Sleepy squash blossoms

I love how these squash blossoms really look like they're in the fetal position... sleepy and waking up slowly as they grow.

Tomato buds?

Will these buds become tomatoes? Or more branches? Pretty weird and fuzzy and alien-looking, huh?

The squash race.

Here's an interesting study: plant four healthy squash plants in two different pots (one green, one blue) and put them on opposite ends of the garden. See which one grows faster.

Blue bin squash: for a while, this one had the most blossoms. But other than a little growth, these guys are still roughly the same size that they were when I moved them outside.



Now take in the green bin squash. I wonder if Chris has been adding something magic to them when I'm not looking.





It's a race for a squash... I'll keep you updated.

HOLY CRUD, IT'S A SUNFLOWER!

I mean, I planted those seeds and put some water in the pot everyday and stuck the pot in the sun, but I think in the back of my mind I was always pretty sure that sunflowers were not going to come out of that process. Not Van Gogh-worthy sunflowers!

And yet here's one, the smallest one, who just opened itself this morning. This is awesome.

Face plant into a flower by a bee.

This bee loves one of our Calibracoa (million bells) plants. Yesterday I caught him flirting with some pretty orange ones, yellow pollen dust following him out of each flower he met.

Mushrooms and pea recipes

Something magical happened yesterday in the garden. Maybe it was the 88 degree weather or maybe it was the presence of the new Gardenia or maybe it was the rain from a couple of passing thunderstorms, but this morning presented me with some weird stuff in the garden.

Most notably, these mushrooms in the tomato plant pot:




Weird, right? I swear they were not there yesterday when I watered.

The pea plants are presenting me with a new challenge: how can you use a handful of pea pods on a regular basis? Today I added them to my leftover spaghetti for lunch:



More pea cooking solutions to come, I hope. In fact, that would be a great blog: "Things to do with 6 pea pods." Someone create that and I'll be your biggest fan.

Around the garden this morning...

I just ate a bunch of pea pods in a stir fry this weekend and these guys are already big enough to eat.

More and more leaves growing on the squash, which had a rough transition outdoors.

With the purchase of my Gardenia, I had a new container to fill. A couple of random cucumber plants now call it home.

The Gardenia loving its first morning at home.