Some Flowers, mostly Green

In the background are sunflower seedlings that I transplanted a week or so ago.  They sprouted from last year though the birds ate most of the seeds.  I just moved them to where they wouldn't be in the way.  Sunflower seedlings are pretty delicate but if you move them when they are young and it is pretty cool and moist, most will survive.

I just like these violas.

Here we have more sunflower seedlings, with one that did not need to be transplanted.  Transplanting does set them back a bit.  They are surrounded by red mustard that still needs to be thinned.  I am tempted not to let any of it mature as I have had too much of it this year and last 2 years.

Cats Studies

Abe under the hedge

The Cheddarhead

Sally with sunflowers I am saving for colder weather

It's hard to decide

Which photographs to publish. My camera decides sometimes, like the coriander seeds forming I thought I had focused on came out blurry. Everyday my garden is different. Especially after lots of sun and warmth.

This faded sunflower still has a sort of beauty. There are now 5 others blooming in its place. I ponder whether when this is ready for the birds whether I should leave it standing, save it for myself, or saving it for the birds when it is winter again. I suppose with more than a dozen blooms I may do all of the above.

This broccoli must be harvested. Oh the burden of fresh vegetables.

I want to do a post on my 'wall tomatoes' as they grow up to the stakes I have poking into my shrubbery. I have a feeling that they will end up growing better than some of my tomatoes this year despite their unorthodox location.

These are 'juliette' what I think of as a cherry plum tomato. These are larger than the ones i grew last year which also were quite susceptible to blossom end rot. These don't seem to have this issue, at least not yet. I have been pretty vigilant about watching for that as I have had this problem with quite a few of my tomatoes over the last couple years.

These are tansy flowers. I think I got these at a garden swap. I got another variety at a garden event outside Trader Joe's. I like this variety better. I know that one of them had some babies in my garden which I chose to remove. I understand tansy can get pretty invasive. I ended up transplanting my other tansy to a part of my garden that is dark and less visible. This tansy here is more delicate looking so I might end up making it my only variety.

Tansy is one of those herbs that has been eaten by people but more so I believe during medieval times. Based on what I've read, I don't think I will. I mean, it is sort of poisonous. It could be handy if I had worms. I think it's one of those herbs that kills worms which would make it more useful in midieval times than now. It does have an interesting flowers and ants do not seem to like it very much.

I have so many kinds of plants in my yard. I should count them sometime. There are still a few I haven't documented.

1st Sunflower Bloom

These pictures were taken over a period of 5 days. This is my 1st and currently, my only sunflower bloom.

I am happy that I caught this green bee looking creature

I just found the great sunflower project. I am registered and recommend others do too. This is a bee counting project which I think is pretty important now.

Backyard Chaos

I am a little embarrassed by my backyard because I haven't given it as much TLC as the front and it shows. It has however been productive in some ways.

The best thing I've got going here is my cilantro bed. Everything in here is self-sown and though I should probably weed it, it is mostly cilantro. In addition to cilantro are chives and numerous mitsuba, a japanese herb that I am not fond of but I haven't had the heart to eradicate. I did however pull up the original generation of mitsuba and replant it in a dark corner. That is why there is some bare soil here. I also poked in a couple tall growing snapdragons just for fun.

This white queen tomato is my centerpiece. In front of it is some giant red mustard, all self-sown. To the right behind it is some birdfeeder sunflowers that I transplanted here. There's more stuff in the background. I'll try to get to that later on.

Here's the Dr Wyche straw planting. I have tided up this area a little bit. The bark mulch helped a lot but I think Iwant to lay down some sort of stepping stones as well. I might want more bark mulch too in other bare spots.

Here's a spot that was planted with a thyme groundcover that has turned into weeds and parsley. The jug has some weed tea. I am trying to really go all organic and LOCAL, as far as fertilizer is concerned. So far I think it is working out pretty well. I feel I'll feel certain as to whether this really works for me when this growing season ends.

Number One, in more ways than one!

Why am I so self-righteous? We'll start with this eggplant. This is the 3rd year I've grown ichiban eggplants, but somehow I only discovered a week or so ago that ichiban means "number one" in Japanese. I can see why. The plant is beautiful. It appeals to my taste for dark things. The fruit is beautiful, the plant very, very productive and delicious. I became an eggplant convert in large part because of this variety of eggplant. And today, it earned the title number one for one more reason, it is the 1st eggplant, and I have 5, that is producing fruit! I should qualify that by admitting that I had to buy a 6 inch pot rather than 2 inch, which is what all my other eggplants started as.

I consider these sunflowers a triumph too. I have not seen any as big as mine right now. In this instance I may thank the birds and the squirrels for spilling birdseed all over the place. These germinated as soon as the ground was warm and moist enough for their taste. I simply transplanted them here and they survived. I might be the 1st to have sunflowers blooming on my block, if not my neighborhood.

All right, this image does not continue the #1 theme. It's the back of my pick-up and it shows my homemade potting mix. I won't get into a specific recipe. I will only say that this batch has these ingredients, compost, which was already in the truck, peat moss, vermiculite, and agricultural lime. I like to do more than a few pots and it's a lot cheaper to mix my own especially when I buy compost by the cubic yard anyway. I just mix it all up in the bed of my truck as needed. Most people that make their own mix it up in a wheelbarrow. This is more or less what potted soil is.

