Weekly Update: June Week 3

Now for an official week 3 update. Much has gone on this past week despite the crazy rain! I'm just going to post a few notes and snapshots to summarize the high points. We're two weeks out from the Fourth of July and it looks like a real possibility we'll have actual home-grown tomatoes for the 4th! Let's just hope for at least a couple days of sunshine to ripen them up!

And in no particular order:

File under AMAZING and bizarre... This week amid all of the other beautiful bolero pansies I had a completely BLACK pansy bloom! I've never ever seen an all black pansy in my life... the other buds on the same plant are just about to open and they look like they'll be all black too... so it seems like its not just a fluke! I'm going to try and see if I can save the seeds from this one for sure!

The hydrangea continues full speed ahead and has now gone completely pink, a VERY bright pink! Seems to be very happy!

After a relatively slow start the coleus are also up and growing and starting to look a bit more robust... filling in the planter a bit more now which is nice!

On the vegetable front the peas continue to get taller and taller every day. They're officially about 7 feet tall now. I had to add two 8 ft poles for the one pair after they proved too much for the original bamboo stakes that I had added to the tops of the tee-pees. Any higher and ladders will be necessary to reach the top!

Hard to see, but the photo on the left are the two groups with the new 8' poles. The photo on the right is the other set of peas but they've been left to their own devices since it's really one BIG giant mass of peas and cherry tomatoes. After my earlier post saying how fast the peas were racing ahead of the tomatoes, the tomatoes have come back with a vengeance.... They are actually now taller than the peas believe it or not... its one massive HEDGE of peas and tomato!

Lastly a few more flower shots... the orange one is from the nasturtiums growing on the obelisk in the center of the garden and the purple flowers are my heliotropes... now blooming beautifully. Nothing like the smell of heliotropes on a summer evening!