This and That: A Blog

  Spintop Mango Blanketflower I bought two of these at the FFA sale last year.  I missed the sale this year, they had it earlier than usual and I didn't check their site until too late.  One lovely lettuce that snails didn't get.  Lots of Hood June-bearing strawberries.  Small but very sweet. I don't know where this foxglove came from, I've never planted any.  The photo on the right shows the hole nectar robbing bees left.  Bees to large to get to the nectar will chew holes.  Other bees are learning  that the holes make it easy to reach the nectar and using them, which skips pollination.  Some populations of foxglove and columbine have reduced numbers of seeds.  I love black cumin.  It's not a cumin at all, it's related to love-in-a-mist.  That's pretty easy to tell!   This is love-in-the-mist.  As fat as this bumblebee is, it has no trouble getting into the Dazzler penstemon blooms. 

I bought two tomato plants around the corner. Or, two corners, like if I were to walk halfway around the block.  A woman had grown them from Baker Creek seeds and was selling them for $2 each.  I got my favorite, the reliable Sungold and a Pantano Romanesco , which they say has flesh " rich, flavorful, and juicy ." I also have a volunteer Sungold from last year's plant.  I had a larger one a while back, but a late freeze got it.  Nice shadow!  No one really needs more than one Sungold , but I didn't know this was going to show up. My June-bearing strawberries are a little earlier than last year, but only by a few weeks.  They taste nothing like the kind you buy in stores! There's a little Chinese elm that came up in a pocket of a terra-cotta pot.  It's a few years old now.  I just let it be. Purple tansy is blooming in the compost pile.  I tossed the old plants in there years ago and get volunteers each spring.   I like how the f...

 Woolly Apple mint is a reliable invasive!  One of the self-seeded Sungold tomatoes.  I guess I won't have to buy any plants this year!    Star of Bethlehem is a weed that's hard to get rid of, but it sure is pretty.  Hopefully it stays cool enough for the snap peas to reach maturity.  They are in no hurry this year.  One of the oreganos pops up all over the yard.  It's pretty, so I don't mind. Golden Oregano  Geum Fire Storm  One of the free curb irises is blooming.  As are the California poppies.  I think 99% of them came up in the paths not the beds.    I'm already pulling them out. The globe artichoke is coming back nicely.  The weather's been nice, cool mornings and warm afternoons in the 70s.  By the weekend it will cool off though, with rain expected in a few days.   That might give the peas a chance!