Show and Tell

A robin enjoys garden 2; taken from inside my car

I don't know how mature these beets will get, but I like the plants so much that I'll always probably plant beets from now on.

First color!

First pick! This is supposed to be deep purple, but who can wait that long?

Cayennes. They're still not red, but they're so pretty.

Grasshopper. My assistant is fascinated by these and wants to catch them all. I'm curious what it is in my garden that they like so much.

I also saw a Monarch butterfly but it wouldn't sit still.

July 2011 took 20 years off my life, but the plants keep growing.

Quick, Real-Time Update

I'll be editing this as I go.

• There's poison ivy by the deck. My holster of Round-Up is ready.
• There's evidence of tomato worms in garden 3, including an amazing moth that fluttered over to the deck. Tomato worms are fascinating, but I'm probably going to permanently make them leave also. I'm not equipped to do that yet.

Pretty Things

Stargazer lilies. They smell like bacon. What more can you say?

The cayenne peppers are so close to ripeness that you can almost feel your mouth burn.

And there are lots of tomato blooms, which pleases and excites me. I'm so ready to make caprese, panzanella, chili, and cuban beans and rice.

It's a Green, Red, Christmasy Fourth

Happy Independence Day! Garden Insanity loves all things America, American, and Americana.

Here are some of today's views.

The hibiscus was a housewarming gift many years ago from my husband's aunt and uncle. I'm very pleased with how well it's done in Michigan (it winters inside). These are its first blooms this year.

We gave it some extra dirt and a lot of water.

It always is very thirsty.

In garden 2, we have a few new sprouts; I think they're green beans.

We found today's requisite lucky clover.

The tomatoes are doing beautifully.

The cayenne peppers continue to do well, and their current color and configuration remind me of Christmas. Spicy, delicious Christmas. It will be like Christmas when get to put some of these peppers in our burritos.

Happy, happy

It has been hot and dry this week. In fact, today's heat index is 101 degrees. Most of the rain that's been promised hasn't shown up. But most of my plants are doing ok.

Happy daisies:

More happy daisies, some happy sunflowers, and some exceedingly happy weeds:

I am reclaiming this little sunflower garden today.

Planting a couple new mega-sunflower plants. Six seeds, to be exact.

But what's this?

Nature beat me to it. Nearly two months after they were planted, these decided to grow.

I still planted more seeds. You can't stop me!

The alleged green beans that were sprouting a couple of days ago shot up toward the sky and now I almost have a proper row. Never mind the quackgrass.

I love green beans!

And my sad little roma tomato plants, including the deer-stomped and munched one, look pretty well today for all that they've been through.

Is This Basil?

What about this?

They certainly should be basil. I think we planted about 600 basil seeds.

I'm going to need some basil soon, to accompany the tomatoes-in-progress.

Now, to wait, and maybe identify a spot to plant cilantro seeds.