Veggie Garden - Update

Here's the Veggie garden a month later:

Well so far most everything is still alive after a month of being in the ground, which is further than I was last year...Today I put some veggie fertilizer down because some of the plants are looking a little yellowish, and since the flowers have tended to dry up rather than turn a color and fall off, I'm thinking there is some kind of nutrient deficiency... Hopefully the generic veggie food will help.

The Tomatos are looking the most promising, there are two regular and five cherry with little green fruits on them that will be ready to eat in a few weeks.

The corn is starting to come up they are about 4" tall, the sunflowers are doing well so far, and the squash is taking off.

The cucumbers are bouncing back from getting a little crispy over an overly hot weekend, there are two miniscule cucks starting...

The potato died - but left me one small new spud. It was a transplant that grew in my compost heap.

The cantelope is not looking like it's going to make it, I think a squirrel sat on it and cruched it. The Garbanzo bean plant was attacked and two of the three "branches" were snapped off.

Oh - The dog is well trained and stays out of the raised bed. Even if the ball falls into the bed during a game of fetch she'll just stand at the edge and look at you to get the ball for her.

Scarlet Monkeyflower

 

The Scarlet Monkey flower that are in the wine barrels #2 & #3, are blooming today.

I planted this last summer, and it came back strong this year, especially in wine barrel #2 which gets more shade than wine barrel #3. This relative of the sticky monkeyflower has large red blooms (great hummingbird attractor), and fuzzy leaves, and the crickets that have been eating my annuals and fruit totally leave this plant alone.

Neirembergia

This Neirembergia (purple robe) I planted in a small raised planter (I use this term lightly - we do rent after all) two summers ago. I've tried a number of plants in this area, but only a few have held on, as this spot is shady in the morning and evening but gets direct mid-day sun. This plant is one of them, it blooms in the summer for a few weeks and is very showy.

The two other plants shown in this photo is rosemary (in foreground) and Dusty Miller (in background).

New Pots - update

 

I went shopping for a plant for the empty spot in the large pot, and found a great heliotrope to go with the Purple fountain grass, Impomena, and Trachelium.

I also found a great little geranium that has a dark purple bloom that I put in the small pot along with the black mondo grass, and wooley thyme.

New Pots

I found these awesome gun metal grey pots at my local nursery chain
Navlet's and as a bonus they were much less expensive than most of the other pots carried there. I bought the medium sized one first, and purchased the salvia to go in it, since they are a perfect color coordination. I had the lantana and thyme already at home and potted them together.

I loved it so much that I went back and got the large and small pots. These I filled with plants I already had at home. In the large pot is a trachelium, some purple fountain grass, and ipomoea, and in the small pot - a chunk of black mondo grass I divided off of a plant I have, and some thyme.  I think I need an additional plant to go into the large pot.

Wine Barrel #3

This barrel gets the most direct sun and has definitely suffered because of it.

The euphorbia in this barrel same type as is in barrel #1, but it is significantly smaller, and has not bloomed. (at very top of barrel)

The one plant that really took off this spring was the Yarrow (white bloom on right). In fact, It's looking a little invasive.

Here's a list of plants in this barrel:

• Scarlet Monkeyflower (center)
• Tobacco (Hot Chocolate) (center tall)
• nastursium (Vanilla Berry - from seed this year) (upper left)
• osteospurmum (pink sand)
• silene laciniata (barely holding on)
• white CA Poppy (from seed this year - very small)
• Forget-me-not

 

I also added another Achilbe (Yarrow - summer pastels), and a

Wine Barrel #2

 

The large plant in the middle of this barrel is a scarlet monkey flower - a CA native. It completely died back during the winter, and I was surprised to find it come back better than ever this spring. It's just now getting ready to bloom.

There are two other plants that hung on from last year but so far are just hanging on. A delphinium (belladona 'Cliyeden Beauty'), which you can't see in this picture, and a Salvia (clevlandii), at the very back.

I tried growing a few seeds in here to fill in, but the sweet pea seedlings were promptly eaten up by some garden pest; and the CA bluebells did not take off. I also planted some morning glory seeds, which I have been trying to grow for years with NO success, and there is one lone 2" seedling that has survived...we'll see if it gets established and actually becomes a plant.

I put the other two plants in to add a little color while I wait for the scarlet monkey flower to bloom. The one on the left that trails is a Calibrachoa (superbells Dreamsicle) that I picked up at Home Depot, and the one on the left is a gorgeous little rust-colored pansy called Delta Fire I found at Sierra Nursery in Roseville, CA

 

Wine Barrel #1

I have a few wine barrels that I planted with mostly native plants last summer, this is #1.

 

This one did the best, I think because it didn't get quite as much late afternoon sun as the others. In it there is sticky monkey flower (orange blooms), blue-eyed grass, euphorbia, the bat faced cuphea, and a delphinum(not blooming in this picture). It also had carrots that didn't do so well...but I'm thinking I didn't leave them in long enough.