The good, the bad, and the ugly...

Gardening is one of those bitter sweet vocations. You love and care for each little plant and some turn out wonderful and abundant, while others turn up their toes and shrivel away. I should know this already, as my mom and dad raised us children (my brother, sister and self) all the same way - and yet I began biting people when I was two years old. and my brother and sister seemed perfectly ok. (this was 27 years ago - I have since stopped biting people... for now)

Well, this year in my garden it is no different. One plant looks like something a not too fastidious cat dragged in the night before, while the other abounds and even needs extra staking. If Shakespeare were around, he would probably nudge the fellow next to him and say, "What meat doth this tomato plant eat to have grown so large!". Below are a few examples in my yard. All were planted at the same time, had the same watering and fertilizing schedule, and the same sunlight - yet the results are quite different. I guess it is all part of the zest and spice of life.

Tomatoes

Alyssum 

Sweet Peas

Sunset in July of 2012

Well, enough with the philosophizing. Time to turn in and retire to "Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care, the death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast."

All quiet on the gardening front...

I stole this title from Bernie H at My Dry Tropics Garden. It seemed so apt to this weekend though. You can totter over there and see much better pictures, prettier birds, and nicer flowers...or if you want to stick around I'll tell you a bit more about my weekend.
After much deliberation, reading, and emails to that wonderful mastergardener mother of mine; I have finally decided what is going to be in my winter garden. I will post the order next week after payday. I was looking for cold hardy veggies that I feel comfortable eating. There are lots that look fun and might be nice, but I've never heard of. It isn't always bad to branch out. I now have many uses for green onions, beets, spinach, and sugar snap peas that the over abundance of harvest made necessary. Just the joys of gardening!
Back to the winter garden, I and going to get Endives, a baby leaf lettuce mix (baby leaf is supposed to hold up to winter freezes better), radishes, scallions, spinach, swiss chard, carrots, and Mache. We don't have the extreme weather here in either winter or summer, (knock on wood) so I don't foresee any problems, but only time will tell. Depending on the maturity dates, I will plant these late August onward in my hoophouse and cold frames. The front garden should be able to carry us into the fall harvest easily.
There is the type of young man, whom, or it may be who, if you handed him beauty on a skewer, he wouldn't know what to do with it. I am not that type of deplorable miscreant. The flowers are in bloom, the weeds are at bay, and the smells devine. Besides the arduous task of thinking, I didn't have much to do but enjoy the weekend.(my wife wants me to edge the drive ways and walk ways, but that almost sounded like work) I did clean our a few overgrown lettuce plants and broccoli plants, but I'll reseed them today. Mostly though, there was a lot of rambling, a little watering, and much enjoyment.
The hummingbirds are loving the butterfly bushes in bloom and the bees cause a veritable hum around the area. All in all it was one of those relaxing and enjoyable weekends.

Do you think the red leaf lettuce bolted?

Some summer squash is ready! the kind on the right is called starship summer squash.