Getting warmer, cucumbers are up and tomatoes!

 Warmer weather means soil is drying out faster so I watered again today. Didn't get out there until close to noon and brought with me a pot of water from the kitchen. Whaaat?

I boiled the last of the corn and separately I also did 5 hard boiled eggs. Hmmm....so eggs will release some calcium in the water and the corn will have other nutrients so I let that cool overnight and put it in two of the beds.

 

I didn't want to just dump the water and possibly dislodge soil and seeds so gently tossed it around in the raised and the south bed.

 

Still a long way to go but that one tomato is about half mature size at this point already! Still no sign of the gopher but not holding my breath and am knocking on wood. The cluster on the right has developing tomatoes from back to front, almost a double cluster actually. I'm used to single tomatoes like my previous bush but this is much like the difference between hybrid tea and floribunda tomatoes.

 

Two, possibly three cucumbers up! I will definitely be setting some slug/snail traps tonight to keep them safe. As you can see I watered and didn't notice them until the soil contrasted the leaves better. The seedling on the left may get moved because it's awfully close to the tomato. Will see how long they last and move them if they get big enough to survive the transplant.

Some tomatoes finally showing on the trellis tomato. I suspect that a few factors are causing it to bloom and fruit later than the others despite being older. First is I nipped the early flower buds out and second it was shaded a good portion of it's early life by the coriander so it didn't develop short stout stems and leaves like the others in full sun.

 

Hard to see but there's a small snail shell and a slug in that cup. Sadly it didn't stop them from almost decimating a radish leaf toward the back of the group.

I don't have any citrus left but do have some apples and still some watermelon and cantaloupe. I mentioned using cat food cans but the first one I saved I forgot to tell Jon and he threw it away. I made sure to tell him this time not to throw the can away. It takes about three or four days to go through a can of cat food so a lot of lag time between getting them.

 

Will be reading more about DIY slug traps and other things  I can put out to save my precious seedlings.

 

Forgot to post yesterday, coriander is cut down

 I got busy with other things online yesterday and totally forgot to make a post. I did get to the garden, I did water and went out in the evening to set traps. The weather is becoming more regularly and increasingly warm as the cloud cover burns off before 10 am. Shorts and t-shirts until further notice for apparel. Not quite hot enough to run the AC, surviving on just open windows and fans right now with the stiff breeze making it bearable.

A before shot when I decided the coriander had to go. I was tired of moving it around like an unruly matted clump of hair. 

The roots were easy to pull out, some threads of root still left behind but they will add to the organic matter in the bed. And the tops are still in the same place. I am leaving them to dry in the sun and then harvest the seeds. Not like I have a lack of seeds but it's something to feel like I'm an old time farmer or something.

And the hole left behind. See, there's lots of space now and just have to figure out what to do with it since I don't have access to a strawberry plant at the moment. More on that vacancy later.

In looking for containers that were less soil invasive I discovered two small fruit cup containers I had saved. Covered one with a piece of bark and the other with the lid that came with the sunflower that was being used as a tray. So those were set in the evening on Friday? I got results the next morning.

The next morning things were a bit on the dry side  but still moist so I checked the traps. Nothing under the blue lid but a slug and a snail in the one under the bark. I used bits of cantaloupe for bait, added a little soap and water.

Lots of tomatoes coming in and they won't all ripen at the same time it seems depending on the bush. It will be a cavalcade of tomatoes in a few months (hopefully) because some bushes have flowers but not set fruit and others have fruit that may be ready by mid July. So given good weather,  health and no pest invasions, I will have tomatoes all the way to September I suspect. So much for putting in anything for the summer after them.

 

The reason why I put my hand behind the tomatoes when I take a picture is it's hard to see them against the green leaves. Good gauge on how big they are too but mostly for visibility. 

And they are growing nicely! Biggest ones are about an inch now and they need to get three or four times that big before picking.

No movement from the pepper or cucumber seeds but those may take a week to come up. Trying to keep them damp, the beds were awfully warm when I went out today and forgot my sprayer so I spritzed everything down because...

I decided to put the zinnia seeds out in a few spots. Some where the coriander was and a few where the other radishes were supposed to grow. Even a couple in front of the tomatoes in the south bed. With the coriander out of the way the onions might have a better chance now. There's still one that's being shaded by the corner tomatoes I need to move.

