Emptied my first, and saddest, 5 gal bucket of potatoes. Got a bit more than 2 1/2 pounds from that one. 9 more to go that look much better. This one was a fingerling called “Princess Larette.” Billed as “gourmet,” but we shall see. Cooking some up tonight!
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picked two beautiful plum tomatoes today and a handful of long, red cayenne peppers. the summer scorch is upon us and some plants are wilting in their irrigated beds.
the squash plants are huge with big green leaves and many, many blossoms. the tiny fruits wither and die because there are no bees to pollinate them! the county mosquito control has been running the smudge trucks up and down the streets here. that fog has wiped out native bees to the point that if our gardens can’t self pollinate (peppers, tomatoes, beans…) we just can’t grow it.
i have had some small success hand pollenating the squash, but it requires exact timing, as the female flowers only open in the morning and it is not an easy task. certainly not something to ensure a big crop to share or put up in canning jars.
i am disappoint. 
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adding to those garden notes:
starfruit tree is producing, yet again! and a second banana tree has a new bunch flowering. so, i guess i got that going for me, too.
thing is, bananas are cheap, neighbors are ok to take some, but folks don’t really know what to do with so many, or what to do with starfruit, at all!
mangoes and avocados are gold around here. climate, early drought, loss of pollenators, all led up to a bust in those crops - to the point that people are stealing those from trees on other people’s property. we had mangoes stolen a couple of seasons ago, and it really hurt.
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I have just finished planting all the plants that I bought a few weeks ago, before I go to the cottage for about 2 weeks. I’ve mentioned that I suddenly have a sunny backyard, so I’ve planted a variety of sun loving native plants for pollinators and their caterpillars, in the case of butterflies. A couple of shrubs as well, that should attract bees and butterflies.
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