No pictures today because it rained!

 We had another thunderstorm roll through last night just before sundown. Rained more than the previous storm, lots of wind and things tossed around, so not sure if I want to go out to the garden and check it or not. The wind was pretty fierce about 2 am so hoping that the tomato bush survived, the pepper is short enough it may have not been buffeted as much. A palm tree was hit by lightning not far from where I live. I think I saw the lightning strike when I was looking out the window from my desk. Turned into a torch or lit match, entire thing went up. When I went out to my car there was ashes sprinkled all over it.

Still need more than that one squall to keep things going. We are in such a multi decade drought right now that we need rain every other day for several hours a day to start making a dent in our deficit. Watering a garden comes second unfortunately, unless you are depending on the garden for food. I'm not and that's okay. Might go out later as it is still overcast and cool, in the mid 70's so wonderful weather for a nice walk in a park or canyon trail. 

Learning how to do something new requires sometimes a change in perspective and how you view things. Gardening requires that you understand how plants grow, what soil is made of, how fertilzer works.. even just a rudimentary knowledge is needed in order to understand what is going on. Why are my leaves turning yellow? Well a couple of reasons and it depends on what you've been doing. Understanding the signs of what is going on, what the weather has to do with success, all that is not to mean you need to be an expert but at least have the basics to take care of something other than yourself. That can be applied to everything from kids, to dogs, to plants and people. Equipment, everything requires you have a basic knowledge of what is going on. Knowing how to take care of a garden and actually having one to take care of are two different things.

I bring this up because I am exploring turning my landscape and other photos into digital art. Not the kind where you go in photoshop and tweak the settings and filters (but I have done that previously with some cool results) but using a paint program and only using the smudge brushes to push pixels around to make it look painted. Now what does this have to do with previous paragraph? Knowing how to paint and actually painting are two different things.  It is requiring me to look at things like shadow and light, breaking the images into blocks of color rather than trying to get every detail.  So having watched Bob Ross a lot, I have a rudimentary knowledge of 'how' to paint but the thought of picking up paint and brushes makes my mind go blank.

Now with a garden you are starting with a blank canvas. You need to know what will grow where and what it will need. I have never had a garden of my own other than owning a house decades ago which I didn't know what I was doing other than they needed sun, water and fertilizer. Now, it's basically the same knowledge but now it's an actual garden I have to plan. I know tomatoes do really well almost anywhere, zucchini, peppers need a bit more care and other than that it's going to be an experiment. 

And that's okay.

Gardening, art and other pursuits don't have to have perfect results in order to be something to have pride in. It is the product of your time and energy and as such it is all yours. Something that you did and had an impact and increased knowledge and experience. That is all that counts lately, as my dear person of interest and soul mate says, 'it feeds your soul' and that's good.

Didn't water yesterday but did some today. Okay, a lot.

 Since the tomato and peppers are just kind of moping along there isn't much in the harvest category to talk about. Both beds needed watering so started doing that and my usual spray was good, but when I started thinking about cultivating the dirt for future use... hey.. this spray head has some powerful jet settings... wish I had video. 

One was your typical jet from the center which causes a lot of splash and is typically used for cleaning sidewalks or walls. Another was a multi spray but each individual nozzle was a pinpoint jet. Now THAT's cultivating. Wiggle that around and it chewed up the soil really well as well as putting out a good amount of water. Chewed up the south bed and flooded it, then did similar to the south bed but careful not to get too close to the plants and hope I didn't disturb the beans too much.

Since I have now figured out the orientation of the beds, and if they are empty then it's easier to say south or north bed. Hydro-cultivating is what I'm calling it and sticking to it. Tried to chew up and move some of the dirt next to the wall on the tomato bed but you can see that the water still follows the grade away from the wall. The other bed is about as flat as you can get.

Still waiting to see when the beans will come up. Hopefully the good soaking will spur them to sprout a little faster since I didn't soak them before. 

You can also see that there's hardly a shadow, we have light cloud cover (high overcast) but it is currently 82 outside at the time was about 10:30am. Cause that's what this weather does. 

Oh and when I went to a drive through taco place yesterday I noticed this tall lanky sprout.

#tomato

I couldn't tell whether it was planted in a styrofoam cup or just came up int he corner. Either way that is one persistent plant. Going to say, nature finds a way most definitely.

That's all for today though, need to get some food and then hunker down for the duration as it is going to be another day in the 90's. At least the humidity is climbing up out of the teens and into middle age numbers.

 

Heat wave again which means more water!

