Strong plants and strong ants

Horsetail just shoves the hard soil out of the way!!
More Stark Surecrop Pie Cherries.
Soaker hose hard at work for the winecups and chamomile.
The hose has a leak so I put the leak over a pot of Maximilian sunflowers.
The Chef spotted ants carrying away this insect. Maybe a soldier fly??
He also spotted this milkweed bug. Hi milkweed bug! All three butterfly milkweeds in the front yard rainbow garden are up, plus the wild milkvines are pushing up everywhere too.

04/30/2022 assorted

Yarrow from home about to bloom.
Linum rigidum (yellow flax) from home is blooming! It’s an annual, but I’m hoping it will go to seed.
The mailbox irises are varied this year!
Closeup of purple.
Closeup of pink.
This englemann daisy has lost a few petals!
The two leaf senna is growing a second pair of leaves!!
Two baby flax are just starting their adult leaves.
The false gaura is doing fine but there was also this very nice fly on its label.
Gulf coast penstemon from the NPSOT plant sale is blooming!

Two steps forward, two steps back??

Saturday night (yesterday) planting more tomato and pepper seeds of varieties that haven’t sprouted well or I accidentally killed of sunscald (see end of post).
Yesterday, Mom and Dad sent me this cute little indoor fern friend and Paula added the little frog clip on top!
His Doggie outside yesterday, Gram had to curl tragically on her rope toy.
Couscous, venison roast, and shakshuka with the first indoor garden tomato (dwarf Audrey’s Love).
The cover radishes (Sparkler variety bought in bulk from Ellison’s feed store) have begun sprouting and the transplanted Viola bicolor aren’t dead yet. I just have to hope they will bloom and seed.
More of the radishes. The goal here is growing enough stuff to keep plants I don’t want out until I can get a ground cover started. (Friday)
The Mexican plum from home is alive! (Friday)
Thursday night, Wes wanted to look at things in yard with our new blacklight.
These (already hatched) eggs on the rock outside glow!
The porch loofahs are very welcoming.
Found more googly eyes just randomly in the raised beds.
While we were outside I examined the angry tomato seedlings.
I have determined that going from inside the house to the front porch every day is giving them sun scald, as the leaves are turning white but newer growth is a nice healthy green. So for now I’m putting them in the less intense backyard and that seems to be helping the survivors.
Same thing happening here, green new leaves with white, dying burnt leaves.

Earwigs indoors šŸ˜¤

We mixed up neem oil concentrate with water according to the directions (~0.4 g oil per 2 oz water ie the size of our little glass spritzer bottles), and spritzed all the baby plants. We’ve seen three earwigs inside near the plants since repotting last night and several tomatillos, peppers, and chamomile look a bit worse for the wear.

Exciting visitors of many species

A katydid on the pineapple sage!
A mantis on the zinnias in the rainbow garden.
Gracie brought her humans to visit us today!!
Waiting for Gracie to play again.
A very blue bee!!
Front of the blue bee.
Gracie is fun!!! She liked our very exciting frisbee except it was harder to pick up than her usual tennis balls and pine cones.
Gram liked we have the rare side door open to let in a sunny spot!

Bone meal

On Thursday last week, I put bone meal for phosphorus around the three tomatoes that haven’t flowered this year. Monday, I found flowers on one. I haven’t checked the others yet.
Maximilian sunflower flamingo.
Monday, I think this is switchgrass from some native seed mix. This is Sorghastrum nutans, another major tallgrass prairie species. Thanks Jeanne for the correction!!
Monday, a dog smiled.
Monday, also sorted seeds from Mom and others to plant now and later in winter.
Monday, got seeds in the mail!!
Monday, a plant hopper on okra.
Sunday stir fry contained garden poblanos and jalapeƱos.