herbs still growing

These I have not cut any of to dry: summer savory-

Grown enough now to look like a little thicket- it only gets bothered by katydid nymphs, which are easy enough to catch.

Sage. The two pots on the deck are not as thick and full as those down in the garden, but they are almost completely clean of pests. Those in the garden are bitten by leafhoppers.  Plenty enough to just cut fresh.

Rosemary- it's got quite a bit bigger but still small enough I am reluctant to cut it yet.

tithonias

Young tithonias are growing! A month ago they were like this, practically busting out of the seedling tray,

then I potted them up individually and kept in the high heat of the coldframe "plant house" (my kids call it that)- they sheltered there for a few weeks, set out on the deck table intermittently to get used to the weather, then left out twenty-four-seven for several days. Wilt a bit in the heat at midday, otherwise doing well.

and now they are finally in the ground. Half of them I pinched the newest tiny young leaves off the top to see if it encourages branching, the others left alone- in the sun, along the fence.

peppers

This years' pepper plants

have all got potted up now, too. I forget which kinds are which, but I have aurora, wisconsin lake and something else... This one has little purple flowers!

I made a feeding ring for Samblu

It's ridiculous but he's an annoying betta to feed. The spirodela polyrhiza kind of gets in the way, he doesn't seem to see the food unless there's a good amount of free space around it, and especially if the tank light is on he gets so distracted by his reflection if a food item falls behind him, he'll chase its reflection down the front of the glass and miss. So I've been in the habit of blowing on the surface to clear a space in the floaters, and get his attention so he'll come look in the right place for food. .

Getting a bit tiresome. I took a piece of airline tubing, softened one end in hot water and forced it wider with needlenose pliers wedged inside, then fitted one end into the other to make a small ring. I put that on the surface to hold the floaters aside and it is so much easier. He notices the ring, and I don't have to keep pushing plants aside but can just drop the food in. I wish I'd made one sooner!

There's more benefits to this than just not having the blow floaters aside. It keeps the food in one spot, so if Sam misses, it doesn't drift off among the plants and go unnoticed. Also, he's learning quickly what it's for. Now instead of dashing up and down wiggling against the glass when I approach the tank, he hurries over to his feeding ring!

coleus report

I have lots and lots of pink coleus this year. The ones in the front yard aren't doing quite as nicely as those on the side under a tree, I think they prefer at least partial shade...

Last years' rootstock that I overwintered is actually looking decent

I have just moved the two of those up to bigger pots.

The lime-and-orange one (although color seems to change, looks more yellow-and-red now) I took cuttings of several weeks ago-

It's amazing how fast the root hairs show up- within a few days.

Those are potted up now too, and soon will go out into the yard. This one looks a lot more striking from streetside than the pinks, with its large leaves and bold color, so I think it's going to be a nice filler for blank spots in the front.

cuban oregano-

glows- must be the very fine hairs on the leaves, catching the light

I have never yet used this for cooking, in fact I find the very strong scent if a leaf gets bruised, rather disagreeable.

But I keep it around because I think it's pretty, and maybe someday I'll find another use- like repelling unwanted bugs... I trimmed off larger, oldest leaves recently and it has grown a crop of new ones.

porch spot

These pictures are weeks behind...

The pretty ferny plant I moved from mailbox spot to area in front of the porch is doing much better.

Lots of pretty blue flowers.

They are leggy and tend to fall over, but fortuitously get propped up by the peony nearby- which I think actually looks nice together.

The flowers kind of unroll when they first start opening- see the little purple tube it makes.

Peony is done blooming. It had a lot more flowers this year. Typically attracted ants. Really I don't like the huge blowsy flowers, which always flop over and face the ground, and get ruined by rain within a day or two. So I cut them when still buds to bring in the house (sweet smell is almost too much)

and prefer the smaller blooms like this one.

Vinca I moved is doing nicely, grown quite a bit.

Mums are starting to come back. I only lost one overwinter.

I put a few marigolds here and they are flowering now, too.

The newer azalea is done. It was called "coral pink" so I was hoping for a kind of peachy color (no image on the tag and I bought it in fall) really they are just pink- only get the creamy look when fading and turning brown...

chard and lettuces

Lettuce is pretty much done. The only one I can still eat a bit of it is arugula. Have cut down all but three of the simpson and most of the little ceasar, saving just a few plants of each to set seed for next year.

The day I cut all the lettuces back, I was planning on just making salad, but found that the chard was starting to bolt as well, so I cut some of that to make a quiche before it got too far.

This chard plant is making seed for me.

The younger ones I started in spring are still very small- but if they make it through summer heat should give us some good eating in fall when it cools off again.

My beets are big enough to notice!

One of the last simpson lettuces- next to a cosmos.

Little ceasar lettuce, among cosmos and a few volutneer cantaloupe.

the mighty borage

This plant grows fast and huge. For comparison, borage leaf next to some volunteer cosmos.

Here's a picture from several weeks ago in the garden-

and a week later- you can see how it's doubled in size- and it's even bigger now! (Other plants- far left spot is my daughter's space- front to back: borage, volutneer cantaloupe, cherry tomatoes, peas. Her pea plants look better than anything I've ever grown- and she made a decent little support for them to climb out of sticks and twine. Middle spot: borage, swiss chard, little cesar lettuce, simpson lettuce, more borage in the back corner. Right spot: huge two-year-old borage fallen over, little cesar lettuces and some faltering chard, rosemary).

The blue drooping flowers are so pretty-

but the tall stems collapsing and it's kind of looking messy. A few days ago I cut all these stems back- was planning to dry the flowers inside to collect seed. It didn't work out that way. I found it was crawling with bugs- aphids mostly, I didn't want them spreading to houseplants. So I cut off all the leaves and stored in a ziploc in the fridge (to get bugs off later for fish food) and clipped just the flowers to dry in a sealed paper bag.

Younger plants are plenty robust- here's the start of more flowers coming.

Borage flowers drying- like dandelions, the seeds seem to finish maturing even after they are cut off. It's a prickly, space-hogging plant, but I still love it.

echinacea

I lost half my echinacea seedlings. I originally had a dozen, but on a very hot day- eighty or ninety degrees outside- I forgot to open the plant house soon enough, and temps in there soared to over 120°- beyond the range of my thermometer. Seedlings wilted. Half my echinacea died.

Those that didn't kept growing-

And just last week I potted up the eight survivors. They are the few plants left getting babied in the coldframe. Sad to have lost so many, but it will double the numbers of echinacea in my garden, so that's good. The two-year old echinacea should flower this year- they sure have gotten tall.