Not much wind this morning and a trap worked

 Very little breeze though it's cooler this morning and last night. I took liquid soap and the scrap bucket down and made some traps. But first, a butterfly! Mourning Cloak butterfly landed on the tall jade as I walked by so had to snap a picture.

 

 Took about four to try and time it for when it opened the wings completely. I love the colors of blue, brown and white on these. They prefer elm trees to lay eggs so I'm safe. Just wish I had more nectar plants for the butterflies.

One of the zinnias in the raised bed, I decided to just pull it. Not worth the work for so little. The leaves on the radishes are getting seriously munched. Going to reset the traps there with better bait tonight.

Traps and covers set the small piece of bark is covering a pudding cup with the cut end of a tomato a little water and soap. The other traps all had cauliflower leaves because that's all the scraps I had. I found a tiny tomato that had, what looked like, leaf miner damage took it upstairs and tried to inspect but didn't see anything. Tomato works a lot better than cauliflower leaves and there must be a nest that hatched right under where I am planting the cucumber.

 

Look at all of them! They're all tiny and just dozens of them! Even as I pulled that cup out there were still more breaking through the soil in the area. So yeah, going to be having a tomato today and bring down the cut top and a few bits. That green thing is the small tomato I dissected so even a green one will work. With as many tomatoes I have, I can afford to spare one or two.

Nada in the other traps, maybe one or two bugs and a lot of springtails in the left picture. that cup was near the trellis. the other one I should have put in more water but now I know what works will be putting deeper cups and better bait out. I just dumped the dry stems on the ground and tossed the cup dregs into the compost bucket. Yeah I know, I'll be using the compost and that will be in there but the compost bucket with decaying scraps isn't done for a while. I did not put them into the finished compost!

 

The sunflower shifted position it seems, which is not a bad thing just notable and the onions are getting to size, now I just need a jalapeño plant and the tomatoes to get ripe for some salsa!

 

Just more pictures of the tomatoes. Can see the difference in color from older/more sun ones and younger shaded ones. They get shinier as they get older as well which is another sign of ripening. 

The little zinnia that could, in the shade of tomatoes. No sign of damage or anything but there's less compost in that bed and more clay so despite that, everything is doing great.

Then there's the hole in Layla's bed I noticed yesterday, right under the wall. Wow. I double checked the south bed to make sure there wasn't any dirt moved and it's still good so far.

I had a 2 liter bottle from sodas yesterday and remembered a trap for wasps or something where you cut the top off and reverse it in the bottle. I don't have wasps or yellowjackets and thought, maybe put it on it's side and put bait in to see what gets in? A bit big, might do that with a water bottle but then I looked at the conical top and opening and thought it would be much better for putting over the cucumber when it gets bigger.

Until the pill bug nest is cleared have to keep up the traps to make sure there's nothing much left to bother the seedlings. Maybe also try a 'yeast' (bread) trap for slugs and snails too.

Glad that trap was a success but wow, was not prepared for how many got in there!

 

 

 

And I took a chance and disaster

 Weather is hot, ac may be started at noon. Blah blah blah

Cucumber is gone. Completely. Combination of slugs and pill bugs.

Last night and this morning. 

 

I left the cover off because I thought it was getting baked when I wasn't able to get out there until later in the day. I will be cutting an opening in the rectangle cover but also seeing about a small can of Sluggo Plus. As I was digging to loosen the soil and replant one of the new seedlings five small pill bugs surfaced and I tossed those to the jade bush. Good thing I have the back up cucumbers. At this rate I might start another set just in case.

The zinnias are still holding on but now  I know what has been nibbling on them under the covers. Five pillbugs means there are more and they are crawling up from below where the logs and leaves are decomposing. There are four or five bags of soil in the future for this bed when the tomatoes and everything else are done.

Nothing is bugging the garlic from what I can tell and the tiny teeny possible cilantro sprout is still there too. Right in the bug zone. Go figure.

And nothing is bugging the other zinnias either. Really annoying some are left alone and others aren't. Better soil in the raised bed I suspect and of course the nirvana of mulch and logs below.

 

 

There is a canna growing in the rose bed with beautiful bright green leaves and a minute burgundy color edging on the leaves. I think it's a red bloomer, will find out in a few weeks when it gets going.

Well since blogger won't load anymore pictures I guess that does it for now.  Didn't get a chance for picking up any Sluggo today so will be covering the seedling I just put in and maybe try some 'traps' again. I think another reason for so many pill bugs in that area is all the leftover roots from the cilantro. Like I said about five of them just came crawling up through the soil I as I was moving things around.

Little bastards. Go chew on something else!

 

 

 

 

You win one you lose one.

 I tried to get out earlier but still didn't make it until noon. Weather is warmer than yesterday, apparently there is very early morning fogginess possibly but it was burned off by 8 or 9am. The breeze is stiff and gusty at least. Will see if we have to close up later on. 

I did a count of tomatoes on these two bushes and there is about 20. Just on this pair. They have the most developed at one time and will bear the brunt of production for what we need  I suspect. I felt sorry for the sunflower so  I found an aloe flower stick and used it for support. Twisted it around the stick so it didn't keep wobbling all over, despite that's what builds stem strength. 

