How does your garden grow, mid-June

[rivka]

What a crazy difference two weeks of warm weather makes to a garden!

I think it was jonquil who told me to plant something in the center medallion of our courtyard that would make me happy every time I saw it. I picked a flower mix sort of at random - Home Depot was selling these circular trays of mixed seedlings that were meant to go in a container, and I thought maybe they'd work okay in the medallion instead. And wow, have they ever grown into a gorgeous, lush, vibrant display.

Petunias were never my favorite flower, but you know what? I am happy every time I open my gate and see this:



The grape tomato and the miniature bell peppers continue to grow like crazy. The tomato has put out a few sprays of flowers, and now has two tiny marble-sized green tomatoes on it. The red mini bell pepper has a ton of tiny green peppers on it, and continues to put out flowers like mad. Even the yellow mini pepper that Alex uprooted during planting is flowering and growing beautifully. Now I'm sorry that I put it in a small pot because I didn't expect it to live.





But the craziest success story is the "Minnesota midget" muskmelon.

Here's how it looked two weeks ago:



Here's how it looks now:



It's flowering like you wouldn't believe, and putting out beautiful branching vines. We may need to put a trellis slanting down to the ground for it.

What caused the change? I think it's that we moved it from one side of the herb forest (where the vegetables are all thriving) to the other. It gets more sun on the other side by maybe an hour or two. I'm going to be so ridiculously tickled if we get cantelopes in our little urban front yard.

I decided to take a couple of large-view shots of the garden/courtyard this time:





The reason the bricks are tumbled is because Alex is in love with pillbugs. She keeps moving bricks to look for pillbugs underneath. At one point she stated her intention to become a pillbug veterinarian. And obviously, she doesn't replace them properly when she's done. Michael needs to get out there this weekend with a shovel and a mallet and do some proper edging for the flowering shade bed, because this way we get water runoff if we're not careful.

Incidentally, the sage that was blossoming two weeks ago is now looking yellowed and sad. Is that because we let it flower and go to seed? My impulse is to cut it way back and let it re-grow. Is that the right impulse?

The lavender is blossoming now, and it is beautiful. We have enormous tons of lavender. I always pictured it as a small delicate plant, but we have big woody lavender bushes.

The whole garden has an amazing herbal smell. I can't believe how happy it makes me to be growing things.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i do not particularly love petunias either, but my grandfather had them all over his yard, so somehow, in my head, they're just what you grow, you know? (i have fortunately avoided geraniums so far, which he also grew, but i am seeing honeysuckle in my future...)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

They're just so damn cheerful and uncomplaining, you know?

My mother always, always had a pot of geraniums on the front porch. And petunias in the garden.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

I love both, because when I was a teen I was on a garden crew for a local company. My morning chore was to take care of the petunia and geranium beds on the patio, where most of the company ate their lunches. I tended to them religiously, and all summer everybody said that the patio was the best they'd ever seen it.

My mother always has had geraniums too. One year, she brought them in for the winter, and they turned into these lovely things with gangly branches.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Lovely garden; thanks for sharing!

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

I am amazed by the fun of growing things, too! I've grown tomatoes in containers before but not a bigger garden and not anything from seeds. I put seeds into the ground and now there are PLANTS GROWING! And soon there will be FOOD. So very cool!

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

Am not a sage expert, but generally (caveat, caveat) one harvests kitchen herbs for use just before they bloom. So I expect that you are correct. I'd check for bugs as you cut it back; I lost a sage plant to snails hiding in the foliage.

You know you can drown sage, yes? They tend to dislike wet feet.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Lovely!

You could be right about the sage's decline. Is it getting enough water? Your impulse is correct - cut it back and let it grow again.

You could even try something a little taller in that center medallion next time.

[txobserver.livejournal.com]

Re pillbugs, I couldn't resist a pointer to this.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing and gets eaten by a giant pillbug*

[kate_nepveu]

It is _so_ _good_ to have Fafblog back.

(permalink)

[boxofdelights]

Pretty! I don;t love petunias either, but their scent always makes me happy.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

The courtyard looks great! I bet the neighbors are jealous.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

I also loved pillbugs (aka sowbugs) as a kid! I thought they were just awesome. I don't remember exactly why, but I suspect that their ability to do "tricks" (curl up) or their vague resemblance to trilobites had something to do with it.

[rusty76.livejournal.com]

Your courtyard is beautiful, and congrats on the plants. They're so enriching to the spirit!