Third harvest, and some seeding

Slowly but surely, a little more progress.  Yes, late, but better late than never.

More weeding of the strays.  Perfect for a lunch of bun (rice noodles, dressed with nuoc mam).

 

Honey suckle planter - Before.  Note the weeds.

At the 10 o'clock position - that might be a weed; unclear; showing some mercy for now.  Dried weeds pulled and cut up for composting in the three o'clock to nine o'clock half.  Snapdragons(?) in the two o'clock position.

 

Seeds - stored in little creamer cups in a plastic egg container.

 

Tomato seeds from last year - extremely good sweet grape ones bought and consumed.  And the patio tomatoes purchased last year from Home Depot and planted.

Seeds saved from the small little tri-color peppers purchased and consumed from Fairway.

More seeds planted - saved from last year's plants.  The Husky Cherry was also a Home Depot purchase from last year.

 

Upcycling the little plastic creamer cups.  Drilled at the bottom so they can be filled with compost, seeded, and set into pots for planting.  And then when the sprouts come up, the plugs can be planted directly.

Filled with the compost planting medium.  I microwaved these - on the theory any stray seeds would be nuked and the compost rendered sterile.

Hard to see, but there might have been a little snail victim of the nuking.

Geranium seeded creamer plug containers, in their pot.

Tomato plugs.

 

Bird basin - experimenting with cultivating a blanket of moss.  That might give it a "cooling" visual in lieu of water.  Worried water will just breed mosquitoes.

Day lilies.

 

Sissy bought some basil plants.  She doesn't think she'll be able to keep them alive on her south-facing windowsill.  So I get some.

 

 



Follow Through

The day's potential for accomplishment was questionable from the start.  Because it began with the sun coming through the living room windows before 6am, rousing me from my slumber and launching me into the morning from the wrong side of the (sofa) bed - staring into the overhead lights that had never been turned off from the night before, television still on with its incessant audio populating my REM sleep.  I could have gone for an early morning run; instead I went into the bedroom to change, and crawled into bed, sleeping on and off, fitfully, before finally getting up very late morning.  Ah well.

It was all a little off kilter.  Work stress from yesterday still crept in.  The need to numb my brain led to web surfing.  Finally I decided to try to salvage the day and do a bit of gardening.

Some of the plants offered some reassurance, showing signs of being in their growing rhythm.



Pop'ems standing tall.

Dianthus seems to be settling well into its new rectangular pot - judging from the blooming, anyway.

Ethereal daylilies - brief bloom, quick shrivel.

Long (chopstick) beans - close-up.

More long (chopstick) beans.

A really new sprout.

Slightly more advanced sprouts.

With the bar for accomplishment set relatively low, there was really only one thing to tackle: The completion of Project Rosebush.

The dead Baby's Blanket's roots and branches got chopped up, and became an amendment to the soil.  Not sure that's actually the best for the new rosebush, but my hope is drainage is improved and organic matter increased.

The leftover corpse of the Baby's Blanket - the thick trunk and main part of the root system, too thick to be cut up.

Branch and root amendments.

Sissy had left some old bouquets to be composted; they became soil amendments too.

Sissy had dead palm leaves from a photo shoot assignment.  They were to go to the farmer's market compost bins.  But I thought the dry bits - the ones turned to carbon - might work as amendments.

The dry palm leaf bits - before mixing.

The wrapper of the new rosebush - the White Out; it is supposed to be like a Knock Out.

In its new home.  Project Rosebush complete!

Ready for some close-ups.

Three roses still fresh-looking.

Baby's Blanket carcass - looks rather artistic in the pop-em pot.

The Baby's Blanket carcass fills up some voids; makes the whole arrangement look a bit more deliberate, rather than deficient.



There were some surprises in the garden today.

Western pot designated for tomatoes - I think some of the shoots coming out from the compost might actually be tomato plants!

More - they smell like tomatoes....

Rain was predicted for some point during the day (part of the reason I delayed my run).  It came in big drops - for a nanosecond.

Little orange bugs detectable again; again in the daylilies.

One surprise was a bit of time leftover in the waning light to attempt some rearranging of planters.  The eastern pot designated for tomatoes started out between the rose planter and the Endless Summer hydrangea planter - same as last year.  I don't think the tomato was getting quite enough sun.  Plus, as the tomato plant got taller, I worried about it getting impaled by the branches of the rosebush.  Time for a move.

Before.

After - the designated eastern tomato planter is between the two wooden planters.  Quite a bit of soil came from beneath the Endless Summer planter when moved; it is rotting and needs to be replaced.



At the end of the day, actually got a couple of things accomplished and checked off the gardening to-do list.  Yay me!



Late Spring Day

Lovely, pretty day. 

Dianthus.

Day lilies.

White knockout.

And again.

Early hydrangea.

And another.

Violet.

Purple pop'em.

What do we call these little purple flowers with the sawtooth spade-like leaves?  Purple buddy sawtooth?  That's as good as any....  There is purple shiso in there too, and lots of weedy clover.

Greedy for the Light

After some rains, the plants seem to want to soak in the sun, absorb it, and then stretch for it.

Chopstick bean seedling...

...ready for its close up, and for a good stretch.

Chopstick beans - wider shot.

Day lilies.

Fading light.

Enough light for the solar lights to be powered up.

View of the terrace - illuminated by camera flash.