I had been so thrilled at the indoor progress of the seedlings that I planted them outdoors as soon as the 100 degree weather dropped out of the forecast. The garden cart that I ordered came in, Denny drilled some holes for drainage, and away I planted. All four tomato seedlings shriveled into thin air. Plan B – plant the seeds outside. Sage came up, then the thyme, and the tomatoes as well. Marjorum is limping along. Sprouts had a three for $10 sale on seedlings, so I bought basil, rosemary and oregano for moral support.
Ok – a few weeks later it’s some progress in the “salad bowl”. That is my nick mane for the huge planter that we inherited and placed where the basketball hoop had been ripped out by the previous owners. It covers a piece of metal that sticks out of the concrete. Since it is a bowl shape I decided I would try to grow greens there. Hence, the name salad bowl. The greens are growing, although one whole row wasn’t happy and left for parts unknown. Some are getting bigger than one quarter inch. My guess is that it wants more sun (the shade thing is really tricky in this part of the yard). But them’s the breaks. I keep it watered.
On Sunday I had “thinned” out all the tomato seedlings and now on Tuesday there are only two left. Was the tomato food that I added too strong? Or was there too much Dawn in the spray I used to get rid of the white aphids that decided to domicile? I had already removed a cocoon from the basil and transplanted it to a bush in the yard. I am glad so much of nature is getting the reward of my investment, but I am looking at it go up in smoke.
I may be knitting today.
Vairarenbeth's Blog 
AZ gardening has such different challenges from Tahoe gardening. The only place that I have enough sun is on the deck so the pots huddle on the outer edges where the sun is best. The nice thing is that it’s almost 3 stories in the air so the deer can’t nibble – however the squirrels and chipmunks come right away. I learned to put marigold plants around the veggies – something about how they smell keeps the rodents away. Sometimes we even get raccoons. This year we got back late so I bought already started tomatoes, squash, snow peas and even tried some kelp. I put a watering system in place for when we were in HI for 2 wks in Sept. We harvested some kelp, squash and snow peas just before we left. Shortly after we returned we had an early snow and lost just about everything but the kelp. Now it’s under about 3 in. of snow and gone forever. Next year I’ll grow flowers and buy fresh veggies at the farmers’ market. I’ll never be a farmer.
I heard that!