Morning, morning is amazing.

 So I was able to get out to the garden earlier today because it was going to be 90 by 10 am. Yeah... it was 104 by 1pm and then hazy smoke layer from wildfires and a battery manufacturer fire drifted in and it cooled by 10 degrees. Still hot and stifling though.

11:30 am and it was 100 already. Weather will be on that repeat for the next few days. I watered this morning so everything had a good soaking and it showed in the afternoon when I went back out.

Beauty and the beast, advantages of getting out early in the garden. Two hummingbirds were almost fighting over the tomatillo bushes! One of them flew off and the victorious female perched on the tomato cage and then darted in to sip from more of the flowers. I got video but as usual it's very shaky and not really worth the nausea to post. There were also bees, at least two or three and tiny sweat bees visiting the flowers!

The other two pictures are of Manny chowing down on a bee (I marked up where he is in case the other picture was hard to make out) He is slowly changing color and so he still stands out a little less. I was so excited to see that he caught a bee though! He knows where to hang out for food obviously and there's more opportunities in this bush than the other one. This is probably nirvana for him, so many places to hide and so many opportunities for food.

 

The poblano got sunburned.... oh well. This heat has been brutal on everyone's garden but when you don't have much, losing even a few plants is even more depressing. That hook shaped tomato at the bottom is coloring slightly, but the larger one is still the same. The little fish pepper is hanging in there nicely, I picked four jalapeños, one was turning orange red and another larger one (still only about two inches was getting some stretch marks.  Someone suggested that you need to thin out peppers to get them to grow to size. Will remember that next year and hopefully be able to plant more.

And this evening, Manny is definitely more green now at least on his back. It's so rewarding to see nature thriving in my surviving garden. It just amazes me that the other tomatillos are dying and these are thriving. Difference in soil and exposure for sure, these in the west bed get a bit more shade in the afternoon and aren't blasted by reflected heat. 

Really need to figure out what to put in that other bed for winter and summer. Winter there's no sun except really really early in the morning and not for long and then shade all day and summer it's a blast oven. Lettuce and cauliflower maybe in the winter? Cilantro of course, carrots and radishes.... but summer that is a tough one.

Will see what happens next year. First... have to get through this year. And this summer.

Not many pictures.... it's....haaaaht

 Will start with the weather report in pictures:

In order of appearance according to timestamp. 86 at 10:11 am, 103 at 1:40 PM, 97 at 1:57 PM (different location) and finally 98 back home at 6:40 pm. It is currently 92 at 7:45. It topped out at 107 today.

AC won't be turned off for quite some time sadly. My electric bill is going to be through the roof which I cannot afford on my own.

Loony garden lady. I got the broom and swept up as much as I could on the sidewalk this morning and dumped it in the beds. It wasn't much and the extra leaf bits are fine as future compost working into the soil. In the evening I noticed that the area under the tree near the garden looked like it had sprinkled, but it was even more frass from the branch overhead. I'll probably try and sweep again tomorrow because yeah.... busy little twits.

 

What it looked like after I watered it in this evening. I sprinkled some around the tomatillos of course and some more in the raised bed around the tomatoes and in the middle. The lone poblano fruit, sadly is getting sunburned. I think those and the other peppers, despite them being hot peppers, given the weather, need to be planted much earlier.

Very sad looking bushes because despite the sun being down, it was still very hot and they had not recovered from the heat of the day yet. Gave everything a light to moderate watering to hold them over and then searched for Manny.

I watered the bushes lightly and shook them a bit to try and see any movement then decided a few branches could be tied up. Was about to give up and when I backed away, there he was. Yay!  Looks like he was way out at the tip of the branch and me shifting the bushes made him scurry for cover. I didn't see him until I saw him in that last picture, I was that close. Did not see him at all in the other views until I zoomed in the photo and saw him.

So, all is good as it can get in the garden. Didn't bring down my clippers but planning on that for the weekend. I've seen a couple of composters people were giving away but they were a half hour drive away and it is not worth driving that far.

It'll happen when I least expect it I'm sure. I found an electric hand mixer on the table the other day that works! So, yeah, things will happen when they happen and not a moment too soon.

Another scorcher and new digs for Manny

 But not as bad as the next two days. I think I actually got a bit of a tan on my walk today. We only just opened up and turned off the AC half hour ago at 9:30pm. It isn't going to cool down sufficiently until after midnight tomorrow.

