Fertilized just about everything about three days ago. Just for the record keeping.

The mandarin oranges don't seem to be really growing regardless, though the flowers were huge and the baby fruits looked decent. Especially compared to the lemon/lime outside the front door, which is showing tiny little balls and small flowers. The mandarin orange has some yellow leaves- I'm not sure if it's due to the compact clay soil it came in, or lack of nutrients. My guess is the former, but I can't very well repot it right now because it would shock off everything and probably stunt the fruits if any were left.

The strawberries are going nuts. Two of them are sending out runners and I'm trying to decide where to divide them to for next season.

I almost can't believe it but we've really got summer squash on the way. They're small but growing rapidly. I had Bobo sit next the the bed and the plants were as tall as he was and the largest leaves were about three or four times as wide as my hand.

A squirrel got to the only ear of corn I had. Went out and found a hole where it was growing, obviously torn off, with ants swarming the little indentation where the ear once held on to the mother plant. The corn was really no more than three fingers in diameter so it couldn't possibly have been even part of a meal for any of us humans, but it must've been a succulent little fattening snack for the squirrel, who left no part of the cob behind.

Re-potted most of the sorry looking plants today- the three hydrangeas, gardenia, and a couple of the succulents. Gotta get around to finding out if the daphne is dead, fix up the honeysuckle and putting it by the patio and removing the volunteer pine from the strawberry basket and putting it into its own pot.

I've been adding raw kitchen waste the the beds so hopefully by the time I add the Fall stuffs, the soil will be near perfect.

I felt guilty every time I tried to kill the geraniums that were volunteering to come back over and over again in the Natives bed. But about a week ago I pulled out one of them and put it in a small pot of its own. All of its brethren are going bye bye now. No guilt.

That's it for now!

The Garlic Has Come!

Yay! Just got it in the mail today. Early October is the planting time so until then I need to work on getting the beds fertile!

More Fertilizing

Fertilized the small avocado last night and dropped alfalfa pellets at the base of the lemon tree outside, by the tomatoes, and watermelon.

Fertilizing!

Fertilized all the acid-loving plants two days ago. Cottonseed meal for all except the mandarin, which got alfalfa pellets instead because it's already gone to fruit and I don't want to mess it up. The small avocado didn't get anything because there happened to be at least two colonies of ants in the large bed which I needed to fight off. I'm not sure if they're gone, but I can't re-flood the bed just yet because of the watermelon Moon and Stars. It's growing like crazy but the gigantic unflowering cosmos was blocking the morning sun so I had to hack it down. If I baby the watermelon maybe I'll be able to get something out of it since it's flowering and all. Maybe I'll flood the bed again in a day or two since it's so hot out. I'll fertilize the small avocado today if I remember. And also the lemon tree out front, since it's flowering too.