april garden

It's been a rough week, but I've finally made it back to working outside. I've realized that my garden probably has a universal phosphorous deficiency, so some of the lack of growth I've been blaming on the cold nights and rampant tomato viruses, is probably something I can fix with a bag of fertilizer.

the seedling corner. Artichokes on the left, moonflowers from some damaged seeds on the right, and a little bit of red basil which is growing at a glacial pace (anybody know why?) The moonflowers are especially weird. They've always grown so well for me, but their cotelydons emerged yellow and have holes in them.

Finally! After months of dormancy, in which I assumed they were all eaten by birds, california poppies are emerging. Abby and I scattered these when she visited me.

Avocado tree. It's still small, only about a foot and a half tall. The yellowing of the leaves is due to a deficiency in phosphorous, I think. I've added a lot of blood meal to the soil here, which should have given it plenty of nitrogen. It's hard to find organic fertilizers that aren't made from animal by-products: dried blood, bone meal, fish emulsion. And who knows where the chemicals in miracle grow are from. I've ordered some kelp meal, which is high in phosphorous and nitrogen. And there's always human urine. 

Worthless garden bean stalks. They've grown vigorously to about 9 inches and stopped, flowered, and are now producing tiny little shitty bean pods. This spot has very rich soil and plenty of sun, so I'm assuming it's because the dirt is shallow with a layer of dense yellow san diego sand directly underneath. I'm gonna pull them up and make a deep trench of softer dirt and plant something else here next, maybe artichokes, which I think can tolerate tougher soil.

The icelandic poppies that I bought had deeply bound root systems, and are tolerating the shallow soil. 

another plant that is mysteriously not growing. They have remained unchanged in the soil for months, not dying, not growing. I think this also may be a phosphorous problem. Update next week after I get the fertilizer.

tomatoes are about 2 inches long and starting to turn yellow, dozens of em

foxgloves grown from seed, they're about twice this size now. 

foxgloves from the nursery, last week

all of them are blooming, stunning. All different shades of purple and white and cream. The tall one is over four feet high. 

last week, their leaves were still this yellowish color. This week they're almost all deep green, thanks to the nitrogen in the blood meal. 

monster nasturtium, this guy is climbing all over the place now