Free Pots!

Hasty post!  (Post-haste?)  Thanks to my awesome Mother-in-law, I was able to do some transplanting and rearranging.  She had some extra pots that she didn't want to use this year.  So, I transplanted the Broccoli to the big yellow one.  It's a huge pot, so I'm hoping it will be big enough for them.  I also planted some sort of Thyme (I forget the name already), and I dug out and potted the Oregano in the Broccoli's old homestead.  The Chard looks terrible.  But I'm finally showing you pictures of my pallet.  It hasn't fallen apart on my yet, so I guess I'll let you see it.  Har har.  More squash seedlings are coming up.  The peas are getting taller and taller.  The green beans look like crap.  The strawberries are still struggling.  And pictures.

Jeez, someone needs to put the Chard out of its misery...  I'm starting to think maybe it will work better as a fall crop.

Doesn't look too bad overall!

They mostly look okay.  One of them has more of a pale green color as opposed to the soft, bluish green that the rest have.  So I don't know if that means it's going to die or what.

No cucumbers yet.  Still keeping my eyes peeled for those.

Woke up on the wrong side of the flower bed.

I don't think it's supposed to look like that.

The end.

Haps

Long overdue post, I dare say.  ...And I can't think of other words to put here, so on to a quick State Of The Garden.

We had a pretty significant hot streak here.  It was in the eighties for several days.  My peas were most unhappy.  Never have I seen such sorrowful peas... I might be exaggerating a little.  But they were pretty droopy and wilted.  I was beginning to suspect disease or something.  But then it turned out they just needed more water.  They didn't like the heat, so they were still pretty frowny during the part of the day they spent in the sun.  But once the shade came (it comes around two in the afternoon for the peas) they perked right back up.  It cooled down to the seventies today and yesterday, and they looked a lot better.

Anyway, they have grown a lot, even if they were stressed out.  I think, by the way, that part of the stress came from the very drastic temperature changes we experienced.  We went from mid sixties and overcast to eighties and bright hot sun practically overnight.

Anyway, here they are, looking a lot better today.

Be cool, peas.  Be cool.

Anyway, the Lavender is actually looking better.  Maybe it won't die after all!  I think it was really enjoying that sun.  The rosemary is also looking pretty chipper.

I put more soil at the bottom.  I wasn't sure, but it seemed like too much of the plant's neck (haha, dig my technical lingo!) was exposed as the dirt settled.  More dirt just seemed like the thing to this clueless gal.

I threw some wildflower seeds around in places that I had no plans for.  I decided to take the year off from tomatoes, so it turned out that the flower bed was pretty vacant.  I also put some in the... you know what, I think I already told you the thing about wildflower seeds.  Either that, or I'm having one of those deja vu-ish moments.  Anyway, they have sprouted.  I've curious to find out what we will be enduring--er, I mean enjoying.

My other seeds are sprouting too!  Check it out, squash and beans!  The soil was nice and warm this week, so they came up ever so quickly.

I've always found it interesting that beans come up with true leaves.  I mean, I think they are true leaves.  But other seeds seem to only sprout with cotyledons.  I wonder what other plants sprout with true leaves.  Also, I'm pretty sure a wire worm had a nibble on that one.  Ugh.

Moving on.

Since it was so hot, I moved all my greens to the fence so they could get some afternoon shade.  So my patio is looking a little wacky at the moment.  What can one do.  That is certainly an advantage to container gardening though.

The slugs have been devouring the spinach and chard.  Boo.  Strangely enough, however, the broccoli and Kale have gone untouched.

Okay, this is taking forever, and I want to go watch shows, so I'm going to rush through from this point on.  Let's see.  Husband brought home a mini pallet!  Funny story.  Okay, not really a story.  Anyway, I wanted to make this into a vertical flower... thingy.  What do they call those?  Whatever.  Anyway, they're all over Pinterest.  So I got soil and flowers and so forth, put the whole thing together, and then realized that I should have lined the front, not just the back.  I mean why would I stop and consider the whole thing of soil washing away and blah blah blah?  So I refuse to show you a picture of my flower tower (maybe that's what they call them) until a few days have passed.  It's supposed to rain this weekend.  So, if they settle in and make it through the rain, then you will be allowed to see them.  However, if the whole thing falls apart (as I predict it will), then you will also get to see that.  Because nobody's perfect, and I have no problem being laughed at on the internet.

But here are pictures of the pallet and flowers!

Husband also brought me a bag of strawberry plants from a coworker friend!  I put them in the ground right away, and they look pretty droopy, but I'm hoping they will be happy tomorrow.

Complete with green baby berries.

Hasty plant lady puts strawberries here.

Don't cry, Berries!  Everything will be okay!

