Mariposa lawn chemical soil test results:
| Test |
Value |
Meaning |
Element for 320 sq ft |
Fertilizer for 320 sq ft |
| pH |
6.2 |
good |
– |
– |
| N |
0.3 |
depleted |
4.6ozs |
21ozs 22-3-4 |
| P |
3.8 |
surplus |
– |
– |
| K |
3.5 |
surplus |
– |
– |
We’ll use 29-3-4 but rate it only 22-3-4 as 7-0-0 is slow release.
For the small middle patch of lawn we’ll use 7ozs for 100 sq ft. For the lower triangle of lawn we’ll use 14ozs for 220 sq ft.
The lawn was fertilized according to the foregoing instructions on August 22. Subsequently the lawn was reported to be “looking good.”  About five weeks after the fertilizing, on September 29, we asked for a report and learned that the fertilizer seemed to have a beneficial effect. The lawn was still “looking good” and some former brown spots had filled in and were doing well.
Indeterminate Tomato "Bush"
Other than three suckers which we took early and rooted, we have not previously pruned the tomatoes. The two plants now have about a dozen vines in all forming a nice bush shape around the two bamboo poles. Today we removed all the small suckers and we will continue removing new suckers as they appear. A few days from now we will also start pinching off the growing tips.
Aphids on broccoli
We found several groups of purple aphids on the large brassicas. We washed them off with a jet of water from a garden hose.
Aphids on broccoli
Pots awaiting new mint plants*
We sometimes refer to our Seattle house as “House of Blues,” although it is a very happy house. The exterior is painted in three shades of blue, and the nickname also signifies a love we have for certain Southern music.
My week of gardening included starting nine rosemary cuttings, planting six yellow portulacas in the window boxes for upstairs, and doing routine watering and clean-up of the front garden.
Today I noticed the mint starts had begun to root in their glass jars. They’d originated as a small bundle of organic mint from Safeway’s produce aisle and had been placed in water on about July 8. What valiant, assertive little sprigs these plants are! The roots form at the ends of the cuttings, not at nodes, and even the frailest little stems seem to be rooting. In the back herb-and-flower garden, four pots wait expectantly. When the mint cuttings have formed sufficient roots, they will join older mint plants from the front garden, which are already at home in the pots.
*In the foreground of the photo– strawberries.
Top - Spinach Leaf Miner Damage
Over a couple of days about a third of the swiss chard leaves developed large brown areas from the size of a quarter up to more than half of the leaf. The damage resembled Sunset pictures of Anthacrose and Excessive Sunlight but the circumstances weren’t right. Then we noticed small white blobs under the leaves but they weren’t fuzzy enough to be shed aphid skins. We have now decided that we’re dealing with spinach leaf miner.
The pictures are from a small patch that we just found on one of the remaining leaves. The white blobs – always in a row under the leaf at the edge of a brown patch – are the empty spinach leaf miner eggs.
Underside - Empty Spinach Leaf Miner Eggs
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