Yes indeed, did I call it or did I not? Going to be in the mid 90's today so at almost noon we have buttoned up for the day after our one errand.

What does this have to do with gardening? Water, water and more water because it is  a weather pattern that is particular to SoCal called Santa Ana conditions (spelling is still debatable). It is a hot weather pattern usually happening twice a year and is the equivalent of 'monsoon' season in areas south of the equator. Ours is just the opposite, breezy to windy, humidity less than 25% and temps anywhere from 80s-90s. My sinuses informed me of this condition when I woke up this morning.

So back to gardening, it is low humidity and high heat which means plants and soil dry out very fast. I may actually go water again tomorrow. Now you see why that cooler weather was a false start and not to plant anything for cool season yet? I remember seeing pansies and other cool season annuals come in to the nursery and the other garden center and thinking, 'wait for it....' and no sooner than we get them in, we get this kind of weather that just cooks them. Do not water delicate things in the morning, wait until evening if you have to water. The water on the leaves during the day can absolutely burn leaves and the plants will almost melt.

Now then, as far as my garden is concerned, I watered dry dirt to keep microbes going hopefully.

It was about 10 am when I took those pictures. The south bed is in full shade so that is definitely going to be things like peas and leafy stuff. The other bed, after watering you can see the puddle to the right of the log making a nice dam effect. Heaving a deep breath thinking about how much work that's going to need. Might even put another board about four inches from the wall so I can build it up a bit more to level it. 

The tomatoes are growing and a lesson in why staking/tying and thinning is so important.

The branches at the bottom have some good fruit on them, but the weight is pulling it down. I tried to lift it up and felt some cracking where it was threatening to snap where I held it. I gently put it back down again or risk losing four fruit on that branch. 

And I mentioned fungus season as well, signs of fall are all happening. Spiders, webs, birds, weather and mushrooms. Ever notice in some places walking around there's a definite mushroom/fungus smell in the air? Yep. These are rather small but right next to some tree roots, yeppers... can't get any more obvious than that.

Oh and besides the jade plant that they put in, the fixed the area around the corner from that as well. Used to be bare dirt with some small white rocks that likely were from a pot of some sort. Now... something much prettier.

Mexican heather and another jade plant. The guys know how to plant thankfully and made a watering moat around it. I think there's a sprinkler head right on the corner there so hoping that enough water clears both the bush and the moat wall that it gets watered. The thing is, that jade should be in a more dry area by it's type, but as we all know about jade plants, they actually don't mind being in the shade and look much nicer, as long as it is a drier shade or an area that drains well.

I mention things like this as a matter of things that work and things shouldn't work but do. Commercial properties don't usually have options and at least they had some money to try and update areas. I so wish I had my own yard to be writing about but this is what I have to work with. 

With the way the housing market is going and our finances, buying a house any time soon is out of the question. Renting,  maybe but again finances being what they are, not in the forseeable future. 

Years ago I was chatting with a customer and they said, 'you must have a wonderful yard!' I said no, actually I'm in a two bedroom upstairs apartment and work at two jobs where I can't use what I know. I also worked at a fabric store and had no area to have a workspace for that either.  

Someone said 'it is what it is' and my reply is 'but what is it?'

It's making do with what you have.

Skipped a day and shouldn't have, another plant is put in.

 And the weather is back up to clear, sunny and warm. Warm as opposed to being skin baking hot, warm as in it may well get in the 80's for the next few days. Now what did I say about the weather changing? Predictable as usual when you have the experience of years in one area.

So, got out and watered, the tape is holding better but still a few small leaks but nothing like the previous issue. 

Pressure was definitely better but technically with a break that bad it needs to be cut and repaired. That tape is about six inches long and covers most of the damaged area. Leakage caused some lifting of the hose layers so the actual split is only about an inch or two.

When I watered the next thing that happens, as usual this time of year is.... small pepper specks with six legs.

Get to high ground!

The little specks (whose name shall not be mentioned to avoid their incursion in our living space) have taken advantage of the periodic dry ground and the time of year. I do hope I'm not causing them to go into the apartment next door. 

The garden area is looking decidedly different. I watered the former zucchini bed thoroughly as well and as I watered the front bed noticed a bean had been exposed. Tucked that back into the dirt and continued watering.

I should really find a rake and clean the pathway. Make it look a little cared for at least and maybe try and figure out a way of covering the path with bricks or stones or something. If it were my own property and house, it would be a bigger priority, I'm only renting so not my call. The zucchini bed is definitely going to be leafy stuff, lettuce, cilantro and things that like shadier areas. The tomato bed is going to be the beans if they ever come up, maybe radishes, peas later on, but first, it's going to get either terraced or leveled.