Garlic is neat looking, and as it turns out, extremely fragrant when you nick off the tip of one of the leaves.  I will smell like spaghetti for the rest of the evening.  But I just had to know.  And now I do.  As does the rest of the house.  Yeah, I'm exaggerating.

We have a wasp nest inside the hose thingy.  Again.  Also, why don't I know what things are called?

Coolest thing this spring--a pair of finches made a nest in our yard!  Apparently they are ground nesters.  They are the ones that have that black hood.  Can't remember the name.  Hooded finch or something like that.  Anyway, both parents are taking care of the babies.  The kids are thrilled, especially Boy, since he studied birds in school this year.  So he is getting to do some scientific observation.  Awesome.

Sweet little babies!

Wide shot of the yard.  Complete with overgrown lawn and toys.

The end.

More Sowing! Cucurbits, Legumes, and flowers! Oh my!

Sorry, my son has been watching The Wizard of Oz lately (a movie that I am fast growing to hate--and you would, too, if you were subjected to The Lollypop Guild and The King of the Forest, day in and day out...).

Anyway, as the subject line has informed you, I put more seeds in the ground today!  I made room in the dresser box for zucchini, pattypans, and crooknecks--one in each corner, saving the last corner for cucumbers.  I planted six of each kind, and plan on keeping one to two.  I wasn't sure if it was too soon to plant cucumbers.  As I recall, I planted them later than the other cucurbits last year, and they did very well.  I'll have to double check though.

Anyway, I pulled the chair back out of the foot locker and planted green beans there.

I planted a hummingbird wildflower mix here and there.  Some where the lettuces used to be, in the foot locker lid.  Also in the drawers that are taking up space in the plant bed.  So that was fun.

As you probably deduced, I pulled the radishes and lettuces yesterday.  The lettuce was delicious!  The radishes were less than pleasing (as I suspected--something was nomming the roots--probably wire worms), but the kids enjoyed them anyway.  I sauteed the greens, and promptly decided that I do not much care for radish greens.  But Hubbyman ate them.

Anyway, no pictures today.  But I did want to document the event, so that I know my sowing date.

The end.

P.S.  I went back through my posts and realized I planted the cukes in the beginning of June, the same time I planted the crooknecks.  Well, the crooknecks did not produce as many as I'd hoped because it was later in the season.  So I went ahead and planted the cukes as well.  Here's hoping!

Speedy Snaptastic

Okay, I'm really reaching here.  Subject headers are hard, and usually lame.  Maybe I should start putting dates up there.  Like Captain Kirk.  "Gardener's Log--Grow Date 5514--Massive corn clog in port 7..."  Wait, I'm not growing corn.  Maybe I will stick with the dumb ones.  Turns out that's my specialty.

Stay on task, Lady!  Sheesh...

I'll start (again) by saying it's 5 to 11... PM...  I'm not exactly what you would describe as a "Night Owl."  I'm barely an "Evening Gnat."  My kids wake up early, which means I wake up early, which means bedtime for all, which means be quiet and go to sleep!  By the way, I'll let you in on a little secret.  I can't fall asleep unless one of two things happens.  Option 1:  I must be exhausted out of my mind.  Option 2: I must read until Option 1 is achieved.  So, when I go to bed early, I usually fall asleep earlier, because I'm all nice and relaxed and so forth.  But when Hubbyman goes to bed before me, I can't take advantage of Option 2 without waking him up.  So here I am, at 11 PM (because it took me five minutes to type all that), trying to make myself desperately tired.

Then I thought, hey!  I took pictures recently--in a race against the onset of rain, I might add--and have been intending to post them for about four days now, but just haven't gotten around to it.  So here you go.  Happy birthday!  Or whatever day you might be happening to celebrate.  They're all worth celebrating in their own way, after all.

I'll post them, more or less, in order, from porch to Chard, making a bit of a circuit as I go.  Why I'm telling you this is a mystery to us all.

So here is my sad little Lavender.  It's still struggling with the browning leaves and all that, even with the awesome sun we had last week.  So should I hack it all down and hope it grows back, or what?  It worked for Scruffy last year... although, admittedly, he was a Tomato, not Lavender...  It has developed a little bud near the top, so I guess it's showing some signs of life.  Beheading it is probably a bit extreme.  I hope it hangs in there and makes some awesome improvements as we head into summer.

I think I mentioned the race against impending doom--I mean rain--so the photos from this post are incredibly hasty and, well, not wonderful.  But they are what they are.  So now you know why I neglected to include the upper portions.

Moving along, we see the progress of the Broccoli.  I have been thinning it as it grows.  I honestly don't know how this is going to work out with it being in the flower box.  Something tells me this is not going to end well.

Grow, my pretties!

A little further down, we see--what?  I don't believe it!  Those oddball seeds that were rolling around my junk drawer have sprouted!  I think they were Basil... time will tell, as the saying goes.

