A window of sunshine

This weekend has been lovely, mostly sunny weather.  The next three days are promising rain again, though, so I had to go ahead and get as much planted as I could (including 90 snapdragons and 100 prairie gentians (Lisianthus), along with tomato plants, cucumbers, melons and eggplants).  The ground was still wetter than ideal in many places, particularly where the tomatoes are, but I would lose a week - at least - if I didn't get it all done.

I finally got a bit of grass clippings to use as mulch and put it down where I had large areas of bare soil, such as this bed with Mexican Sunflowers.  They've not been very happy with the cool weather.  Nor have the zinnias.

The arugula patches (above), and the Baker Creek 'Red Wing' lettuce mix (below) have liked it just fine.  Grazing on these babies while I work in the garden has been a treat.

The red lettuces are mixed in with a green highly-lobed leaf variety whose name I don't know, because it came from seed I saved from plants that were in another mix I planted a couple of years ago.  Interspersed are celtuce plants, an oriental lettuce that supposedly develops a tall stalk that's good to eat.  (I'll let you know.)  You can pick them out in the picture: they're the ones with the large spatula-shaped leaves.  It might not have been a good idea to mix them in like that.   They may shade out the others, and then again, they may simply protect the others and give them a little cool shade.  We shall see.

Here's a picture of the celtuce plants (on the right) that I started indoors and set out the first of April.  The rabbits ate them down to the ground, but they're coming back.

The peas are okay with the cooler weather, too.  I'm growing a variety that doesn't require stakes or trellises: 'Improved Maestro'.  I've grown them the past two years, and they're very good, with 4-10 peas per pod and lots of pods.  Last year, however, was so hot and dry from the beginning of May that they didn't produce well.  Fingers crossed this year.  So far, so good.  Other varieties I tried were 'Wando' and 'Green Arrow'.  Neither produced much, both had to be trellised, and the peas weren't nearly as sweet and juicy as 'Improved Maestro'.

I got a good double row stand this year, so hopefully I'll have a nice harvest.  I may lose my paths when they're fully grown.

The tomato plants were already getting root-bound in their 4" pots, so even though the ground was really a little (ok, maybe a lot) too wet, I planted them anyway.  Otherwise, who knows when the next window of opportunity will come?  I don't want to keep potting them up until I've got gallon size plants.

Actually, they'll be fine.  I worked some good, dry composted manure into the soil and sprinkled in some epsom salts.  Well, they'll be fine if it doesn't actually rain all summer.

Here they are, all in their cages.  A tomato zoo.

There are six of them, with a marigold planted between each.

A friend read about a tomato developed by a woman over a 60-year period that's supposed to be delicious, so she (my friend) ordered some seed and asked me to get them growing to try this year.  It's another potato-leaf variety like the 'Missouri Pink Love Apple' that has come to be my variety of choice every year.  The potato-leaf tomatoes are much less common than the regular, highly lobed ones. I'll put in a couple of these myself, to see how they compare.  It's called 'Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian'.  What a pairing of tomatoes by name I'll have this year.

'Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian' tomato seedlings

Bottom: Lisianthus (Prairie Gentian)

Speaking of seeds, I decided to freeze my leftover seeds from this year, as they're supposed to keep for several years that way.  Otherwise, I end up throwing some away and having to buy new within a year or two.  Even keeping them refrigerated, melons and cucumbers (same family: curcurbits) don't germinate well the second year.  I hope it works, as it will save me some money and waste.  And if it doesn't, it will set me back timewise when I have to order more seeds after a failure of germination.  It will work.  Believe.

As for the flower beds, I love the lupines that are starting to bloom.  The seeds don't germinate well, so I only have a half dozen or so plants after three  years of trying.  I watched a video on taking basal cuttings to propagate them, so I'm trying that this year instead of investing in or trying to save more seed.

Rose and perennial beds

I'm growing three varieties of basil: 'Dark Opal' - a purple one, 'Cardinal' - a large leaf green one with beautiful large maroon flower heads, and 'Spicy Bush' - a very small leaf globe variety.  They've all grown very slowly due to the cool temps and lack of sunshine.  I had to start some more of the globe variety, as the perfectly forming 20 plants I had got soaked in a downpour and then stayed cold, so they ended up damping off (the stems rotted at the soil line), and I'm left with only 6 that made it.

The basils and peppers are still quite small since it's been so cool and overcast for so long, so they won't be ready for a while.  Hopefully "a while" will be after the rains have stopped long enough for the ground to be workable.

Top: 'Dark Opal'; bottom: mini bell peppers

The only thing left now to plant are the basil and peppers - the heat lovers.

Oh, and 'Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian'.   😊