I know the reason why it's sloping away from the wall but that can also do with the fact that whoever had the bed before had the aloe and planter sitting there so only the front of the bed was used. There's an almost visible break point where the tilled ground meets the raw dirt. Watering really shows how the soil slopes and all the good compost just floats to the front. I will want to definitely terrace it minimally to keep water at the back but not so much that it creates an issue with water at the foundation. Not like having wood piled up does anything worse, right? I won't be watering every day nor will I be running the hose on it all the time either so there's minimal impact I think.

 The angle of the picture is exaggerating the slope but it is obvious that everything is washing to the front. That is an engineering thing that I'm not sure I have the strength or energy to accomplish. I want to try though. There are weeds and grass coming up close to the wall and I can't really do anything until the tomato and pepper are out of there. Then have to find a wide board or something to stand on in the bed while I did. Would be nice to finally get rid of that wood pile of course... sigh. The overall property slopes to the street.  Nothing flat about this, a very gentle slope of course but the front of the property is definitely lower. More on that project when it happens.

Now about that plant I mentioned. 

 Okay to the left of this bed is a bench then there's more planting bed, where the electrical box is, and more planting area. Remember the Norfolk Island Pine? Well in front of that is a small area that had some dutch Iris bulbs that are now done. What does the management decide to put there?

A Jade plant.

Sigh. It is going to get watered more than it should which means it is going to get big and overpower that box. Eventually. Honestly, 'oh this needs to go somewhere, let's put it here where the plants have died.' Not my circus, not my monkeys as they say. 

So other than that, weather heated up as I predicted and back to wearing shorts during the day and sweat pants before going to bed because it's getting down to the 60's at night.

Ah fickle Fall weather.

I did it, worked hard and ignored my previous plans.

 I decided I was tired of looking at the zucchini doing nothing so picked the last fruit, cut it down and ripped it out. I also cut the tomato bush back a lot. There was a LOT of greenwaste.

Two kitchen size bags stuffed with clippings of tomato on left and the entirety of the zucchini in the right. I also brought down the jar of soil/water from the tests I did months ago. Threw that on the compost pile. It was looking rather swampish and something you'd see from an underwater video from a murky river somewhere.

When I ripped out the zucchini one root just kept going and going...the picture on the right up above with the longer trail of dark dirt, that was the track the root left behind. This is the root that caused it.

It's about 18-20 inches long, the small green leaves are the stem it was attached to. It was running basically in the same direction as the plant was grown, nice shady soil that stayed moist. There will be a lot of digging with the cultivator to pull most of those remaining roots out. Nothing like the plant helping you cultivate.

Now as far as the tomato is concerned. That is just pumping out leaves and flowers at the tips so I got tired of seeing that, trimmed out the bottom and shifted some of the branches with tomatoes on them to be more exposed. About 4 or 5 small tomatoes on there right now and I really really should get some fertilizer because I don't think they're going to get much bigger at this rate. I will likely pull up the pepper plant tomorrow or in the next few days.

Taped up the hose more and it didn't appear to be leaking when I used the hose, but I didn't use a lot of pressure either so will see day after tomorrow what it does. The weather still holds with overcast and in the 70's, slightly breezy but I worked up a sweat not having worked that hard in a long time so I'm pooped and likely will get a nap. I've got a headache now, probably from wearing pants that are too tight and causing pressure issues. Gonna be an interesting day.

So now I need to wait for the pintos to come up and see what they do. Anything in the legume family are 'nitrogen fixers' helping the bacteria in the soil feed the beans and in turn the plant provides carbohydrates to the bacteria. This isn't just a one shot and toss the plant, this only works if you chop up the plant and cultivate it back into the soil. Now if it was done right they need to be coated with a specific innoculant rhizobacteria but considering I didn't have that or do that, will see what happens when they get fertilized. Wrong time of year to be planting but as I pointed out, San Diego does not follow the usual weather patterns of the rest of the country.

So a lot of 'do as I say not as I do' following a gardener with insufficient supplies and energy. Anywho, now planning on what to put in the zucchini bed other than the three small patches of beans. I put the trowel in that bed just to let people know it's mine. Need to get a sign that has 'Pat's Garden #36' (my apt mumber). I staked my claim and it's still mine even if there isn't anything in it.

