I will be adding St. Augustine plugs to the lawn a little at a time. I can get them in our yard, Jeff's yard beside us, and Ray's yard. The trick is to keep them watered so they can stay moist. Once the rains come, I will put in many more, but I started with only 3. I've got a bunch in water soaking right now.
I have a new job working for Ray, one day a week, watering, cleaning up plants, deadheading, pulling baby Cherry Laurel seedlings, (They have a bunch of those), etc. I will enjoy this job and I'll be making money.
I feel as if I saved the tomatoes just in the nick. The 2 patches of tomatoes look so much better. I will enclose a picture of the first ones that I planted. The tomatoes are call Mountain Magic and they are Big Cherry Tomatoes. I did cut the rotten bottom off the first ripe one and it tasted delicious. Keeping my fingers crossed. 
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We had fried green tomatoes from the ones I salvaged, and they were ok, but I prefer the big tomatoes for frying.
It's hot here. I can only work outside before the sun comes up and after it goes down. Peace & Plenty.
Our lawn has never been green or lush since we moved here, but it does green up when the rainy season hits. Right now, it looks like a dried-up yard should look in drought if you do not have irrigation. We are looking into getting the irrigation working again, and they are 6 wks out before we can even get an estimate. We have heard rumors of folks being fined for no grass and even forcing them to resod. OMG! That is scary! This is the very reason why I do not want to live in an HOA property.
I was outside at 4 am watering the front yard with a hose. I drenched it good and proper, and I will continue to do so twice a week until it rains.
My tomatoes that were in the dog kennel squares were released yesterday and I discovered that they have some type of disease. It is sticky and looks like wilted leaves. I will spray it this morning at daylight and deep water those tomatoes. They are going to be in the setting sun and sun most of the day. I pulled off all the blossom end rot tomatoes and will fry them up today. Hopefully I will be able to salvage my plants. Dunno.
The first tomato patch beside the garage will get a makeover too. I need to remove the paper and gravel and put more good mulch down and deep water. That was a mistake to put the paper and gravel around them, but I was grasping at straws. I now realize that particular area beside the garage is just not accommodating for vegetables. It is too narrow and I'm unable to dig deep enough for tomatoes. There is a cable line and huge Sycamore tree close by and Azaleas.
Do you see what I mean? Too narrow, competition for moisture, and I should not have put them there. I'll be so glad when that Silene goes to seed and I can have my Patio Garden back. I don't ever intend to put Silene in there again.
Peace & Plenty.
At first my tomatoes got Leaf Miner and I sprayed them with an organic bug killer, and after that they got BER, (Blossom End Rot). It started with one plant, and now almost all of them have it. I am over trying to grow tomatoes. I guess I put too much of the Banana Water on them, and I didn't deep water when I should have, or I didn't dig deep enough before I planted them. They started out so beautiful when I transplanted from the Raised Bed, but now they are stunted. They have stopped growing.
Why me Lord? I think I'll just get all that are salvageable and make fried green tomatoes. I can buy tomatoes at Aldi's, but they won't have that sunkissed flavor.
This past weekend we bought 4 bags of the Sta Green Garden Soil at Lowe's for $2 per bag. It is really not what I would call garden soil, but it is very composted and shredded mulch. It works as a mulch because it has fertilizer and its light as a feather. It is also very mulched up or cut up. I am only putting it around tomatoes, Red Salvia, Rosemarys, (I have several), and the better plants.
We went to Barb's today to ask how many more bags of rock she will have, and she thinks 7. I don't think she has 7, because she is almost finished with redoing her foundation plants. That woman is a worker. She dug up hills of earth and cut gigantic roots out that were trying to grow under the house. She uses a small chain saw. Her garden is already beautiful and its only spring.
Today I went by Val's place to check the plants and they needed watering. I watered everything, but the weeds are out of control again and I'm going back later to get them pulled. I noticed that she had put down some granular plant food and that will be good. I saw plenty of Zinnia and Cosmo seedlings up and her garden is finally looking good. She has a couple of Tithonia plants that are still alive. I'm hopeful.
It is blue blazin' hot here and I've slathered on the sunscreen every day and am wearing a big hat to cover my face & neck. I hate being a prisoner to the sun, but I'm trying to stay out of it as much as possible.
That's all I've got today. I still have a few buckets of water, but I'm very saving with it. Peace & Plenty.
Yes, it's drought time once again in Central Florida. My grass is dried up mostly and I'm having to use the hose to water things. I do have a few buckets of rainwater left, but I'm going to run out soon. We always leave some in the rain barrels.
My neighbor's first Tithonia bloomed. It is small, but it's a start. Her hose does not reach all the way around to the back fence line, but Ray just informed me that I could use her hose, which is hooked up to their well. Awesome!
There is a blue bird nesting really close to where all the Tithonias are, and she fusses at me when I work back there. I saw a beautiful blue eggshell under the birdhouse today, lying there broken on the ground. Wouldn't that mean a Robin's egg? Do Eastern Blue Birds have blue eggshells? Dunno! Something to look up online I suppose. (Yep, they do have beautiful blue eggs.) I just looked it up.
Last evening I trimmed almost all of the Red Fountain Grasses. Believe me I have a bunch. They were dry, with a lot of dead in the middle, and they may or may not make it through this drought. If not, that is fine. I will keep one or two alive to have seed. I got 2 blisters on my hand, and I was totally exhausted at the end of the day. The morning was spent at Barb's house getting rock and I got more this time than ever before. I spread it on different garden beds, and it looks so much better.
We bought 4 bags of Garden Soil for flowers & vegetables at Lowe's, but I have not put it on anything yet. That is because I am afraid when it does rain it will be light showers and they won't permeate a bunch of soil. I was going to use it as a mulch around some of my plants. They could all use a pick me up.
Send rain! Peace & Plenty.