Wake up, sleepyheads!

Now, working my way down the steps, here comes the Kale.  Its appearance is beginning to differ from the Broccoli, so now I can tell what is growing in the mystery yogurt tubs.  Huzzah!

Pretty cute!

I'm still a little nervous about how all these cool weather crops are going to turn out, since the first round was a dud.  I can only hope that the weather doesn't get too warm and ruin their flavor or make them bolt, or whatever it is they might be planning to do.

Anyway, at the bottom of the stairs we encounter the Cilantro...  Funny story, actually.  I think some Kale seeds drifted into the Cilantro box.  The little dudes that have been growing in there look an awful lot like Kale, and suddenly I have a bunch of baby plants popping up in a perfect row, right down the middle of the box.  Yup.  Those who think I know what I'm doing (hahaha...haha... ha...) need to stop thinking that now, and for the love of something or other, don't follow my example.

Dang, I get wordy late at night.

Hahaha, you nerd!

Moving on to the peas.  They are happily climbing.  Good little peas!  You never let me down.  ...You'd better not let me down, or else!

They seem to be pretty happy in their little home.

Incidentally, I keep forgetting that I planted more Lettuce and Spinach in those bags.  They came up, but I keep forgetting to take pictures of them.  Also thinning.  Go me!

I forgot to take pictures of the baby Radishes in the big box, so here is Garlic instead.  My understanding is that spring planted garlic does not produce as great a yield as fall planted garlic.  But it is fun all the same.  I enjoy watching things grow.  It's fun and peaceful.

Spritely little things.

Next comes the red tub Lettuces.  Chugging right along.  The little Lettuces that could.

What can I say?  They're leafy.  They're growing.  The tub is red.  Other stuff.  Blah.

Now for the foot locker Radishes.  They are due this week.  I honestly don't have high expectations here.  They've been pretty well abused by the local rowdies.  Poor things.

May I take this moment to emphasize, once again, that these were hasty photos, and the whole rain thing and so forth?

Now Spearmint.  This plant is fun to photograph.  Not sure why.  I just like it, I guess.

Beauty.

Now for the green onions.  They are making a comeback, in their own pungent way.

Righty is winning the Onion race.  Onions are well known for their competitive nature.

The lettuces are nearly ready!  They are small, but that just means they will be tender.  Am I right?  Anyway, these will come up with the radishes.  We will have salad.  It will be glorious.

I hope they are yummy.  I will be seeding wildflowers in this spot when the lettuce is gone.

Chard.  There was a little too much PDA going on with these two guys, so I transplanted the smaller one to fill that gap to the left.  He seems to have taken to his new home pretty well.

The Sage seems to have improved after some much needed sunshine.

You're going to take over again, aren't you?

In the interest of full disclosure, I admit to the fact that I stole that corn-clog-in-port-seven line from Futurama.  But I figured I was already ripping off one sci-fi classic, I might as well rip off another.  You know, for the sake of something about consistency or something something.

The end.

Stuff I did yesterday...

...Because it was sunny!  Well, partly sunny.  But with all the rain we've had, that's a big deal!  So Hubbyman mowed, I pulled the radishes and thinned out the lettuce, chard, and spinach.  I also began thinning the kale and broccoli, but didn't go whole hog on it yet.  What else...  Well, I can't remember.  But here are some pictures.  Enjoy!

Okay, I really have no idea what's going on with the sage.  It looks awful.  My best guess is that it's been too wet and too cold.  I think sage likes things on the dry side.  I think.  Anyway, hopefully it will get a little better as things heat up.

Oh yeah!  Gosh, my memory is so bad these days.  I cut the onions down.  Hopefully they will grow back, but if it's been too wet for them, they might just croak.  Who knows.

Gosh, mint is beautiful.

Downside of Baggins is that I keep forgetting about it.  But it seems to be doing okay, even though the dirt is lousy and it's settled a lot, making for a very warm environment.  And here I planted spinach in it.  Hilarious.

Aww, they're holding hands!  So cute!  They are beginning to climb each other, which is what I was expecting.  I'm training some towards the trellis now.  Excited!  I love watching pea vines grow and climb.

Must be love...

Patio spread.

Oh yeah!  The other thing I did!  That memory thing again.  Sheesh.  Anyway, I made a harvesting apron thingy.  Last year I was using a metal bowl, and in the sun, I was kind of cooking the veggies right there as I was picking them.  Ah, the follies of youth...

I made it out of an old, never used tote I bought in DC back in 2000, and the drawstring from a pair of never used jammies.  I think they call that repurposing.  I don't think you could call this upcycling.  It's more like samecycling.  Not a lot of pretty here.  But plenty of function!  I'm all about the function.  Pretty is for losers.  (Haha, kidding.  Pretty is great.)

The end.