pea plants

All my Peas were flopping over.

It said on the seed packet "does not need support" but don't believe it! Well, they'd probably grow fine without something to climb on, but I noticed last year any moisture on the ground overnight struck the leaves with mildew, when it gets humid here. Or some other disease that speckles all the leaves suddenly. So I like to keep them lift up, clear of the soil. After weeding the bed today, found a bunch of sticks and tied up each plant with some strips of rag.

Here's the row from one side

and from the other.

bolting

The overwintered Beets are bolting- into a tall stalk

with something on the top that looks like it will turn into a flower.

I don't know if beet seeds can be saved, or if the ones I planted were hybrid, so I probably won't let it set seed but just watch curious to see how the flower forms and then cut it down. It's growing where the zucchini are going to go in, anyway.

Does not bode well for my overwintered carrot; they're probably going to do the same thing!

potting up

All the seedlings in the coldframe are starting to look peaked, or crowded (or both). Today took all the cardboard tubes and makeshift small pots I had, and potted them all up.

The Tithonia

Bell Peppers

Broccoli

Heirloom Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

and Marigolds

Most of those pots are plastic containers that one held butter, sour cream or yogurt- with a few holes punched in the bottom they serve quite well. I ran out, though- so the smallest Marigolds

and Basil remain in trays for now.

old and new

A yellowed leaf on the largest Dieffenbachia pot was looking ugly so I pulled it off.

It was about ready to fall by itself. And right behind the leaf, growing out of the same spot in the stem, was this new little shoot (center).

 So the plant was already growing a replacement leaf!

spider plants

My spider plant seems to be doing really well! It's grown quite a lot,

the leaves are nice and lush.

I've been giving it water that's been boiled (and cooled) first, as I read that sensitivity to flouride can turn the leaf ends brown (which was happening). It seems quite happy now. Although there's a little mushroom growing in the pot, just started to disintegrate here.

I can't tell if the little baby one has grown; it looks the same size. But it's still alive!

potting

The Mango died. I really thought it was going to grow, as the part of the seed sticking just above the soil was slowly getting fat, and bright green. But then it suddenly shriveled and faded, before opening into leaves. So I dumped it out- a thin root had grown, that's all. I scrubbed the pot out and put an Avocado in it.

My sister said the avocado should be planted when the root is three inches. My second one here, its root is already four inches long.

I couldn't pull the toothpicks out so just gently broke them off, and carefully potted it in some loose soil with perlite added so it drains well (I don't want more rot!).

It's a six-inch pot, and the soil comes up to the same level the water used to, just covering half the avocado pit. Now I hope I can keep this one going!

I've given up on the biggest one; more mold is growing and the stem is beginning to turn brown.

unknown buds

This bush on the corner that I've been watching grow; I thought it was a hydrangea but now that the buds are forming I realize it's something else. I want to learn its identity so I can find out how to propagate it; I want more in other places of the yard.

late tulip

One last Tulip flowering. Most have dropped all their petals by now. There's another with two petals still standing upright and the rest drooping; A. says it looks like an orchid!

clematis

My Clematis is blooming! Last year it didn't grow much, probably because Isa, enthralled with the large purple flowers, picked every one she could find. I'm trying to keep her from doing that this year.

pretty

Under and around the clematis is this pretty groundcover/bush (I don't know the name) with light leaves that have pale edges. I never saw it flower before. In fact, I saw some in someone else's yard just last week with flowers and thought why doesn't mine do that? But now there are tiny pale blue-violet flowers scattered here and there.

This plant is spreading, all across the back under the trees, against the fence. I haven't been trying to keep it in check yet, as I'm still not sure what to plant back there, but eventually want some kind of landscaping instead of straggly grass (where it's hard to mow) and weeds. I think the first thing to do is cut down/dig up all the volunteer maples...

petunias!

Filled the front-porch planters with Petunias.

A. said aren't they kind of shabby looking? but they'll fill out nicely in a week or so.

clovers

I've realized it's not going to work to make these clovers look like trees, although they still sit in pots on my porch.  Here's where they were at a few weeks ago:

Forgot about them for a while and the stems shot really tall. 

I clipped them down again

here's two before-and-afters; from this

to this

and this

 

to this

 Not very interesting any more.

lettuce lover

Gave Isa's hamster a small lettuce leaf for his treat today- the simpson kind. He gobbled it right up! I tried to take a photo but he moves so constantly it was hard to get a good one, at last resorted to the flash. So someone else is enjoying our garden greens now, too!

end

of the onion greens. It seems to be failing. Looking back over the pictures I see how the bulb kept shrinking and shrinking and the sheathe the greens grow out of lengthening until it looked about to collapse. Don't know if this is normal growth, but it served us well for a while. Chopped the last of it into an omelette today and that's it.

celeries

Little Celery plants are spreading roots all over the bottom of their trays,

so I've set them out

and tucked into the garden, in that damp spot.

I hope they keep growing!

thyme

The Thyme plants still look so small, but they aren't growing any more and roots are coming out the bottom, so I took them out of their tray

and set into the garden today, between the cauliflower and broccoli rows. Among the larger plants they look even teenier.