Garden Catch Up

I am including a few pictures of my garden and of Sophie, cousin to Ferdinand the bull.

After a week with a combination of rain/thunderstorms, feeling under the weather and stifling heat, I finally got outside yesterday morning. It was cloudy, but surprising cool and no threat of immediate rain. I weeded all my flowerbeds and planted the few last minute pots of annuals I had purchased. I will NOT walk through Home Depots Garden Center again, I will NOT. I was pleasantly surprised to see that several of my tiger lilies, planted this spring, are sending up flower spikes. I did not expect to see any flowers till next year. The best surprise is how lovely the portulacas are. I really bought them because I remember my dad planting them and I liked the fleshy leaves. Well, they are the loveliest little flowers. I looked them up and they are also called moss roses and I can see why. They are bright colored jewels of all different colors. They will be on my permanent list of annuals from now on.

I saved the vegetable garden for last. It was decimated by a marauding gang of ground hogs and their chipmunk flunkies. Then totally overgrown by a week of neglect and rain. I managed to clear out the front section and found rows of flat leaf parsley and cilantro. I planted a pot of each to give the little seedlings encouragement. I found half a dozen carrots that fought their way through the purslane and crab grass. I looked up purslane and it is a very healthy salad plant and it is quite tasty. I am thinking I should just abandon the garden to its whims. However, the tomatoes and hot peppers look like they will march up to the house and demand to make sauce out of me. You can see them in the picture on the far right) I guess that Miracle Grow was worth it.