Slacking off

Here I was with all these rainy days where I could have updated this journal but didn't. The weather's been rainy and icky and I haven't had much of a chance to to much other than looking pleadingly at my tomato plants and pray for their little leaves. A few things seem to be happy. The summer squashes aren't growing much, but you can tell they're putting in deep roots; they look stronger by the day.

The nasturtiums are getting bigger every time I look at them. I'm convinced that they'll bloom by Josh's birthday on the 20th. They're now sharing their beds with the radishes and lettuce, which I just planted in the garden. The radishes are alarming; almost all of them added an extra leaf since I moved them from their egg cartons to the garden on Monday. I'm worried that the lettuce is too bunched together because it's not adding leaves, althought the leaves they do have are getting bigger. It's not a head sort of lettuce like iceberg, but more leafy. The packet said it's a mesclun mix or something of that sort. Either way I left the package outside in the rain so I threw it away.

The herbs all seem happy, but apparently in a fit of crazy I put nasturtim seeds down practically underneath the chives. I was going to move them, but most of the chives are far enough away, and if the chives that are right on top of the growing nasturtium can handle the cramped conditions, it'll look really pretty. I've put down some organic fertilizer and hoped for the best.

Not sure if the pots on the south yard were the brightest idea; they don't seem to be growing much and the tomatillos are getting muched on. I'll move some marigolds over there to tempt away the muncher. Or maybe the excess rain is making it vulnerable. Maybe the potting mix is too rich... Will have to google it.

And the tomatoes... oh, the tomatoes. This el Nino year is just beating them up. In the 20 days or so since I've planted them in the garden we've had 3 days without rain. And most days last week, the weather man said it rained over an inch. One of the tomato plants I think I'm just going to have to dig up and give up. His leaves are half yellow and the two lowest branches have turned black near the stalk of the plant. A few others look fair, and two of them are actually looking great. The best looking one is the Brandywine that gets the least amount of sun, and the other one is planted just north of a large granite rock; I think the rock is keeping it warm. I think it's a cherry but I don't remember.

Well this weekend's supposed to be sunny, so I'll probably start staking what's surviving.