So, what to do... till it under with compost and organic fertilizer and wait until spring or do that and grow something. With the way the numbers were in both beds they really need to get boosters of nutrients before anything else goes in...oops already put beans in, oh well. I'm soo bad at following my own advice.

Flowers and bulbs need to be in a location that is appreciated by more than just me. The problem is not wanting to haul dirt and planter up the stairs. Have to see if there's a spot I can put a pot for bulbs that will be appreciated by everyone.

 

Okay lunch time again. Feed body and soul to keep the mind going.

Cloud cover continues, a leak is sort of fixed.

 It's grey and overcast, I actually put on long pants and my henley style hawaiian shirt that is heavier fabric. From what I have seen this weather may continue for another few days. Fantastic! I watered the spots where I put the beans and tried to repair the hole in the hose.

Need more tape!

The zucchini has not made much progress, maybe another few days. Once that fruit is picked those plants are coming out for sure. Get chopped up for compost and thrown on the heap. 

Pretty much done for the season. Same with the tomato and pepper, so likely sometime in October I will be hauling it all up and actually will toss the zucchini plants in the trash, not going to perpetuate that mildew.

I needed the tape so went to HD to get that and look at selections of fertilizers. I knew what they carried but needed to confirm just what would be involved. Barring the 'all purpose' MG fertilizer that is 15-15-15 that I would need to put on every week or so religiously by water, I would need three other organic fertilizers plus compost to really invigorate the beds. They had blood and bone meal (nitrogen and phosphorus) and, if I wanted, toss in some Epsom Salts...yessir magnesium and sulfur right there is great for your garden. So it would cost me about $30 in supplies to get my soil charged up and healthy. Minimum. That is money I need to spend on some needed clothing right now and bills. My EDD payment went through and it is roughly half of what I was getting before due to Pandemic extra dropping off. Plenty of money for food so we will survive.

Gardening is not cheap nor a lazy persons hobby. 

Oh I also saw that bulbs were in. I'm a sucker for bulbs but will not put them in the dirt we have here. Nope, no way no how. They deserve better than that and that means growing in a container on the front porch... sigh. Or not grow them at all...again.

Anyway,  I know from experience that with this cool weather in our area if the wind comes up the clouds will leave and be back to warm sunny days. Next couple of weeks if we're on track from previous years. It's always been warm in October around Halloween, didn't used to be that way but being So. Cal, it's rarely ever rained on Halloween. Cold weather usually does not set in for us until Late December or January. I made the statement years ago that at this rate, we need to change the season start and end dates so Winter starts in October or November and goes till February.

Weather is very fickle for sure, and even as I look out the window the leaves are moving in the breeze just enough that my experience says it will build overnight and we may have clear weather midweek. Will let you know if my 'farmers almanac' brain predicted correctly.

I fibbed to myself and the weather is glorious right now!

It is currently noon and there is still cloud cover keeping the temperature down to a lovely 72 degrees. Still wearing shorts and a slightly heavier Hawaiian shirt but am comfortable. This could change by tomorrow but for now we will enjoy.

Got out to the garden and picked a few more tiny peppers, tomatoes are not making much progress and will wait for another day or two for the zucchini. Forgot to leave the peppers on the table, oh well.

 

The zucchini looks like a tube balloon, just waiting for it to fill completely to the end. The size is right but still want it to look uniform. Nothing else looks promising on either bush except for more mildew. Can you see the absence of a shadow? Yep totally overcast so it's bright light but no direct sun.

 

I was looking at the bare spots and thought, 'what the heck, going to throw some of the beans in the ground, worst thing that could happen is they won't grow.' I didn't pre soak like you're supposed to, used a stick to make a hole and put three in the holes I made. Then covered them up, didn't water because I didn't want to use the hose just for that.

 

Only AFTER I put them in the ground did I look up to see how big they are. Guess what? They're a bush bean! Fantastic! Only get maybe two feet tall so this is perfect if they grow at all. Will water them in tomorrow and maybe soak some tonight. I put five or six behind the zucchini and about nine in the pepper bed, two holes behind and one to the front. Beans grow fast, that's why I took a chance to try them out and why so many plant/botany lessons in grade school use them. Radishes too but no kid actually likes radishes. I like them to a point actually, my dad used to slice them and put them in a salad.

See the grass/weeds coming up close to the wall? That happens when you water a spot that has had little to know water at all for four months.

 

So I did mention it was also fungus season, an other organism that grows quickly and here's another picture of the ones from yesterday.

 

 

Might use that for some practice sketching. So wonderful weather to take a walk, go have some Italian food from down the street and enjoy the weather..did I say that already?