Garden Update

Excuse the weeds! The peas are growing nicely and some are beginning to flower. The varieties have different lengths of time to harvest. The rows will ripen from right to left. I don't worry much about weeding the peas once they have a good start. They will be all picked by mid-late July and then the area will be tilled, obliterating the weeds.

I like to plant annual flowers for the color and to attract pollinators to the veggie garden. Sunday I planted out 22 zinnias, started in the cold frame. Half are a cactus flowered variety and half are California Giants.

And, I planted out 15 four o'clocks, one of my all-time favorite flowers, also started in the cold frame. They are the 'broken colors' variety.

They look quite lost out in the big garden, but hopefully will soon take off growing and provide lots of mid-late summer blooms. Ignore the burn pile in the foreground!

The latest blooms are so fragrant. There are lovely hesperis and lupines in the butterfly garden...

...along with these hardy geraniums.

A little patch of white daisies are blooming by the back door of the house.

I love these daisies in shades of pink!

The snow in summer is bright, glowing white at night. It is in a raised bed next to the patio with the lilies that will bloom later in the summer.

The weigala shrubs, another of my all-time favorite flowers, are blooming once again.

Also over the weekend, I planted out cucumber, yellow summer squash and cosmos seedlings that were started in the cold frame or just under clear plastic flat covers. They went into the black plastic mulch. I direct sowed seeds including sunflowers, pumpkins, gourds and squash. I intermixed them all. Hopefully they will come up densely and smother out weeds!

Next up, I have to direct sow the string bean seeds and some lettuces.