Tomatoes Are Getting Ripe

Bit by bit the tomatoes are getting ripe. We had one in a salad and it's so much tastier than store bought. 

And the snails haven't found the radishes yet. Hopefully they don't like radishes.

Bye Bye Jasmine Vine

Yesterday I girded my loins and tackled the root of that jasmine vine. I soaked it a good 20 minutes and then took a clipper and shovel to what was left of it. I got a good bit of it cleared away and filled  3/4 of the dumpster with vines and branches. I'm still not done with the big clean up but at least now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

There was a ripe tomato with a little slug fest going on, so I cut off the bad part and put the rest in a salad and it tasted great. No point wasting a good tomato just because a bug got there first.

Tomato Vine

 

Cilantro / Coriander

I reseeded the cilantro. As you can see in the photos, it's at the end of it's lifespan. 
The radishes are getting bigger. So far so good. I'm still tossing out a lot of snails, trying to race them to my prime plants. I'm also seeing a lot of earthworms, which is a good thing. I just wish I had a compost pile. Stupid tiny yards...mutter, mutter, mutter. I need a quarter of an acre.

Monster of a Tomato Plant

Yesterday I was amazed to see all the tomatoes on the plant that survived from last summer's garden. I had to cut an old t-shirt into strips and lift all the tomatoes off the ground so the snails don't get them. Then I did some weeding around them. There must be 20 tomatoes on there, all green at the moment. And I already picked 4 green ones last week because they were sitting on the ground. I have 3 tomato cages and some stakes holding one plant, it's such a monster.

My cilantro/coriander is about spent, so  reseeded the pot in the blank spots to get another crop going.

I also planted some radishes in the pot where the basil was. It never sprouted nor did any weeds, so I'm suspecting cats! If the radishes don't sprout, then nothing will and I'll have to dump the whole pot and start over.

I got up this morning and saw some fluffy baby sparrows sitting on the brick wall and then I saw the mother bird feeding them, though they are as big as she is. By the time I got my camera they were gone. I only got one blurry photo.

Then while I was waiting I continued the dreary job of removing the jasmine. My hands are really tired from pruning right now but I finally got the top detached from the neighbor's side of the jasmine. It all started in my yard, and now it's theirs. There is still a lot of clean-up to do and digging out the original roots. Ugh. That will have to wait for another day.

The Roses Are Back

I'm so excited that my roses are covered with buds. It was supposed to rain today too but it hardly rained at all. I spent more time getting the garden ready for the rain, then the amount of time it actually rained.

Cilantro

Yay, our cilantro is sprouting. I'd about given up. I put it in a clay pot sunk into the soil and put plastic wrap over it to keep it moist. It was sprouting like crazy when I checked it this afternoon.

Odd Snail Factoid

Today I needed to spray a little wooden sign outdoors so I set the sign on a metal can that still had a paper label. I was spraying the 2nd coat when I noticed a snail clinging to the side of the can. I swear it wasn't there when I set the can down earlier. And right under the snail, in the shape of the part clinging to the can the label had been eaten away. There were 2 other holes in the paper the same size. I thought that was so odd that the snail ate the paper. My boyfriend said, "Why not? The paper is cellulose."
By the way, the polyurethane was dissolving the snail's body. Ewww. Little bubbles were coming out.

Fall in the Garden

You can use your garden as inspiration for your artwork. Here is a t-shirt I am embellishing with ribbon flowers, lemons, vines and leaves. Don't spend all your gardening time pruning, picking and planting. Make time for sketching, photographing, and otherwise enjoying your garden. Today I need to refresh the hummingbird feeder. I can't remember the ratio of sugar to water so I need to look that up again.
Leaves are starting to turn colors and fall onto the patio. I enjoy the sound of it from my bedroom window. I have a lot of birds in my garden this year. They seem to be eating the seeds of the grass that is taking over my garden.

Tomatoes

Like I suspected nearly all the tomatoes got ripe at once.

Last Days of August

It looks like I have a whole bunch of tomatoes that are going to ripen all at once.

I had three promising brown eyed susan plants sprout up. Then one vanished. A day or two later the best one vanished and now there is just one left. By vanished I mean you can't even tell it was ever there. So I put a cut out styrofoam cup over the last one to keep it from snails, slugs, and birds. Sigh. I just need one to grow up the trellis.

Lots of other things are blooming: the moss rose, the striped roses, the lantana, sea lavender, and some of the succulents.

I'm turning this gourd I grew in the garden into a rain stick too.

Grasshopper

I have a feeling that this is what's been eating my peppers. Look at the size of this guy. Click on the photo to see all the details.

My Backyard and I

I'm glad it's cooling off as we head toward autumn. Soon all the leaves on the tree above me will be falling into my yard.

