Man, that Denver sun on a third floor balcony is no joke and I bet those bags are baking from all sides up there. Going from buckets to fabric in that heat is a real jump, so the dry out struggle makes total sense. Sucks that your neighbor is out there gloating with his twice a week watering schedule too. For what it's worth, the roots looking amazing after three weeks tells you the bags are doing their job, you just got hit with the tradeoff all at once. Kale wilting at 2pm in full sun is rough, maybe it just needs to hide behind the tomatoes during the worst of the day. Hang in there, the roots don't lie even if the neighbor won't shut up.

The epigraph in Blood Meridian does more work than half the chapters, or at least it sets the dread before you even meet the judge. Reading it cold first is like the book handing you a warning you don't understand yet. Then 200 pages in it clicks and you feel dumb for not getting it sooner.