LOTB Community Container Garden Update 1

I have been wanting to post about my green children participating in the LOTB Community Container Garden project. Fern came up with the idea of selecting a small variety of plants that can be grown in containers in many climates for her readers to give a try. She figured it'd be cool for many people to be able to give input on the same plants to help each other. She also set up a forum for participants to have one central place to post about it.

So out of the five varieties chosen I am growing 3 because I already had seeds for two and I was excited to hear about the other. I already had my tomatoes and cucs picked out for the year.

Here's how my green babies were doing on April 12, about a month after sowing:

 sunflower Sunspot

This was doing so well I had already potted it in a plastic 12" pot I found somewhere

 basil Purple Petra

 garlic chives

On April 22 I planted another of the Sunspots in one of my tompots from last year with some lettuce Marvel of Four Seasons for contrast. I also tucked in a cambridge blue lobelia that had volunteered in another pot.

On April 29 I stopped by home for lunch and to my horror...

 I have no idea what happened

My best guess is it just got so hot that day it cooked :;(

At least it's two sisters have been flourishing. Here's the tompot one on May 2:

Incidentally, somehow during the month of April I managed to grow a very nice set of nails despite all my mucking about without garden gloves... They've since been broken, cracked, snagged, ragged, clipped & etc.

May 8th I was finally able to transplant the garlic chives into the Utility Rack Planter and I put a basil in with my tomato Mexico Midget.

 

Clint Eastwood is bending to greet them hehehe...

 btw, that 13" pot was $6.99 at Ikea..*hinthint*

 the tompotted sunflower and it's lettuce entourage seem happy

the fudog to the bottom right was a Goodwill find :)

  

it spends its days taunting me with the promise of flowers to come...

There is another sunflower I've left in a 1 gal pot because I can't decide another spot to put it right now. I will also probably grow some more the rest of spring through fall.

Oh, and instead of thinning the basil seedlings I managed to carefully separate them so I now have 5 more transplants. I am going to pot a couple of them and if anyone in the LA area would like the others lemme know...

So as of today the sunflowers have still not yet bloomed :( The anticipation is making me antsy :/ I'm hoping by this weekend the chives will be doing well enough I can snip some to put in a meal. I don't think I'll glean anything off the basil for a few more weeks.

And that's it, we're all caught up on my Community Container Garden :) Good luck to everyone else participating too!

Belated Bloom Day May 2011

 I didn't have time or access to a computer yesterday, but damnit I want to share my flowers! So here they go :) First the backyard containers:

cosmo Seashells Blend

common chives & lobelia

I think these may be a creeping Jenny, they came home hiding in fountain grass from the nursery two years ago. I like the peach colored flowers which only open in sunlight (it was cloudy when I took the pic)

And this is a calendula Kablooma,  not quite what I was hoping it would be :/

 annual blue salvia among my tomatos

 common thyme

 heliotrope :)

alyssum

 the new tomatoes are finally blooming!

nasturtium Alaska

I allow some oxalis with lavender/pink flowers to hang around

 I'm highly surprised that my pansies Bewitch'd are still around this late into spring

 lots of alyssum this year, bringing tons of hover flies  :)

MYSTERY PLANT!

Three of these have come up so far. I think they may be volunteers from my guara last year (which have since been transplanted to the rental property). The plants are tall and thin, the flowers miniscule and they keep disappearing (see the stumps?). The blooms don't look like the guara though. Any ideas out there?

strawberry Fragola Quattro Stagioni

The other Sequoia are blooming too, but forgot to photo them

 my peach miniature roses (99 cent store find!) are starting to bloom again :)

I think this is the purtiest onion flower head I've seen :)

and my new yellow milkweed (more on this emergency purchase later)

And now the front  yard:

Da's shastas are going nuts

 the sweet pea Princess Elizabeth

They had been blooming wonderfully, but yesterday they were down to the last and it was time to cut them down. That was the last photo I took, and of course saved some seed pods.

 the geraniums (unknown variety) by the front gate are back in their full glory

 Da's lavender rosebush is happy again

 I've added kalanchoe from the 99 Cent Store along the strip behind the sliding gate

 the blue butterfly bush is coming out nicely again :)

 we've got a profusion of calendula Zeolights by way of a seed trade with Mike - thanks dude!

 Yarrow in the gate strip

 a volunteer nasturtium Alaska that popped up by the yarrow

 Da's new Peace rose just planted a few weeks ago, the snap dragons around it aren't blooming yet :(

 

 this second year scabiosa Isaac's House it finally blooming, I was hoping for a more bluish tint

 and no clue why but the bluebells have been doing terribly this spring, perhaps too wet?

anyway, finally got some going with Da's new Beloved rosebush

 still ridiculously happy the larkspur Shades of Blue which are actually purple :/ re-seeded itself :)

 new sweet lavender in the front

 the statice that refuses to die :)

I finally have borage! and it's a bee magnet as promised :)

 a new geranium I got for Ma, forget the variety...

zinnia Art Deco is finally opening up :)

 another

lobelia Crystal Palace recently transplanted below the white rosebush

 and Da's white roses

and of course you can't leave without admiring my Felis catus "Watching You"

Other things blooming that didn't photograph well are my new spanish lavendar and lavender Lemon Leigh, columbine, morning glory Heavenly Blue and an unknown purple morning glory.

The poppy Mission Bells and Lauren's Grape were already spent and whacked down for the year :'(

I was very frustrated that my bolted lettuces and sunflower for the Community Container Garden project are budding budding budding - and not yet bloomed in time :P

Happy Belated Bloom Day to everyone!