October 5, 2025 5:54PM
There are hundreds of leaves laying on the ground after the trees were trimmed. The ground has some cracks because of how dry it is. The birds are noisier than usual today.The sun will set soon and with that the birds will chirp less until they go to sleep. The garden has less activity than before it was trimmed. I had heard a frog in the tomato vines the other day, but I didn’t get to see it. There are some blue belly lizards that hang out near the rocks in the dirt, but other than that there isn’t much activity. The hard working bees are drinking water as usual. After being trimmed the tomato plants seem to be taking it well. They did not shrivel up, instead they are growing again. The epazote plant has had it rough out of all the plants in the garden. It had grown to be a huge bush, but now only its green stumps are left. It seems to be taking the change really hard, as it hasn’t tried to grow again. The mint plant is doing well, it is green and healthy.
These images capture the most recent documented state of the cherry orchard.
The chili plants have not been trimmed. They have remained unaffected by the changes in the garden. One serrano plant has several white flowers half the size of a penny, but the flowers are beginning to dry up. There are many red chillies on the plant with some peppers still being green. It takes some time for the green peppers to transition to red. I think it takes two to three weeks. The carolina reaper’s are doing well and are producing a new batch of peppers. I have not tried the last batch and I don’t plan on doing so either, but I bet they taste good. There is one habanero plant that is all sad looking. It seems to be withering away slowly, but I don’t know what is affecting it. Almost all of the leaves have fallen off or dried up. There are mainly stems left with a few ill-looking peppers growing.
Oct. 5, 2025 6:08PM
I have discovered some sort of bug on the peppers as well. When I had begun to ask myself why that one habanero plant was dying I looked closely at the plant. I flipped a leaf and found many dot-sized bugs. I’m not sure what they are. I got goosebumps just looking at them and then thinking that there must be more on other leaves. I felt disgust and as if I even had a couple of them crawling on my skin. The thought of more of those things had worried me that it’s too late to save these plants. I turned over more leaves on that same plant, and then on other plants, and they were all infested with these bugs. They’re really small. You have to be looking for them to find them. They like to hide under the leaves, in nooks, or even in budding peppers. I also saw some green flies on one pepper plant, but I doubt they are related. I’m not sure what the flies do, but I suspect they are no good either. I will try to research what is going on with the peppers as I don’t want to lose my plants to an infestation. I hope it isn’t too late as all the plants are infested with those tiny bugs.
The recent pepper harvest containing habaneros, serranos, carolina reapers, and another pepper that I don't know the name of.
The cherry orchard and my garden are inland in Gilroy. It is a flat site with no hills or mountains nearby. There is only a river, but it doesn’t reach the main part of the site. The soil conditions could affect any species that live on the ground such as insects because last week there was a lot of fertilizer applied to each tree. I even saw a snail in the middle of the runway in one row. I’m not sure if its because of the soil conditions changing and it ran somewhere with undisturbed soil. There is rarely if ever fog, and I don’t think it would affect the species. When it rains there are more birds pecking the ground, I suppose there are more insects that have been washed up out of the ground. When the trees are about to bear fruit, the water always promotes growth and provides fruit for the animals.
Two similar organisms in the site would be the dark cherry tree and the yellow cherry tree. I don’t know their official names, but one bears a dark red fruit and the other one is a light yellow fruit. Physically they are nearly the same in size although the fruits on the yellow tree are not as clumped and they are more spread out. There is more fruits high up on the yellow tree. On the dark cherry tree the fruits are very clumped and are lower on the tree. The taste is different as well. I find the dark cherries to be a richer taste, I like them more. I have seen ants and snails on both trees. I had seen a bird nest once on a dark cherry tree, but those are rare to come by since they usually don’t nest on those trees. I will have to gather more information about leaf structure and actual measurements and quantities of leaves. I will also get measurements of the tree itself.
One pattern that is seen everyday on my site would be in the garden. There is a hose that isn’t fitted well and it happens to be the local bee’s water supply. Every morning, afternoon, and evening the bees gather there to drink water and you can see them come and go. They usually come from the cherry orchard (North) and leave South. They aren’t found in the orchard at the moment, but when the trees have flowers they are all over the orchard pollinating the trees. I hypothesize that the pattern of the bees only exists because of the hose that doesn’t fit well and because there isn’t another water supply that is as consistent as this one is. Perhaps it is the closest one available to their natural route too. This would be difficult to verify if it's out of reliability or proximity. I am not sure how bees usually behave. The bees are friendly though and have not tried to sting me whenever I get close.