Sun Pattern

While MW and a few good friends may think I am mad, the sun pattern is a very important step in creating a successful urban garden. If you live in the country and you don't have any trees around, you can pretty much plant what you want where you want, unless of course you need a lot of shade. For those full sun loving plants, you need at least 6 hours of direct sun light. So when you have to put a garden in a 21'x21', thereabouts, space which has a garage directly touching it on the east side, a great big tree in the neighbor's yard on the west side, you need to make sure you plant things in the correct places.

Unfortunately, I did not do my sun pattern before I planted and the big tree on the west grew. I think this year I cut it a little too close with my peppers; they do not seem to be doing very well.

Mystery Heirlooms

These plants came up where I had heirloom tomotoes growing last summer. They look like tomato plants, so I can only assume they are heirloom plants. I have, of course, moved them from where they came up, except for the one with the cucumber in the background.

Heirloom Cherry (picture 1)

These four tomatoes are heirloom tomatoes of the cherry kind. I purchased them from my local garden cooperative . If I remember correctly, from front left clockwise, they are Peacevine, White Currant, Fox and something that can have the initials Black Cherry.

I will be tracking these over the course of the summer. They have been in the ground for about 1 month. In addition to tracking the progress of the plants, you can help me determine which of these tomato supports works best and for which reasons. I made the two on the right (DWYCWWYH). The one in the foreground on the left is a spiral one I had never seen before. I also have another tomato support I have never used before in the back left. It is triangular and made of plastic. Let's watch how they work.

1st Tomato Blossoms

I'm getting excited!

Zucchini Blossom number 2

This is the second of the Zucchini blossom series.

Iris

It has been pretty dry

It has been pretty dry for the past few days, so I needed to give the garden some much needed water. Unless I have been a little neglectful, and later see I have plants that are dying, I always water my garden when it is mostly, if not entirely, in the shade. As you can see from my sun pattern series, this occurs before 8 AM and around 8 PM. In these shots, it was a little earlier, maybe about 7. MW and I were getting ready to take LD and MO for a walk, so I wanted to get it watered before I left. I did not want to over water and waste water.

BTW, it is a fear of wasting water that leads me to water when the sun has little chance of causing quicker evaporation of the water. In fact, I get a little mad when I see people watering their yards or gardens in the middle of the day when the sun is most hot. It also bothers me how much water Las Vegas uses in all their fountains in the desert. That direct water from the lush north of Nevada through aqueducts to supply the city and suburbs with water. If it is not enough to just move the water to a pretty unnatural place for water, the big hotels and casinos insist on wasting it with water shows and fountains. Well that is enough ranting for now.