Harvest and pruning

Surprise! A loofah gourd I didn’t plant has already reached the top of the trellis.
Chard, mini bell peppers, and Chimayó peppers.
The Chef found a cutworm in the chard.
I found a big beautiful banana spider (Argiope) in the tomatoes while I harvested! I made sure not to bother her more.
I finally determined the zucchini plant was a total loss to squash vine borers. I also made an executive decision to not let the very thriving white currant tomato plant shade out the moon and stars watermelon or the salvia or the rosemary. There’s only one plant and it’s a monster! I got over 900 g this evening alone.
All tidy now. I hope the watermelon will do better now.
I came inside to find this beautiful meal prepared by the Chef. Greens are chard from the garden and the bell pepper topping is mini bell peppers sliced. Yum. Nice and cool after working in the heat and humidity.

Rainbow garden ready for rain

The marigolds for yellow have started to sprout!
Zinnias continue to sprout.
This picture shows a broader view of the zinnias.
Break time in the backyard. Fun native grass.
I like the yellow near the middle of this red moss rose.
An interesting fly.
Alright back to rainbow garden! These are the recently arrived plants in the clever box. They even put finger holds to help you get the pots out without dumping them out!
Ready for planting.
In the front, two pineapple sage and ‘Jacob Kline’ beebalm, all red.
Looking the other way from purple. Here I added three ‘Diane’ purple Salvia greggii.
Once I got the plants in, I worked on the back trapezoidal bed. I got the general shape of it and the forecast rain over the next few days should let me get it smoother afterwards.

Opening the box

No time to plant until after work, but my live plants arrived this morning!! Very clever packaging. Source was Mountain Valley Growers, in California, a new place for me.

Sunshine!!!

Okay I lied this picture is from when it was still cloudy. But the rest are sunny pictures. Anyways, the Hedeoma is getting larger.
You can see sun and shadows! I’m capturing strawberry runners to get more plants for elsewhere in yard.
A very small William’s pride apple!!
Garlic about to bloom (front) and in bloom (back, blurry, purplish).
Salvia greggii is doing beautifully!!
A lone zucchini bush considers flowering. Last year we had one plant but in a shadier spot and the flowers never “took” and eventually all the leaves got a nasty gray mildew or fungus or something. Hopefully it likes the sun better.

These daffodils better be good

When putting in edging yesterday, we dug up and divided a cluster of non blooming daffodils. From reading the daffodil people’s website, either they hate me or need more sun. It took two hours to get them all in.

It took a long time also because i needed to fill in the dirt along the edging more tidily. You can see the clumpy spot on the sunny side in the middle. I didn’t want to step on the daffodils later, so that needed to happen first.
All the daffodils in place between each Salvia and all the front edging with tidier fill.

More fresh babies

Some in front yard, some in back yard!

Cilantro seeded last fall in herb bed.

I forgot to take a picture of the seedling radishes in the front yard before it got dark. They were ones I planted before the big freeze, on Feb. 5.

Daily field trip continues for veggies and the wildflowers are doing well staying out all night too (n = 1 night).

Field trip for veggies and new home for flowers

It’s warm and sunny in the day and cool but not hard freezes at night. I decided it’s time for plants to see the world!

The evening primroses, Rudbeckia fulgida, and Salvia greggii in their new home. I brought the veggies out for the day but forgot to take a picture before I brought them inside this evening.
Gram is too busy being cozy to worry about the new space opened up in the plant window.

Seeds and apple tree on a drizzling morning

Paula came over and we planted many things, as well as doing some trimming and raking.

The semi-dwarf Arkansas Black Apple arrived.
We planted it and pruned it to ensure it will have lower main branches for ease of picking fruit. The hose there burst in the freeze (I didn’t drain it) so we’re using the break to water it.
We trimmed up the garlic (this picture), as well as Salvia greggii and mealy blue sage.
The potato experiment results say don’t plant potatoes when there’s about to be a major freeze. There was a lot of rot and slime.
We put the leftover seed potatoes in that I had saved from two weeks ago.
Four varieties of cabbage for Paula’s fermentation needs and Wes’ occasional soup needs. As soon as they sprout, the best seedlings will get covered with a jar to protect from bunnies. They seem to be tasty for bunnies. We also planted assorted other cool weather things (greens and carrots).
Better than nothing, Briar says, but why don’t we do something fun instead?

The melting report

To be followed by survival report!

Garlic under the snow from Thursday.
Front nook from Thursday. Dog for scale.
Front nook on Friday. Dog scale not cooperating.
Melting progress in front nook as of Friday night. Dog cooperated this time.
Front nook early afternoon Saturday.
Plant window and herb garden from Friday. The Norman official temperature made it to 32°F.
Plant window and herb bed as of early afternoon Saturday.
Backyard cactus planter, cilantro, and strawberries/saffron bed coverings on Friday.
Not related to melting, there were two crows eating suet mix on Friday.
Front yard raised beds beginning to be exposed again on early afternoon Saturday.