Waiting on the monsoon

Clouds have slowly developed volume but no real rain yet. All I see are short, isolated showers in the valley. I haven't planted a garden yet this year to avoid a huge water bill like last year. I intend to plant beans this weekend and leave it at that. With Kevin's diabetes he has been avoiding all the high-carb foods which are not healthy for diabetics: turnips, beets, carrots. He prefers beans and that's it. Even the tomatoes have been neglected.

The simmering heat seems to have done a fry job on my strawberries, blueberries and grapes. Leaves are drying up. The strawberries aren't even growing runners this year to propogate for another season.

The same goes for the front yard, too. I only planted two new plants this year, two pineapple sages that somehow shrivveled up and died. I won't plant anything new up front. I'm even leaving some weeds to grow for birdseed. Butterflies also seem to like the thistle.

The Chinese date tree, however, seems to have come back to life. New leaves are growing from the main branch. It's developed a new secondary branch that is taking a life of its own.

June temperatures

01 - 91/62
02 - 90/55
03 - 93/53
04 - 99/60
05 - 102/61 (hottest day in a year!)
06 - 100/71
07- 104/71 windy
08- 100/62 windy
09- 101/66 windy
10- 95/65 windy
11- 90/64 windy
12- 87/61 windy
13- 86/53
14- 89/53 windy
15- 97/58 windy
16- 97/61
17- 99/59
18- 100/57 windy
19- 99/60
20- 99/65
21- 98/64
22- 100/65
23- 100/60
24- 99/72
25- 97/67
26- 98/69
27- 99/63
28- 100/65
29- 95/68
30- 95/73 0.03" This was all the rain we had all month. The average for June here is 0.38"

May temperatures

01 - 66/32
02 - 71/42
03 - 76/34
04 - 90/40
05 - 93/44
06 - 91/53
07 - 90/49
08 - 92/52
09- 91/52
10 - 85/59
11 - 85/52
12 - 74/43
13 - 82/37
14 - 84/47
15 - 86/53
16 - 86/52
17 - 89/52
18 - 87/51
19 - 87/50
20 - 90/49
21 - 92/52
22 - 90/59
23 - 86/61
24 - 83/44
25 - 87/42
26 - 92/46
27 - 96/52
28 - 97/58
29 - 92/63
30 -92/53
31 - 92/54

My blooms in May

The Chinese date is showing signs of life by sprouting a small branch near the root ball. I'm going to let that dead tree stump remain in the pot for now.

The potato shrubs are in purple bloom. Even the frost-bitten branches seem healthier than expected.

I'm picking strawberries from my Quinalts; so far a hand full! Potato plants are also doing well.

The pine tree in the back years has candles a foot long. The extra rain this season has really caused it to grow tall!

I planted several rows of beans and spinach on Sunday...I just need to remember to water the soil more as I've let nature take its course this year.

I already had a colony of Harvest ants to kill as well as they were stealing all my Bermuda grass seeds! I'll replant more grass this Friday when I'm off work.

We've had some howling winds these past two weeks. With every wind we lose more apricots and nectarines.

April temperatures

The month's ending with a freeze warning! ARGH


01 - 66/40
02- 66/35
03- 70/33
04- 82/42
05- 81/48
06- 75/44
07- 71/36
08-82/39
09-81/37
10-81/41
11-82/43
12-82/47
13-79/41
14-79/42
15-84/44
16-83/40
17-81/51
18-80/50
19-69/53 0.01"
20-81/53
21-77/52 0.09"
22-61/42 0.05"
23-57/39 0.10"
24-71/35
25-79/38
26-82/43
27-84/44
28-85/47
29-77/50
30-57/41

High winds, now a cold front

We had high winds all day yesterday. It got worse last night. This morning I discovered most of the young apricots and nectarines got blown off the trees. The trees would have aborted half the fruit anyway in another month, and there are still plenty of fruit available to grow into mature, juicy fruit for August. I collected all the fallen fruit and composted it all.

I picked a handfull of strawberries and planted two more potato plants that were growing in the compost.

One large turnip plant is going to seed. Hopefully new plants will grow from the seeds.

I also picked a handfull of snowpeas. Yeah!
I also planted new Bermuda grass seed in the backyard, protected by a circular shield so that the birds don't get to it.

The strong winds only blew off two more dead palm fronds. The palm tree desperately needs to be trimmed of its dead fronds.

Today's high is only expected to reach 67F, that's almost 20 degrees colder than on Wednesday.

Strawberries!

It looks like the last of the chilly days are over. My six tomato plants survived the last frosty night a few days ago. Several plants have small yellow flowers. All my citrus trees are outside but one, the lemon tree, looks pretty dead. Only one, Mom's lime tree, is doing well.

My Iraqi acacia lost all its leaves when it went outside.

The Chinese date tree is officially dead. So is my Santa Rosa plum and Granny apple tree, both which pulled out of the soil easily. What killed both trees?

My apricots have little fruit buds now, which will mostly fall off during the next major wind storm. My strawberries, those that did survive (the daughters of the original moms) are in bloom. I found a few grubs in empty soil pots; perhaps it was the grubs that killed off the older strawberries. One of my blueberry shrubs also had a few grubs inside the pot. The tap root had been torn. My potatoes are also popping up nicely.

I planted a bed of Contender beans yesterday, and a small batch of Bermuda grass to fill in a dead spot.

African daisies are popping up, my salvias are in bloom and it's going to be a warm Easter weekend. Even my crepe myrtle is finally deciding to bloom.