First Little Tomatoes.

On Sunday I discovered my first baby tomatoes on the Taxi Yellow. The Kerlick Red also has a tiny tomato.




That was the good news. But when I walked outside today, I got the really bad news. Half of our loaded Red Delicious Apple Tree was on the ground. It had split right down the middle. Here are the sad pictures.   These are three different views of the tragedy. 

For contrast, the bottom picture shows the same tree, happily in full bloom in April. I don't know if we will be able to save the tree or not. We will try to call a specialist tomorrow. I hope we can at least save the half that didn't fall. 

Still Have Tomato Problems

There is still no significant growth in my tomatoes in the tallest raised bed, and their coloring still leaves a lot to be desired.  

The Hillbilly is only about 5.5 inches high after a month.

The Oxheart is only about 5 inches. The Brandywine has grown to about 10 inches and the Japanese Truffle to about 11 inches. The other two are somewhere in between.

Tomatoes in the other beds or containers are about a foot at least and most are about 18 inches. These were planted at the same time or later. See right and compare to bed pictured at top. The mesh is to keep birds from eating a tiny seedling. The upside down strawberry basket is protecting a borage from birds until it's big enough to fend for itself.



 
 
 
 
  
  
I'm not sure what to do at this point except keep watching, watering, and hoping. I'll probably try mulching next.

The Bees are a Buzzin' in My Herb Garden

The bees especially like these plants now. You can hear the lamb's ear plant (front, next to what's left of the irises) as you walk  by it. And the bees are also all over the tall butterfly bush in the back and the sage plants on either side of it.

The plant on the left side of the tall butterfly bush is California Black Sage. You can see a close-up of the black sage flowers and leaves below. 

Bee on Black Sage Flower in Early April

You can see that the flowers are grouped in little balls the length of the stem.  What amazes me is how much it has grown in two or three years from the four-inch pot transplant that went into the ground here. It's at least six feet in diameter, and that's after a brutal pruning last fall. It's almost completely covering the new white butterfly bush I put in last fall.

Heat Wave, Planting, Maintenance and Attack

This past week has seen temperatures rise  into the triple digits on more than one day, and high nineties on most of the rest. I have watered faithfully each morning. Sunday morning, against all moon planting advice, I planted one of my green pepper seedlings. Monday morning I planted the other two.


On Sunday my first group of radishes in the ground by the Patty Pan Squash was overtaking the radishes in the raised beds in size.  When I went out to water this morning, they had all disappeared and were replaced by a large gopher mound. The good news is that the other Patty Pan seeds had sprouted. It appears that a cople of nasturtiums are in the process of sprouting, as well. We'll see when morning comes.

Vegetables planted in the two oldest raised beds are still struggling and not growing much. I gave them some more fish emulsion to encourage them. The two weakest zucchini plants are on the right on either side of the wire cage in the middle. The two strongest in this bed are in the corners on the left. You can see the difference in size, though all were planted at the same time. The eggplant sits squarely in the middle of this picture, and it appears no bigger than when I first planted it.


The gophers have rejected my bubble gum and throw it out of the holes. I have put it back and plugged the holes from my end.