Monday in the Garden

 

This Mammoth Sunflower is the tallest one I have ever grown. Only one seed somehow survived after all the birds and squirrels feasted on the last one. My students and I waited for this one to finally show its face since March. It was growing slowly and I can see why. The students were so amazed at the beauty of the flower. It was an overcast day and that made the yellow pop out like the sun.

I had to get on a chair to take this picture. I was afraid of falling off or the chair sinking in. Last Friday, I sprinkled on some composted horse manure in the garden. I can see the difference in the plants already. The buddleia bushes are going crazy with their sprays of bloom. The color below is my favorite. I have 4 different colors in the school garden. We see butterflies all the time.

 My favorite color!

 This is the Charles Darwin. I longed for this rose from many months. Well, it was not what I expected. It is such a creamy white color tinged with yellow. I have a lot of off white/white roses already. I thought the rose was going to be yellow. Maybe I did not read the description in the catalogue carefully.



My Jude the Obscure had signs of rust a few months into ownership. It does not help when the air is also very cool in the community garden. There is rust spores in the soil. I once stripped the whole plant and sprayed it with some organic spray that controls rust. DID NOT WORK. I rather not spray especially when my nose is in contact with the plant. Anyway, a few of the David Austin roses are susceptible to rust. The worst one is The Squire. I have a lot of space between the roses. It is hard to take care of roses. I spent all Saturday just grooming my plants. Grooming takes a long time but in the end, your roses look happy and they will bring more joy in the weeks to come.

I also dug up my stunted BIG RAINBOW tomato plant that had its top broken off by daughter. Since it was not growing properly, I am going to plant BLACK KRIM in its place. I brought two plants from school to get acclimated to the coastal weather. We will see how this one grows.