Yet the garden persists.

92 degrees in the shade just before sunset and the caterpillars are in a second wave now, there were bits of leaf and frass all under the tree even worse today. I forgot to bring down the broom and dustpan, need to set a reminder for that as long as they aren't going to water the lawns.

 

 

Busy bee in the tomatillos earlier today. There was also a few gnats or smaller bees or something buzzing the flowers as well. So they are being pollinated naturally yay!

I was out in the garden early today due to schedule so morning light on the absolutely destitute tomatillos. I have no idea why they look so horrid other than maybe they get the reflected sun off the wall and it's just baking them. The raised bed tomatoes are looking haggard even after sun was behind the trees. The fruit is growing nicely and the soil is staying moist watering every day at least. The fish pepper has two baby tiny fruit and the poblanos are doing well also. I can't seem to get jalapeños to get any bigger than about two inches.  They're all still green but just don't seem to be getting any bigger.

I sprayed the bushes so Manny would move around and he was practically right there in full view. Given the condition of those bushes I decided to try and catch him to move him to the green and lush ones in the west bed.

I used one of the pots and got him to climb inside then held one of the branches down inside the pot for him to grab onto. Will see if he starts to change color as I've read that they can do that depending on their environment. If he turns the same green I'll never find him again!

This is in preparation to pull those other bushes out and haul them to the green waste. I watered down the compost buckets a little tonight and the log piles knowing the poor lizards are probably sweltering even in the shade. Wouldn't be surprised if they skittered across the dirt to go sit in the cool mud.

That little plant I rescued from behind the tomatillos? I don't think it's a zinnia, it looks like it might be tradescantia 'Small Leaf Spiderwort' that has small white flowers.  Where it came from is unknown but considering the gophers used to run there, it may have come from their poop or nest material. It can be considered a pest plant so I may have to dig it out again when it gets cooler and put it in a pot. I have a potato to contend with that's likely lying in wait under the soil in that spot.

So the ragged tomatillos will come out tomorrow maybe, it's going to be so hot so quickly I may have to wait until the weekend but at least Manny is moved and I feel better about pulling them up. Apparently tomatillos can ripen on the plant even after you cut them but right now, the ones that are filling the husk are only about a half inch across. Not worth it. 

What am I going to plant there when those are out? Nothing unless I can get some more soil. If I get more soil, it's cilantro baby..... but lettuces will have to wait for another month. In fact everything will likely hold off until October due to the weather.

Remember when hot weather like this happened in August? Even July? Yeah I've mentioned that before.

Finally got pictures....

 It is going to be a scorcher this week. It was 95 today and is going to increase all the way to 101 by Friday. The garden survived and actually.... the tomatillos in the west bed are in full freaking bloom and Manny is still on duty.

Now you see him, now you don't. I discovered that they can change their color to mimic their surroundings, which is why he is that tan color to match the browning leaves and sometimes looks a bit green. I also got a video of him shimmying when the wind picked up and ruffled the leaves. Another form of mimicry to look like one of the leaves. Amazing stuff!

The red hump caterpillars are still decimating the trees. I noticed all the pellets on the ground and looked up to see that branch almost completely naked. Wow. Wonder if I should sweep up some of the droppings for fertilizer?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What it looked like around 1:45 today when it was 93. I watered the west bed last night but not the raised bed or the south bed because they were looking damp still. So I watered a bit in the heat of the day just so they had it overnight to soak up.

And all better once the sun went down. Look at all those flowers on that bush! I also discovered that tomatillos are indeterminate which means they will keep growing and flowering and fruiting until they run out of energy or it gets too cold. It is possible that the 15 or 16 husks I'm seeing may not be pollinated. I also tried to get a picture or a video of a bee that was actually hovering around that bush in the evening. Yay!

Hard to see but there's four smaller ones on this bush and that one up at the top may well be actual fruit. I asked in the garden group and two people (one is the resident garden expert) has said they fill the husk as they grow. YAY!

I dug my finger into the soil to check for moisture and it was very, very warm and barely moist so that's why I watered in the  middle of the day. The poblano has another fruit on it yay!  I really wish I could mulch under the plants in that bed, it would make such a difference in their health.

Will try and remember my phone in the next few days but I doubt anything dramatic will be happening other than wilting and watering. You can barely see the line of clouds to the south horizon, which is what is causing our current heat spike, tropical depression or something.

And I leave you with Manny the dancing Mantid.