Garlic is still hanging in there, wondering if it's getting shade being between the jade and the tomatoes. I would not be a good garlic or onion farmer. They take too long. Speaking of impatient, three of the cucumbers have sprouted (this was taken in the evening) the third one is barely breaking the surface. So looking around the garden I'm thinking...what the heck do I do with them? I put them in the shade temporarily due to the heat for a few days

 

I pulled two of the radishes toward the back of the line, they were just too chewed up and shaded. There are still a few that have a ton of holes in the leaves and nothing has been successful in keeping them safe. Covered the seedlings and piled soil up around the bottoms. 

Left picture is close up of the zinnias before I covered them. Mostly okay but struggling, picture on the right... I think some cilantro is coming up already! It was still there today so here's hoping more is on the way.

 

Remember how I covered them? See what's missing? The one down front was completely eaten. Other two were just fine. I watered thoroughly today and just washed it into the soil. Well as I said, win one you lose one. Cycle of nature.

After watering well and just photos for comparison later. The onions are slowly getting bigger and may well be ready to pull in another week or so if I wish. Can't see it but the little zinnia between the tomatoes is still there as well.

 

And the three cucumbers, though the third ones leaves have yellow tips which is odd but maybe it was due to the heat it was getting. If it survives I'll likely put them up for trade online for something else.

Oh speaking of free things, I was incorrect on the lettuce seed I got, I chose Red Sails not romaine which I need to look up on conditions and timing an all that. Doing research it is actually slow to bolt in the warm weather so I can likely start planting it in the fall even if it's warm. It likely will do better in the spring though the seed company says, in general, lettuce doesn't germinate well in hot temperatures. So another fall/winter/spring crop to fill in after the tomatoes.

Two Cabbage White butterflies were flitting through the garden and visited the sage that was blooming. I really need to get a pot of rosemary and other herbs to grow out there. Rosemary needs a single medium size pot on it's own, sage as well. Oregano and thyme can be grown together since they're creepers, maybe use that window box planter.

I am thinking of leaving the crate out with a note to Layla for her to use. I am probably going to wait until I can get more soil to put in there as a hint it's for gardening. My beds are protected enough I can put potatoes out in the ground. I'm still seesawing on that though because potatoes are so much easier to harvest if they're in a container. Then where do I put it? Behind the north bed? Where it would get washed out in the winter? Too much shade in the south bed so I may end up putting it out after the tomatoes are done in the north bed and nestle it on one end to leave room for lettuce and stuff.

 The seasons cycle through and planning continues. 

 

So far, so good for the weather

 (This is a post that's going to take all day because photos aren't uploading. I started typing at 1:30pm and took 2 hours to post)

It's 1:30 and we haven't turned the AC on yet. Might do that when Jon takes his nap but so far we have a nice breeze blowing and the fans are sufficient. Not running the oven and tomorrow will be a crockpot day so no extra heat will be generated.

As for the garden, I got out real quick to water in the evening, covered the seedlings and generally admired the tomatoes some more. No watering needed in the morning and will check in my evening foray to be sure. Still some seeds that need to stay moist. Might even water lightly and toss some pieces of bark or something on top of the cilantro line.

First, flowers. That yellow rose is the only thing blooming right now (it's actually closer than the birdhouse). Sigh. Just makes me so angry and sad. the lantana is still blooming like crazy so at least there's that.

Since there isn't really any other photos other than the tomatoes still growing the other news is one of the zinnia seedlings got munched despite being covered. My only guess is I just plopped the cup on top and didn't dig it in so something wormed it's way under and munched on both leaves.

 

The cup on the right is the one that got eaten, the one bottom left has one leaf chewed down. Nothing has touched the cucumber thankfully.

The patch worked...sort of. Leak isn't as bad but I didn't overlap in two spots so it still leaked. Hope to get some more of the hose tape this month. The branch that was leaning against the fence fell down completely. Not broken just slid down due to the weight of the small fruit on it.

I carefully picked it up and tucked it into the rest of the vine, weaving what I could into the trellis. I scattered some cilantro seeds along the rest of the trellis line and watered them in last night. Will see what comes up in a week since I just went to the dead stems I still had laying near the compost and pulled some dried seeds off instead of using the ones I had upstairs. Still nothing from the peppers though.

Oh but those tomatoes!

 I also had a chance to get to the local library and picked up two packets of seeds! I got some Romaine lettuce and Royal Family Mix sweet peas for the fall/winter. 

The only place I can grow the sweet peas is on the trellis where I just planted the cilantro. It is also where the peas were growing before so if I'm remembering correctly that's not a good thing. The cilantro will likely do really well because the peas put nitrogen back in the soil. By the time cool season rolls around the cilantro will be ready to harvest and the cilantro will be shading the pea seeds as they come up. The tomatoes will be done as well hopefully by October so the trellis will be free and clear. Have to remember to toss more fertilizer and soil in before planting.

There were a lot of things I wanted to try and grow but just not right now. I'll likely go back and get some zucchini seeds for sure next summer. This is such an incredible thing for the libraries to do! Free seeds! Didn't have to show my library card or anything and you get two choices per person per day so I could have told Jon what to pick and he would have gotten them for me. He was looking at some books and stuff while I went through the catalogue. Almost got some Alyssum seeds but I know they'd likely take over and reseed. Not a bad thing but just don't think I have enough room.

There is that crate but saving that for potatoes in the spring.