Garden update

Well, the elm/whatever they might be half alive twigs and branches are still undecided if they are going to get living or dying. They aren't hurting anything in the space where they are making their decision, so i've let them alone for now.

It's been dry here, the driest I've ever seen, but we've got some rain falling today and should be falling over the next three or so. We need it.

I had some sweet potatoes that decided to sprout. I decided to put them in planters i made from two largish totes to see how they fare. If I'm successful, I'll have some sweet potatoes, and i can pick up the totes and move them indoors should the weather prove too cold near the end of the season. From what i've read they take anywhere from 100 to 120 days to mature, and I know some years we haven't had that many frost-free days.

Still, it cost very little to try the experiment. The totes can be used again as container for other plants and i had the potting soil and compost already on hand. I tested out the drainage upon initial watering, and was satisfied with how well it worked. I placed the totes on the south side of the yard beside the beans i planted in the little beds at the end of the deck.

The bean plants are looking well. At last count, I have 14 green beans and as many wax bean plants. I espied birds flying close them when they first sprouted and didn't cover the beds with any sort of covering, so birds may have made off with a sprout or two. I had planted about 20 seeds of each.

I also planted peas, one kind for shelling and the other snow peas. Those are happily climbing their way up the upside tomato cages. Yes, I was late planting those, it was just one of those years.

The tomato and pepper plants have been happy with the heat. On the local facebook marketplace page, someone was offering free tomato plants. I picked up a few as insurance. She had a greenhouse, which was new for her, and planted what she'd normally plant. The greenhouse was a much better way to start plants, she found out, as nearly every seed sprouted, leaving her with loads of plants. She also had friends and family ask her to plant some for them, which she had, but their idea of some and hers differed greatly. They thought of "some" as 3 or 4 plants, and she saw it as a dozen or so. Then, some of the tags were missing, so she wasn't sure what was what. She could guess a few, but the rest? Mystery tomatoes.

Who doesn't love a good mystery? I took some, she refused any money for them (although she did ask that we bring out own pots so she could keep hers, which i was glad to do), and most of the mystery tomatoes were happy to be transplanted.

I had a volunteer pansy plant and daisies in the garden space, which i didn't pull out, and a giant plant i cannot identify. At first i wondered if it's Good King Henry, which i first tried growing, but it never took. From pictures I've seen on the Web, it appears not to be that. The leaves are pointed like tridents. There's an herb farm near me, but they are not open to the public at this time, so i can't do my usual, which is to take a leaf and ask. Maybe they'll respond to an email.

I set out some strawberry plants three years ago, in a spot that is just a little too shaded. They have decided to bear this year, and I'm not the only critter who took note. We've had quite a few nibbled berries when we've gone to pick them. A bunch of black-eye susans which i didn't plant decided they wanted to be with the strawberries, so that doesn't help the strawberries at all.

In spring, I saw two flowers on the cornelian cherry bushes I planted two years ago, so I hope those two flowers give two fruits and are a harbinger of yummy times ahead.

The lupines have finished, the milkweed is opening, lilies greet the rain. It is summer.