hosta hosta

So pleased with all my Hostas, which are taking over the front beds now that the grape hyacinths are done and the tulips fading.

The ones in the back, with solid colors are such a lovely blue-green.

new chard

The Swiss Chard is growing nicely,

but there are a few gaps in the rows. So I stuck a few more saved seed into the soil today.

bright lettuce

The last wintered Simpson head in the garden is so big I only took off half its leaves for a salad and still overfilled the bowl. You can't even see the edges of it here!

And there's enough of the plant left to give us one more salad before it's done!

strawberry anticipation!

There are so many flowers on the Strawberry plants!

I don't see anything pollinating them; the bees seem to prefer dandelions. Isa says she sees tiny flies moving amongst the white flowers. Must be doing the job as some have already begun to form the little green berries. I'm really hoping for a good crop now.

Even a few of the baby runner plants I removed and put in pots are flowering.

(I sold a dozen to someone off craigslist, but still have nine left).

carrots thinned

Thinned the baby Carrots today too. Little ferny leaves.

There are a few volunteer Cilantro growing amongst them too. I've left them there for the time being as they're ahead of the cilantro seed I planted (which hasn't sprouted yet). When they're big enough to eat will pull up to leave room for the carrots...

beets thinned

Spent quite some time on my knees weeding and thinning the young Beets.

I did the same thing with them as the chard; the larger plants that had to get pulled but had little root hairs I replanted into gaps in the rows; crossing my fingers they survive.

baby chard

I didn't know it was possible but read in one of my gardening books recently that when thinning chard and beets you can simply transplant the ones that get pulled out, into a new spot. Only half my packet-seed Chard has grown, and all the saved seed row, so I tried it. Pulled a few out of the clusters from the saved-seed row, and tucked them into blank spaces in the other row. A few days later and they're looking just fine!

sunflowers

Sowed a few Sunflower seeds along the edge of the garden yesterday. From this packet mix

each seed a different pattern will grow a different color sunflower.

peony

I haven't wandered through the front yard for a while, so surprised how full and tall the Peony plant already is!

There are already lots of fat buds on it.

beautiful green

I'm still astonished at the fast growth of these Green Beans. Only three cardpots didn't sprout yet.

Went ahead and put them all in the garden soil today. Mostly because the baby could come any day now, and the plants can better take care of themselves under rain and sunshine.

They looked so fantastic and healthy I planted out every single one. Two dozen total.

last herbs

Meaning, the last ones I'm going to grow this year. Took the little Oregano tray

and potted up the five largest plants (still teensy, though!)

Also took remaining herbs out of the coldframe and potted up a few Basil

and two pots of Parsley.

I might just keep these going in windowsills, since the garden spots are all full now.

young lettuce

My younger set of Lettuces are getting bigger quickly! I feel like the timing is just right: as soon as the older patch is all eaten some of these will be large enough to pull a few leaves off.

cover

The other night we had a heavy rain and it was chilly enough to actually turn the heat back on in the house. I went out anxious in the morning to see how my newly-set-out plants had fared in the garden. Everything looked fine except for the younger lot of Tomatoes- nearly all of them had flopped over or were leaning sideways. I propped them all up with more soil around their stems, and then later today gathered together all my plastic-bottle and glass cloches. We have another spate of thunderstorms and "severe" storms predicted all week, and I don't want to loose my little Tomatoes! So they all got covered up. Some look quite cramped, but it will only be for a few days and then I'll lift them off again.

You can see how many tomatoes I have this year by all the cloches dotted through the garden!

The two younger Peppers got covers too.

green leaves!

I'm still thrilled at how quickly the Green Bean leaves are unfolding in my windowsill. Yesterday's biggest ones now have open leaves

 and others are quickly coming up behind them.

rhubarb!

I'm feeling ecstatic about the Rhubarb. Send kiddo out there with a ruler the other day; have read that you can start harvesting stems when they get to be eight or ten inches long. I was amazed when she reported (in excited shouts- "guess how long this one is!") that even the smaller plant had ten-inch stems. The bigger plants have quite a few that are twelve, thirteen, fourteen inches. I am restraining myself a week or two more to see if we get Strawberries to go along with the Rhubarb, but already tasting pie in my mind....

Have been cutting off the flower stalks, which are still determined to shoot up. In case you're wondering what Rhubarb flor looks like, here's one just thrown on the compost pile.

green beans!

I've given up on the Peas ever emerging in the garden; went ahead and put some Tomatoes in their space yesterday. Almost given up on the seed-packet Green Beans I direct-planted; they soaked too long and got stinky I'm afraid they were ruined. But delighted to find the Beans I planted in windowsill cardpots from my saved seed have begun sprouting, and how quickly they grow! Just yesterday only a few elbows were barely poking out of the soil surface

and now the leaves are all starting to unfold:

more planting

The weather so nice and mild, a cloudy morning with several days of rain following (predicted) I took advantage to set more plants in the ground. Managed to finish just as the rain started. First put all the rest of my Tomatoes out. Just recently pulled more Carrots, which were not nearly as big as the first bunch

so decided to leave the rest where they are, let them grow larger, and plant the Tomatoes around them. I've heard they make good companions.

The Cherry Tomatoes got their own space. And I marvel over the vivid color of the mystery trio- they look like the most fantastic tomato plants I've ever grown!

 Here's one with raindrops on it:

Also put out the other two Pepper plants, and fitting little tiny Basils into all the gaps.

On the other side of the garden I planted out some of the Echinacea

put two Thyme plants into the ground

and five of the Parsley ones.

All that's left in the coldframe now is some extra basil and parsley,

and on a cinderblock by the door in pots one remaining little tomato and the two other thyme plants.

I want to see if I can get the first two thru the winter in the ground- by cutting them down and covering with mulch or just an upturned container? before I plant out the others- they'll stay potted for now and come inside to windowsills again. Or so is my plan.

Inside there's teensy Oreganos on the windowsill still. I'm not sure when they'll be big enough to plant outside...