is a marvel of coloring and a beauty in itself, I didn't have the heart to outright kill it and there were no birds making sounds anywhere, too hot and late in the morning. I just took it on it's leaf and laid it in semi shade on top of the electrical box near the bird of paradise. It's far enough away that if it decides to take a walk it will encounter other leafy things to eat rather than my plants.

 

 It will likely be eaten or go the wrong way before it gets back to the garden. Or one of the other residents will see it and wonder why and how it got there. Thinking I should have hidden it because there are some well meaning but kind of daft people that might take it back to the garden.

So that's the big news for today, glad I got it because despite having more than enough tomatoes it would have been frustrating and disappointing to have it dig into a ripe tomatoe or ruin ones almost ready.

 

 

 

 

Heat tolerance is lower, plants are fine.

 It's only in the mid to high 80's supposedly but we just can't tolerate the build up in the apartment. so it looks like we'll be running the AC starting early in the day until sundown. It's 'desert' weather meaning hot during the day and dropping by 20 degrees at night. This is good because it gives our bodies (and the garden) a reset to cool down. 

Moonrise yester evening as best I could catch it on my phone. I was moving things around on the plants and ooopsies broke off one of the flowering branches. Oh well. Not like I have a lack of tomatoes and flowers on any of the bushes.

The little seedlings that are now coming up are likely the zinnias. Kind of hard to see at this point due to how small they are and the cucumber baby is getting a bit big for the cup now. The others haven't come up yet and neither have the peppers. I guess I'm going to have to buy pepper plants if I want ay this year. 

I watered everything thoroughly and am still kind of amazed at the differences in the tomato shapes all in the same variety even on the same bush. I had this image in my mind of all the plants coming up all at once and getting tomatoes all together and suddenly being faced with tons of tomatoes all ripening at the same time. Welll obviously that ain't happening. I have enough bushes producing at different stages that the tomatoes will be coming along all the way through September (lord willing the pests and heat don't kill them). 

 

So I'll have some pretty flowers hopefully by August maybe September. All the bushes are coming right along and just wish I could get them some fertilizer. They need the boost when they're producing fruit the most so will see what happens next weekend when I get money. That cucumber will overtake that entire area so the zinnias may need to be moved .... somewhere. Maybe closer to the edge of the bed.

 

I don't remember whether I mentioned it but the local library not far from here actually has a seed catalogue you can look through and ask for 2 seed (packets?) a day. I so wish I had known about this months ago. They are from the San Diego Seed Company as well so a local company giving to the community. I had heard about it for Arbor Day but thought it was a one time thing until someone in a garden group posted about it. Yay for free seeds! I don't know if I need my library card to 'check them out' but will look up the details before I go. My card expired a few years ago right after I moved and haven't put in my new address. I might bring the two books I found and donate them as well.

Now I have to figure out what else I can get to grow over the winter. Definitely more of those Easter Egg radishes, different varieties of lettuce. Maybe some sweet peas. Next spring I will be looking into zucchini and hot peppers. I grew my last zucchini from plant starts and they almost took over. Growing strawberries from seed is a very long process, they don't have things like garlic cloves but may have chives which are good to sprinkle around here and there. 

Oh speaking of that the garlic is still chugging along looks like barely anything is happening, the leaves are rather weak and it seems like it's hardly grown. It's just going to sit there and see what happens by the winter. I just deleted the picture off google photos thinking I wouldn't use it. Oh well.

I cut a few more branches back on a coupld of bushes as well because they are rather rangy. I'll remember to put cages on them next year.

::doing AC happy dance inside::

Another hot day not much happening in the garden

 It is predicted to be in the 90's for this week. It felt like it yesterday but in fact it was me running the oven to bake bread that got the apartment to 90 inside. Only in the low 80's outside but still feeling warmer. Nice breeze blowing though if we could get it to be more concentrated.

Got to the garden at 11 and only stayed long enough to give the seeded areas some water, check for damage and the traps then head back upstairs.

The only things flowering right now are geraniums and the bougainvillea. I thought the spiderwebs on the asparagus fern was cool looking and a point that dirty webs means the spider is no longer using it as a home. Clean webs are almost invisible and easier to catch prey.

 

Same leaf last night and today. Definite chewing going on so now have to figure out a slug trap that will work. The cucumber seedling is still a live and growing thanks to my overnight slug shield.

I also transplanted the onion that was being shaded by the tomato in the right corner and it survived just fine, once again using that scoop instead of the trowel because it's shaped better.

 

I thought I got a picture of it today but guess not. Basically looks the same thankfully and still nothing from the cucumber seeds in the small pot. I did take the cup off the cucumber that was transplanted this morning so it doesn't bake.

 

So far, everything looks good. No overnight marauders, I only watered lightly this morning so will water a bit more tonight. I am trying to be careful and not keep the soil too wet around the tomatoes because that can lead to some issues like blossom end rot. Without giving them any fertilizer for a month will hope they will be okay. I do have the liquid calcium but not sure I want to use that quite yet.

Time and seasons march on. A march is usually regular and a rather quick pace, this is not marching more like a dirge.