Eh, it's just some cosmetic damage

I am quite impressed with the size of all the plants this year. I'm not attributing this to a magical green thumb, but rather the combination of a mild winter and sunny skies much earlier than anticipated.  It's amazing to see the daisies I started in the tub last year, they are nearly as tall as me.  Same way with the catnip I started last year.  Best of all, the hollyhocks I started mid summer are covered in buds and two of the nine are taller than me.  I have a couple of mini ones, I hit them with the mower a few times this year (oops) but they've recovered nicely and at a foot tall have many buds!  The down side of this is the rust.  Yes, dreaded rust, just like on your precious 87 Toyota.  I can save you a trip to Wikipedia:

Puccinia malvacearum, also known as hollyhock rust, is a species within the Puccinia genus known for attacking members of the Malvaceae family. An autoecious pathogen, it can complete its life cycle using a single host. 
Yuck.  The short end of it is rust is a nasty fungus that attacks only hollyhocks & their BFFs.  They get these gross little spots that aren't bad on the tops (see below) but do look pretty funky on the bottom.  Basically it will munch up the whole damn leaf and it's a dried up skeleton.  Kiss your big leaves goodbye.

Exhibit A, some rusty ass leaves.

I've already attempted to control the problem by cutting off the foliage & treating with fungicide.  Recent rains have not helped my problem and the rust continues to spread.  It's not jut the leaves, either.  I see spots on the stalk & I've even seen a few contaminated buds.  Depending on the location of the different hollyhocks some have it much worse than others.  As I said I've tried containing it and it's just not working well for me.  I don't want to cut them down.  They are very tall and are covered in buds, and I just wanted to see a flower damnit.  Two days ago I saw the first bits of color poking out, and this morning two (same plant) had bloomed.  There are also three more buds ready to burst and I say flower away!  I do have two plants sort of marked for execution as they aren't much more than leaves poking out of the ground, but any of them with buds can hang out - let's see what happens.  I'll look past your leprosy, little hollyhock!

It's so beautious!

Gardening 101

Way back in February I planted this year's garden.  Inside of course, as February in PA is not exactly the best time to start horticultural endeavors outdoors.  I had leafed through the Burpee catalog numerous times through the winter and had found my DREAM indoor seed starting shelf (multi-levels, adjustable lights) for the low low price of $275.  Ouch.  Shawn took a look at what I was after and decided he could construct something much less expensive and voila!  After a trip to Lowe's I am now the proud owner of this contraption:

Plastic shelving + lights + small chains & hooks  =
SUPERB seedling factory

This cost less than $100 vs. nearly $300 - I'll take this one any day.  It has been working excellent, I was able to keep the lights super low when the seeds were sprouting and raised them as the plants got larger.  Two months into my indoor garden and we've got nice plants that are ready to start the outdoor lifestyle.

Luffa, strawberries, & columbine

Peppers!  The four in the center are actually pepperonici grown from seeds I saved from last year's crop.

Even more peppers also some eggplants and cucumbers.

oOoooOoo

I just noticed I never shared this lovely lily in front of the shed that bloomed while we were on vacation.

Random flowers

These lilies are HUGE and smell phenomenal.

Bee nice to the helenium, sir!

This bright pink dianthus just sprung up out of nowhere.
I wish more flowers would plant themselves.

Mmmm, sunflowers

Well, I used to have 15 sunflowers growing until something munched about 95% of the row.  I do believe I have found the culprit:

It's impossible to be angry when he's so cute.

In bloom

Lots of cheery looking flowers blooming through the yard.

Petunias

Spiderwort

Sweet William

Pansy

Marigold

Foxglove

Columbine

Bubble stuck on the lambs ear

Rain, rain, it's kind of OK.

I know sometimes rain is a pain (sorry about the awful rhyme there) but often times it offers a good photo opportunity .

I'm delighted to see these violets all through the yard

Lovely bleeding hearts

Just a weed.

A fly...  probably pooping on the pansy.

Ew, hairy fly.

Misty lobelia

Outdoor trials

Last week the plants made the transition from bath tub to the great outdoors.  I wanted them to spend a week getting used to the elements before they ended up in the garden.  

Of course I couldn't leave them that exposed so they were temporarily housed in some open boxes for the next week.  Shawn put a net over the top to further protect them from any sticks or other debris that may be floating around.  Everything did quite well - no plant casualties & lots of rain followed by sun.  All in all a great week to start the plants outside.  

YARD 4 SALE

Last weekend's yard sale was a success!  We had a good time, got some sun, and most importantly MADE SOME MONEY!  Shawn and I had enough to get supplies to finish up the yard - lots of mulch and (of course) some clearance plants.

