Journal 4-01-08

Wx 853a: 78 degrees, 52% humidity, wind NE 18 mph

After work today I came home and finished clearing out the stair bed. I smoothed it over and then enriched and watered it. Next: plant the Goji Berry!! I'm pretty excited about finally populating that bed. I will take a picture tomorrow--it was too dark when I was finally done tonight.

There is something rather weird going on with the Habenero. It is slowly, slowly declining. I looked closely and saw that there are holes in the soil around it that lead to hollow tunnels, like something (a teacup mole?) is burrowing under it. None of the other plants in the bed are suffering from this problem. I'm not sure what it is that is eating it, but I'm going to do a little research. There are lots of beetle-like bugs in the dirt, but I don't think that they are bothering anything else. The lizards don't seem to care for plants except as stepping stones from one place to another. It's strange.

Everything else is doing well. The rose seems to be improving since I started watering it more often. The lavender is quite nice, and the tomato is getting little buds. The eggplant is pretty hearty, too, though the leaves have a lot of snail or slug damage. That was there when I bought it, and I think that it is only an aesthetic concern. By far the healthiest and most vibrant plant in my garden is the tulip, which is funny since it has been beheaded and is just a bunch of flower-less stalks with leaves! It gives me hope that the bulb might be plucky enough to survive a tropical winter.