Drought equals fewer and smaller fruits

August 2015

California is experiencing extreme draught. Both San Diego and Temecula Water Authorities have limited irrigation of gardens to 2 days a week, 5 minutes a day if using standard irrigation. Since my gardens are on drip irrigation, I am not restricted to the 5 minutes a day but the 2 days a week limitation still applies. 2015 summer is probably the hottest summer we have had in quite a while. My plants are stressed.

This routine has drastically reduced the size and quantities of fruits. Tomatoes are my summer delight. This year, while the tomatoes were covered with blossoms, the high temperatures caused most of the flowers to fall. Instead of harvest dozens of tomatoes each day, I have only be able to harvest 3-5 tomatoes a week....

Speckle Roman -September 5, 2015

Speckle Roman tomatoes

Walla Walla Onions Flower

Onions is something my garden does not seem lack these days. Ever since I planted some Walla Walla onions in 2012, I have never had to buy onions sets or sprout onion seedlings since. It seems each season I get more and more onions. So much so, I have taken them for granted. Sometimes, I even found myself viewing them as weeds.This year, I decided to change my attitude towards these weeds and cultivate them.

My first approach in controlling these "weeds" was cutting off the onion flower heads. The flowers of the onions are marvelous to observe!.They start off small like the flowers of the chives; growing bigger and bigger, covered with a translucent papery skin. The whole flower bulb is actually a head of multiple onion blossoms. 

Flower blossoms encased in papery wrapper

You can see the buds through the papery skin. As the blossoms develop, they break open the translucent papery wrapper covering them. This allows the individual buds to mature and flower.

The flowers are so beautiful and looks like snow balls. Noisy snowballs a buzz with bees pollinating them. I know that bee are dying around the world but not in my garden!!