The house behind me is where the family from India lives. They are the noisiest people ever and seem to live in their backyard where their kids scream all the day long. I try to sit out there and read or write in my journal but usually I just get frustrated and go back inside. They are also up all night pounding on the walls, hanging out on their patio and talking loudly or smoking. If I had the money I'd move tomorrow. People are so unaware of how much their noise impacts others or they just don't care.

Mostly Roses

It was such a perfect weather day I couldn't resist taking some photos of my roses and tomatoes to share.
My brown eyed susans have also sprouted so I'm crossing my fingers that they will survive their infancy.

Hummingbird

I was sitting outside reading when I heard my hummingbird come back. And this time I had the camera. So now I can show you instead of nattering on about it.

Hummingbird Siting

After waiting months for a hummingbird to use the feeder I inherited, I changed back to the sugar/water mixture instead of the store bought powder, painted the metal flowers red, and hung a red flower on the feeder. Then yesterday I saw my first hummingbird taking a big long drink. Success finally! It was a tan color, not like the shiny ones I usually see. I hope it makes my feeder a regular stop.

Sadly though the arrowhead plant I put in the aquarium has gone to pieces. My terrarium is doing okay though. At first it was too wet, then too dry. Now the sides are fogged up so at least the plants are hurting for water.

Portulaca

I got up early this morning to plant the moss rose before it got hot. Funny plant, it's neither a moss nor a rose. It's a succulent called Portulaca. I planted it around the Anaheim peppers to help keep them moist in their pot.

I'm also fixing the hummingbird feeder. The packaged mix didn't attract any birds, so I'm just dissolving sugar in water. We'll see how that goes instead. All the red had faded from the feeder lid, so I tied a fake red rose to the pole instead, since I don't want to use any food coloring or additives in the mixture itself. I love hummingbirds. I'm sad that I don't have any hummingbird nests this year.

Here are some directions on how to grow it. http://www.ehow.com/how_6766_grow-moss-rose.html

Moss Rose

My mother loved moss roses and I haven't had any in quite a while. I couldn't resist getting some yesterday at the nursery. I'm going to plant them in with my Anaheim Chilis to help keep the soil moist. They seem to love that spot.

I also got my terrarium finished. I added a prayer plant and a pink polka dot plant. I'm still trying to get the moisture just right. When I opened it to plant the new plants, there was some mold, so I let some of the moisture out today. Only then it looked too dry so I put the plastic back over the top. I'll get it balanced right sooner or later.

I also picked a big tomato and had it in the salad tonight.

Terrarium

I had a nice spot along the brick wall where we removed some pink jasmine that had planted itself, so I put the trellis there and planted black eyed susans in front of it. I've always wanted to grow those so I hope they sprout. I should have planted them earlier in the year but I didn't have the opportunity.

Then tonight I bought 2 more Anaheim pepper plants to replace the ones the snails ate. I'm going to plant them in a container this time instead. Both have fruit and blooms on them already.

I also made a terrarium yesterday. When I dug up some moss for it I accidentally cut an earthworm in half. Then as I was carrying the moss from the front yard to the back I planted it in the terrarium and went back inside the house. The cat was trying to pick up something off of the rug. It was an earthworm. It must have fallen out of the bottom of the moss roots. So I put that in the terrarium too. The one thing I don't have for the terrarium yet is houseplants. I picked up an arrowhead plant for the aquarium, and if the root system can be divided I'll go ahead and put some of that in the terrarium. Usually the dollar store has just the right size of houseplants, but this year they haven't got any decent plants in at all. Maybe prices have gone up so much they can't offer them for .99 anymore.

Weedy Tomatoes

We had company over today to work on some gourd projects. I guess the guy really appreciated what we taught him, because suddenly he jumps up and goes and weeds all my tomatoes. Luckily I had just watered them deeply the night before, otherwise he'd have thrown out his back before he got any weeds pulled. Now there is a stack of weeds as big as a bale of hay. I'll let them dry a day or two and put them in the dumpster. I was embarrassed to even have weeds, but I guess he meant well.

The photo is of a gourd I grew. I cut it in half to clean it out so I can make a rain stick.

Aloe Magic

I do believe we can manifest what we think about to a degree. So when my friend Lynn told me she needed an aloe plant last time I saw her, I shouldn't have been that surprised when today a new person I met at a workshop shop says out of the blue that if anyone wanted an aloe plant or two, he had a whole bunch on his front porch that were free for the taking. So I got one for my friend and one for me.

And in case you didn't know, aloe juice is good for burns. So it's a good thing to have around.

First Tomatoes

I'm happy to say I picked the first two tomatoes out of my garden. They haven't been as abundant this year. We are having some very hot weather right now so I have to water frequently. But we are also in a drought so I have to keep a sharp eye out so no water is wasted and there is no run off.