You Grow Girl™

I took 49 photos this morning, approximately 45 of which are just bad. I don't know what's going on today. I tried to take a photo of the first open tomatillo flower but all the pictures stink. Since last year's flowers and this year's flowers are identical (despite different varieties) I thought I'd just cheat and post last year's photo here.

The hollyhocks are blooming. I'm still not convinced that I even like hollyhocks. If you have ever seen or grown a hollyhock that didn't end up with rust disease then I'd like to hear about it and your special tricks. Every hollyhock plant I ever see is ravaged with rust disease. Mine are kind of a pleasant surprise because I had no idea what I was going to end up with when I planted them last spring (holyhocks are biennials). Thankfully I ended up with a nice deep crimson red and a white flowered plant.

The bergamot is also blooming for the first time. I had hoped it was a red flower but I'm not disappointed by the pink. I really love the herb pool it is growing in. It has been a real success. Once a week I sit next to it and smell all the leaves and flowers of the various herbs. I really haven't used any of the plants for anything, but it's nice to look at and smell the various herbs. Some of them have attracted ladybugs which is exciting. No ladybug eggs or larvae yet though.

Davin's Tree

When we expanded the garden downstairs in the spring, we dug up an unknown tree that had sprung up since last summer. We figured whatever it was, it was too big to grow so close to a wall. Removing it was a lot of work but we managed it. We put the tree in one of the large containers I had purchased for growing tomatoes in hoping it would recover from the digging. Zesty had expressed interest in taking the tree to plant in her yard. At first the tree did really poorly and dropped all its leaves. But eventually it began to grow new leaves and it now looks great. I mentioned to Davin that Zesty was going to come and take it and he was upset. He had grown to love the tree and wanted to keep it. I just wanted the container for growing more tomatoes. When I mentioned to my friend and neighbour Jen that Davin wanted to keep the tree she said she had seen him lovingly pruning dead leaves from the tree more than once. Inevitably I realised that with all the plants I have, who am I to deny him the one plant he is really interested in. So as long as he waters it and takes care of it we now have a tree growing on our deck.