Ketchup, er, CATCH up

Okay, moving on to this week!  Sunday started off with a trip to the flea.  I love the flea market for so many reasons.  Great bargains, horribly over priced junk, and such a colorful crowd.  This week we came home with a few large jars, spoons, and a great deal of produce.  We also shared a fresh squeezed fruit drink from a gentleman who's sign proclaimed IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER!  I have to admit it's a pretty fantastic sales pitch, definitely what lured me in for a sip.  I won't say my life has changed, but it was a very refreshing beverage for sure.  There were a few items that I rather regret not purchasing: a multitude of VHS tapes, several crusty aquariums, and a hamster ball sans lid.  After the flea we did some work out in the yard.  Shawn dug up a new flower bed for me and pulled up all the bricks out front to use for edger.  I planted the columbine, irises, and a few lilies in the new flower bed, got two rows of onions in the garden, and cleaned up the little flower bed under the tree out back.

 

It's only exciting because everything you see there are plants that returned from last year, and they were all wildflower seeds I had sort of tossed outside.  Bit of a surprise, though, two of the plants are catnip!  Forrest and Roxxy will be delighted.  Julie stopped by in the afternoon and we crafted a few cards for Operation Write Home.  They are a wonderful organization that sends thousands of cards to the men and women deployed all over the world, please take a minute to check out OWH.  Halfway into our card making, Shawn discovered the internet was not functioning.  I did all the troubleshooting in the world, then we checked the TV, and discovered it was out.  It seems as though in creating a new flower bed we snipped the cable!  Shawn replaced the damage section of cable but the web never did return so I had to call Comcast for a tech.  Monday a nice young man from Comcast came out and restored the web - hooray!  The cable Shawn had installed was just old, so he replaced that and we were back online.  Tuesday turned out to be my lucky day, I ripped my foot open on a floor vent in the living room, burned my thumb on a steamer bag, and dipped the tip of my index finger in hot vegetable oil.  No need to relive any of that nonsense.

nine

Exciting day today, recieved my shipment from  Holland Bulb Farms.  Exciting until I starting going through it and noticed that two of the items I ordered are just bags of dirt. No plant. These things happen - I've contacted them & I'm certain they'll resolve the issue.  More about those once they are planted :)  In other gardening news, the garden tub is moving right  along. It's been 9 days since the last pictures and there's quite a difference in the plants.   

Tomatoes

Basil

Cucumber

Cilantro

Audrey III

More pumpkins

These plants never cease to amaze me.  I still can't believe I've grown all this stuff from seeds - I am someone who has killed many a cacti in my life!  The weather just needs to behave so I can start beautifying the yard instead of the bathtub.  Poor Shawn, there's about to be some bulbs in the refrigerator...  

Right next to the nail polish!

Improving the view

I decided to plant the daffodils that my friend dug up for me along with the Tête-à-Têtes from Daffodil Days.  Yesterday's rain made for easy digging today - most of the daffodils ended up beside the rocks along the driveway.  I'll be glad when the fresh dirt blends in a bit more and doesn't look like weird mulch.

Feed me, Seymour!

I really am so glad that spring is here, and the crocuses are equally delighted.  The plants indoors are also doing quite well.  I am attempting to grow our garden from scratch this year, which ought to be interesting.   I started a number of plants in a Burpee kit as well as some in a Jiffy kit.  The Burpee kit is well worth the extra money, I had less than 5 cells out of 72 that did not sprout....  the Jiffy kit only sprouted in 2/3 of the cells.  Even more interesting, after I transplanted everything out of the Burpee kit - 3 more seeds sprouted!  Of course the plants couldn't spend their entire lives on the counter so they got moved...

Directly into the bathtub.  But it is a garden tub so it seems appropriate.  I know, I'm kind of a hillbilly but I tell you what it makes a fine greenhouse, and the styrofoam cups make marvelous planters!  There are currently 16 pepper plants (4 varieties), 6 tomato plants (2 varieties), a LOT of pansies, butterfly weed, daisies, snapdragons and bachelor's buttons, 7 cucumbers, some chives, catnip, basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, 2 pumpkins and two BIG MAX pumpkins.  That would be what the monster plant in the lower right is.  Audrey III, if you will.

Close up of the fangs:

Seriously that thing grows at an alarming rate.  One morning it will be a scene out of Little Shop of Horrors.  I am thrilled to see it grow so much even if it is a little creepy, and I hope that it lives up to the Big Max name.  Seems like Audrey III is on the right path to producing a 100 pound pumpkin!  

The regular pumpkins are trying to catch up:

So are the cucumbers:

Meanwhile, on the other side of the tub, peppers work on their second set of leaves:

While the neighboring tomatoes just go crazy.  

In the background are salsa tomatoes, with the Supersteak Hybrid up front.  

Most fruits off these bad boys weigh in at 2 lbs.  Now that's a tomato!  I've started watering the seedlings via spray bottle on a daily basis.  It's really working out quite well, I think the plants like it better than the occasional blast from a watering can.  Also it makes for some neat water droplet-y pictures.

Hopefully with all of these tomatoes and peppers I'll be able to make some super fresh pico de gallo, especially since I've got some cilantro growing.

Hopefully I will be able to contain everything in the bathroom until it's time to plant stuff outdoors!