Moved the tomatoes outside so they can begin to harden off. Less than half of the tomatoes I planted sprouted and survived. Don't know why - I've always had great luck with tomatoes. Could be many of the seeds were old?
Bought 20 bags of mulch and completed the new beds. Here they are, in all their glory. Look kind of nice, eh? Just wait a year or so and they will look like the rest of the garden...
...full of weeds, every path a jungle of dandelions, strawberries, buttercups, sheep sorrel, cinquefoil, chickweed...
The spuds are sprouting. Well, they were "sprouting" before I planted them, but now they have green leaves above the ground. Many potatoes that missed the shovel last fall are also sprouting. These I've been pulling/digging up and tossing because all the literature says that this should be done if they grew in a season of late blight - the insulated spuds underground can be harboring the fungus. Of course, I've just chucked them into the weed piles...won't this also keep the fungus alive? We shall see. Meanwhile, I squashed my first CPB eggs yesterday - bright orange on the underside of a leaf.
Many of the onions seem to have recovered. Whew! I thought they were going to be a total loss this year.
The greens are sprouting now, too! Spinach - Mmmm.
We need rain so desperately. The ground is parched. I dug a hole to plant the flowers I purchased Friday, and I could barely get the shovel to break the soil. It looked promising yesterday - the winds picked up, the air cooled off, and the sky turned grey, but no rain fell. It's been weeks.
Meanwhile, the swallowtails are loving the new beds - 100% manure, full of all sorts of good nutrients. Took several videos of them puddling, but I'll spare you those. Here, however, is a shot of two enjoying a sip at the nutrient bar.
Got lupines? Mine are going great guns. Like the bee balm, they are almost a weed. I hate to weed them out, but if I don't do so soon, they will be the only plants in the flower beds besides the bee balm!
Pretty, pretty flax. The plants are so wispy and delicate, and they are topped with these darling pale blue flowers. They don't blossom for long, but are nice while they do.
My irises have started to open now, too.
I discovered a neat "kaleidoscope" feature on my photoshop program. Here's the iris again, although you'd never recognize it. Ah...technology.
Meanwhile, the swallowtails are loving the new beds - 100% manure, full of all sorts of good nutrients. Took several videos of them puddling, but I'll spare you those. Here, however, is a shot of two enjoying a sip at the nutrient bar.
Got lupines? Mine are going great guns. Like the bee balm, they are almost a weed. I hate to weed them out, but if I don't do so soon, they will be the only plants in the flower beds besides the bee balm!
Pretty, pretty flax. The plants are so wispy and delicate, and they are topped with these darling pale blue flowers. They don't blossom for long, but are nice while they do.
My irises have started to open now, too.
I discovered a neat "kaleidoscope" feature on my photoshop program. Here's the iris again, although you'd never recognize it. Ah...technology.
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