On Friday 2/27, at the community garden, I harvested broccoli and removed most of the remaining plants. Also some cheddar and carnival cauliflower. The latter seemed to have more aphid problems this week. Overall, the best thing about preventing the aphids from getting to the broccoli and cauliflower seemed to be for me to pick them ASAP. I also harvested a lot of kale (Luciano, Green, and Red Russian, plus Kalette). Some of this we used in an omelette for the egg-eaters in the family. Some I sauteed with crimini mushrooms. I also harvested a great beets and its greens. Plus one whopper of a romaine lettuce. On the same day, I also planted San Diego tomatoes, a banana pepper and a miniature red pepper. I sprayed water forcefully on aphids, but they are winning since I'm not there spraying daily.
On Saturday 2/28 I added Organic Growth Power fertilizer with high aconcentration of humic acid to the mandarins. I'm wondering if this might adjust the pH, especially in the lower hole that looked so chalky on planting. The Dr. Earth's I used recently has about 10% humic acid, if I recall correctly, and this product has about 20%. I watered them, and the transplanted Australian willow, deeply. I also planted the Plumaria sticks in potting soil and compost. This is my first attempt at rooting Plumeria, so we'll see how that goes. I also added compost to all of the garden pots in the back yard to top them off. I have some snapdragons resprouting from last year's plants and sprouting from last year's seeds in some of those pots. I had to remove fennel from a number of pots as it is self-seeding everywhere.
Friday night was supposed to start a series of days with a bunch of rain, which is quite rare for here. It didn't start on time, but Saturday night and most Sunday did rain, clearing up toward evening. Again, it was supposed to rain starting in the early morning of Monday, but it was late to get going. Around 10 am, it suddenly started with thunder, hard rain, and some hail - again very rare. But so far, that seems to have ended quickly. It would be nice if it drizzled for about a month. That would sure help the drought.