I love red cabbage, not so much to eat, but as a focal point in landscaping. I can directly acknowledge Joy Larkcom as my influence here. Just a few days ago a little boy asked me about this cabbage. "Is that a cabbage?" he asked while gently petting a very grateful Sally (Sally loves children, unlike the other cats)
"Yes it is!"
"Is it edible?"
What a smart child! That was my #1 moment that day.

I hate to shill myself here, but I'd be quite gratified if you readers would take a moment to answer my survey on the right.

I need to document my backyard

This morning I took 80some pictures. We had a good week of rain and warmth and it shows. I have fallen into choosing about 8 pictures a day to post and discuss. Today the choosing was pretty tough.

Here is a slice of the saladbowl, which probably should be harvested soon. The lettuce is starting to get bitter. I will replace it with something more suitable for summer weather. The pansies will probably die out as they get too hot, the chervil is bolting so something should replace those 2 as well.

Also shown is red giant mustard which I will probably all but eliminate. I'll leave one or two to go to seed.

In the background are the birdseed sunflowers which please me more and more each day. They have buds now. I imagine they won't get much taller than they are now but I could be wrong.

This tomato is a clear indicator that I do not grow my veggies for maximum productivity. A few years ago I grew a cherry tomato on a stoop that faced an alleyway that I encouraged passers-by to sample. I guess I like to share. As long as they don't end up throw tomatoes around. This will takes some engineering of this habitat.

I could call this photo 'gratuitous cat picture.' Sally tolerates the Cheddarhead, especially since he doesn't really take any guff. She used to run at him full speed but he always held his ground. Lucky for her, he didn't retaliate. Now she leaves him alone but she still is annoyed by him, as all cats annoy her

Finally my self-sown calendula is beginning to flower. Calendula has a very interesting story. It has excellent medicinal properties that have been known at least since Roman times.

Bored Cats

Sally was a very bad girl this morning. She took a dump in my flowerbed that borders the sidewalk. For a second I thought, "Hmm, one of the dogs walking by will take care of that." I ended up digging a deep hole, in a dark corner, far away from anything growing because she unfortunately has done this before. No, I don't compost their kitty litter though I suppose I could. That gets disposed of another way.

I don't think that there's much I can do to make her stop except to stick bamboo skewers in the ground. If she does this to this highly visible bed, I might resort to that.

Here's another bored looking cat, the feral boy I sometimes call "Cheedarhead". I actually brushed him while he ate this morning. I always make him eat at my feet so I can pet him. He pretends to hate being petted but I think he likes it. I think he liked the brush. Cat hair, actually, any hair, and nail clippings, are an excellent fertilizers. I've been burying it just below many things I have planted.

Abe is nipping at the catnip which is finally growing beyond its dome. I am very, very pleased with my birdseed sunflowers. I have no idea how big they'll get but I haven't seen any bigger than mine, at least in my neighborhood.

Rainy view from my porch

I love rain. This is a good thing because Pittsburgh gets a lot. Actually, this city is one of the most overcast cities ever, which I also like. Sunlovers can't stand it but I'm not one of them. I like overcast days because I can surf my computer on my porch. So here's a few things I idly photographed from my spacious dry porch.

This vase was an anonymous neighbor's offering. Last year this appeared on my front step one day with a few other ornamental containers. I think there was a geranium too. I fianlly planted it with some stuff more in the 'old lady' style of planting. There's asparagus fern, corkscrew grass and lobelia. These guys aren't perfect potmates but I think they'll get along. The vase does not have drainage but I got it set up with a sort of false bottom. I just have to be careful not to overwater it. It should fill out in a few weeks I guess, at least the lobelia might be blooming by then.

 

I don't know if you've noticed but I am rather fond of blue. This is my blue planting. Almost everything is blooming. The lantana is just opening up, but you can't see it in this photo.

 

Here's my birdfeeder sunflowers. They are directly below the blue planter.

 

This lemongrass I wintered from last year. It doesn't look as glorious as it did, but I think it will. I used some of its withered leave in the tea I am drinking right now. It's very refreshing. The vine is he shou wu.

 

I think my garden is giving me ADHD

There's so much going on with it now that I want to document but I can't blog while I am gardening, unless I do a vlog, then I'd want a robot camera to do my bidding. But that's a whole new bin of worms.

This onion is blooming. I cannot recall what kind of onion it is but I think it's pretty. I have harvested a few onion blooms for garnishes. The little single flowers are great in soup but I have to be careful about bugs. There's some kind of beetle that just loves these blooms. I think it's into its pollen and nectar, it doesn't seem to have eaten the actual flower.

For a long time, one of the only things alive in my garden was the giant red mustard. Now as you see here, it is living up to its name. I've been harvesting 3 a day just to thin it.

I found this box with 2 others in someone's trash. I think that they were used to store some sort of glass but they got damaged by some wood eating insect. This one just screamed PLANT TOMATOES IN ME which I have done since this photo was taken. Being a rather deep box I am trying another experiment which I will explain later if I have success. The other 2 boxes are open sided and I have used them to make raised beds. This is in my neglected backyard. I promise I will blog about this later.

These seedlings are sunflowers that sprouted below my birdfeeder. I transplanted them here next to my porch where their height will not shade any other plants. Also pictured are Acapulco anise hyssop and red raspberry.

That's it for now will check back shortly.