After the Storm

Our basement's water level peaked at about 3 feet(1 meter). Needless to say, everything is very lush.

My prostrate rosemary is filling out again. I poked an italia pepper in its pot. The small mint pot looks less pale, my tarragon is doing all right and perhaps my yuzu citris will do better this year.

 

A few sunflowers fell over during the storm but I righted them and they seem ok. The black and blue salvia are hummingbird magnets and everything else up there is growing all right.

 

My ground tomatoes are growing up well though they look slightly paler than the box tomatoes. I keep trying to equalize that with fertilizer and a bit of lime. Almost all of my tomatoes have small tomatoes growing now. I am denuding the stems somewhat and reducing their tendency to branch out like crazy. There's a whole lot more going on in this picture. There are 2 varieties of beans, some basil, nasturtiums, kale strawberries,and garlic.

 

I have 2 cabbages that are growing monstrously. It sorta amazes me how many people walk by and ask me, "Is that cabbage?" That's one reason why I feel like I should stay in an urban location, just to set an example and to just help people understand what vegetables actually look like, rather than finding 1-5 acres out somewhere. I am somewhat inclined to take over the small yard of the apartment building next door completely, but I must conquer my back yard first. Alas, it doesn't have the light that the front does. I could grow some wonderful tomatoes next door, and cabbage. I have enough to deal with here.

 

Bean Seedlings and Catnip

I kept putting off sowing my beans. Last week I finally got around to it. These seedlings are flageolet beans, the frenchie gourmet beans. I've never had them before. The description sounded nice. I actually got these seeds a year ago. I am trying to use up my old seeds. In this case I only used a handful. Hmm. Will they still be good next year? These are by the way, bush beans.

Next we have scarlet runner beans. These I've sowed beneath my water meter. I will have to keep the window visible. The last couple years all I grew were these but they really got out of hand. I think these could grow to the sky which is why some call them magic beans. I have to sow some in back too, but where? Scarlet runner beans are pole beans but I consider them their own thing beyond that. They have been cultivated for thousands of years.

I keep trying to get rid of all these seed trays but something makes me acquire more as I use up others. My uncertainty made me sow some royal purple pod beans, a bush bean, in a seedling pod. This is not really recommended but my indecision forced me to rather than putting off sowing them. To the right of them below are my remaining leeks. I think in this small pod that there could be 50 leeks. I will try to plant them ALL. I do overplant but I have found that it's not necessarily a bad thing. I just harvest things as they get too crowded. Leeks are perfect for that.

The 4 photo increments made me post this photo here rather than a new post. I think I could post a 100 photos at once but that would make this more of a boring slide show.

This catnip would be chewed to the ground if it wasn't caged.

I almost forgot to mention. When planting beans it is a good idea to mix a little bit of bean inoculant with the soil. This will boost the productivity of the plant and will also increase the nitrogen boost in the soil which will help future plants that grow there.