April 25 and April 26

After rereading the last sentence in the April 13 posting, “Howard’s downrigger worked well, but he suspects there may be something wrong w/ the switch,”  I have to stop a moment and solve the mystery of the switch........One of us never bothered reading the directions........ Evidently, the switch turns off automatically and does not need to be depressed the entire time the ball is rising.

Anyway, this weekend, we finally planted the summer garden.  On Saturday the 25th Howard put in the plants:  tomatoes (early girl, husky cherry, celebrity, grape), one eggplant, new chiles, bell pepper, poblano, and dill.

The next day came the seeds that had soaked all night:  limas, black-eyed peas, green beans (blue lake and Kentucky wanderer), corn, cucumber, squash (two yellow and one Mexican), okra, and peanuts.

The onions are huge and the leeks are growing nicely in the barrel. The peas are also good size, but there’s no telling how they’ll react to the hotter temperatures quickly approaching.

The big bed is looking spectacular; it finally looks the way I wanted it to.  I’ve got lots of dianthus in lots of colors, caryopsis, mums, red-hot poker (getting ready to flower), strawberries, salvia (COVERED in bees), and lots of marigolds springing up everywhere. Portulaca has also invited itself over there but I don’t mind---it’ll fill in the spaces without taking over.

The bed should fill out nicely this summer, but next year when the plants return, should be awesome. I also planted two lantanas in the front yard: one next to the driveway and another next to the rock closest to the other driveway.  The third lantana replaced the sweet broom that died in the backyard; that was the second one we killed so that’s it for that plant.

The Mexican broom has been in full bloom for about a week.  UNBELIEVABLE scent coming from those flowers; the plant has doubled in size in the past year.

The small bed is a total disaster.  I’ve dug up the entire right side, searching for Mexican Primrose.  I hate that @#$% plant.  I’m going to let it sit there all summer----no water.  It kills me because the caryopsis is huge and making flowers. I’m going to try and keep the primrose away from it.