 

Just pictures of developing fruit and flowers for reference later. The one in the left picture is the largest one at about an inch. the other cluster is the the other bush behind it with smaller fruit and still lots of flowers.

 Still kind of irked and concerned with the holes in the radish leaves. I took this picture because I had just watered the bed and a fly was getting some water on the leaves.

Lots of flowers but not much fruit yet on one of the south bed tomatoes. The bushes are rather sprawly and less vertical so note to self, wide and short cages are best. Those 42" are just about perfect. A tomato developing on a branch behind the trellis I will keep an eye on.

Just reveling in the soon-to-be bounty of my garden. Yeah it's a lot of tomatoes but by the time those are starting to kick in with ripe fruit I might put some cilantro seeds out in a few spots, even though it will be the height of summer they can be shaded by the tomato plants.

Hoping the other seeds do come up and don't get mowed down. Would love some home grown cucumbers and peppers. Flowers are nice but would like a dual purpose garden with food and flowers enough to enjoy.

May 21

June 26

A little over a month apart (oh and in editing mode while writing this the two pictures are side by side but formatting as it is, they end up as you see it due to adding the captions).

So far no more sign of gophers, slugs and snails are being managed and heat of summer is on the way.

Watering is done, observations made.

 Skies were clear and breezy by 10 am. Continues that way with an increase in the wind so that's good for air flow through the apartment. Why is this newsworthy? It  may be the one of the last times we have weather sufficiently cool to not close everything up by the same time and run the AC.

Also makes for very warm soil that dries quickly.

All of the leaves I put out for slug bait were chewed on but also dried out so tossed those in the compost bucket and now will have some traps put out this evening. I realized I can use an empty cat food can as a bait station but have to start collecting them now because I didn't realize soon enough I could use them and only have one now.

Didn't feel like working hard enough to cut back the coriander so just left it for now. Definitely showing signs of drying on it's own. I took a small handful more of seed clusters to add to my collection. The tomatoes are growing yay! Really happy they are doing so well but sure could use some fertilizer. 

Small hole in one of the tomatoes. Will have to keep an eye on it but not going to be too concerned at this point. Could have been a worm, could have been a slug. Who knows. I've got enough clusters going that I can only hope they all grow to full size tomatoes.

Without fertilizer it's hard to say whether they  have enough nutrients in the soil to supply fruit production.

I also tested to see if the tomato I had put a cage next to had grown enough to stand on it's own. So there it is, without the support cage but still shading the small onion at the right front corner.

I was in a hurry to water and as I was doing so realized this middle tomato needed some support. It was the runt of the three in that bed and now is taller than the other two. I know it's too late to put a cage on it so I put a cage behind it. That didn't do the trick I wanted.

I managed to wiggle and squirm a cage around the middle tomato without disturbing the radishes too much. Not all the branches are supported but it has something to lean against all around it anyway.

The bag over the compost bucket has a good amount of condensation collected. Not going to lift that at the moment and hope to get out this evening to take it off and toss the green stuff in there a bit as well as add another scrap bucket of stuff. I had to peel a bunch of potatoes today and had four ears of corn yesterday so the scrap container is stuffed.

Something I haven't mentioned and wasn't able to get a good picture of it. I looked out my window the other day as I was typing and saw a bug silhouette on the screen. I had seen that shape before but didn't think it was in San Diego of all things.

It was a Mayfly! I had to look up to see if Mayflies were even in San Diego as I had never heard or seen them here. Apparently there is a Western Mayfly that is common all over the state.  I know the difference between Mayfly and Cranefly. I've seen pictures of Mayflies and the  imitation ones used by fly fishermen in rivers and streams. The closest lake is a twenty minute drive from us, there are no streams either and the closest thing would be the cement drainage sloughs that rarely has deep water in it. More likely to breed mosquitoes than anything else.

So yeah, odd thing to see, but not earth shattering. Not like the first time I ever saw an honest to goodness Bluebird was in Mira Mesa. I honestly need to get out more often and do some nature observing like bird watching. I do like to do that, but species aren't that diverse in my area and as I need to conserve gas, can't go galavanting around the county.

I do what I can from where I am.