Blooming Natives

Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens

Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Coreopsis lanceolata

Oakleaf Hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia

The Ladybug

Lots of Tomatoes Fruiting

All the tomatoes have a good bit of fruit set.

Liguria Tomato

Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes

Even the Jalapenos have peppers...

And I need more ladybugs.  Aphids are attacking the zipper peas and onions.

Wonderful Peas

The sugar snap peas have been delicious.

Survived!

Everything survived the couple of freezing nights and is thriving again since temps have been in the upper 70s and low 80s.

I bought a few more plants:

Rosita eggplant
Casper eggplant
Black Beauty eggplant
Rosa Bianca eggplant
Iko Iko sweet pepper
A few hot chilis (cayenne-like?)
Jalapeno pepper

I'm still on the hunt for Thai chili peppers.

I also bought some flowering plants to help attract pollinators. I enjoy red pentas, any petunias, any million bells, and marigolds do double duty planted in with the tomatoes.

The tomatoes are blooming and beginning to fruit.  Some of them have funny muli-flower blooms... Opinions on that are mixed, so I am leaving them alone.

The sugar snap peas have been heavy with blooms, and I picked my first pods today.  Lots more peas to come!

Night 2 Freeze

Well, tonight's supposed to be even colder, so I added even more blankets to the tomato tent.  Here's hoping!

Oops... Freeze

Going to have to tuck in the tomatoes for the next few nights as the temperatures reach freezing.  Will be interesting to see how they take it.

Sugar Sprint Peas

When looking for winter/spring seeds last year, I was browsing the smaller, dwarf varieties since my garden is small and I grow many things in containers.  I happened upon Sugar Sprint Peas from Johnny's Seeds.  The vines grow 2 ft. tall.  I did decide to give mine some support, and with plenty of water and some warm sunny days, they are full of blooms. 

I like their delicate white blossoms.  Peas have been fairly easy to grow.  They do a good job feeding themselves, collecting nitrogen from the air and fixing it to the soil.  Really, they just need watering.

Someone else thinks their bright green vines look like a bed of wriggly lizard tails...

The green onions are just waiting to be pulled at this point.  Also, more lizards?

She ate all my carrots this year, but they all were dog-bite-sized anyway (so I dug them up and gave them to her).

More Tomatoes

I added 3 more tomatoes.  Here's a list of what's planted (one of each, 12 total):

• Cherokee Purple
• Liguria
• Dr. Marvel PhD (local variety)
• Farmer Herman's Little Yeller (local variety)
• Rosella Purple Dwarf (determinate)
• Red Patio (determinate)
• Black Cherry
• Matt's Wild Cherry
• Jaune Flamme
• Eva Purple Ball
• Nyagous
• Paul Robeson

The sugar snap peas are just starting to bloom.

Tomatoes

I bought 9 tomato plants and got them in containers over the weekend.

Spring 2017

Planning to take gardening lightly this year.  I'm waiting for the seedlings to be available at the plant nurseries.  I'm mostly interested in hot peppers (thai hot chili, jalapeno, serrano) and tomatoes (cherry and slicing).

Most of the drier herbs are starting to come back.  I think one of three thyme plants is dead, but it gave me 2 years.  The parsley also over wintered and hasn't stopped putting out new growth.

I don't plan on buying any veggie seeds, but I did get some free from the library:

Mortgage Lifter Tomato - started today

Genovese Basil - started today
Zipper Peas - Direct sew in Mar/Apr

I had to laugh at the Zipper peas. Not sure how many peas a couple of plants will produce, but it'll be fun.

I also recently sewed some sugar snap peas, and they are an inch or so above ground now.

Otherwise, I have some cold weather holdovers (carrots, green onions, lettuce, cilantro).  Only the onions are worth the effort, but the dog has enjoyed all of the carrots.

The native plants are starting to show life again.  Here's the passiflora coming back from the ground.