Monday, July 28, 2008

Morning and Night

I know. I probably shouldn't lead with a morning glory two days in a row. But A) it is the first flower to bloom in the morning and 2) go have another look at it. Amazing.

While we've been busy looking at other things, the hens and chicks flower stalk/ head/ alien/ thingy has really gone to town, with all the flowers now open.

It still looks like it could be something from Plan 9 From Outer Space...well, if they'd had any kind of a budget for that movie, that is.

But it's quite cool just the same. I bet this thing will try to seed itself all over the place. I would love that.


Here's the Burpee Big Boy tomato plant and as you can see, there's plenty of fruit coming along and getting bigger by the day. So this one might be well-named.

I'm not sure I can say the same for the so-called Early Girl, which has plenty of fruit, but they all remain green.

We may have to get out the frying pan and make some fried green tomatoes, if this keeps up. Not that there'd be anything wrong with that.

The lavendar beebalm are so calmly beautiful. The color is so faint they sort of fade away at a distance. This may also come due the contrast with the neighboring gloriosa daisy and it's hot flower colors. Still, the bees aren't having trouble finding it.


This morning, this first sulphur cosmos blossom opened up wide and began to dance on the breeze.


There's lots of buds on lots of others of these plants all up and down the fence, so this is a show that should go on into September. I love cosmos for that.

Thanks to some regular dead-heading, some of the daisy plants are putting up a second, lower wave of slightly smaller flowers. Still the happiest bloom I know, eh?

Here's some more sunflowers, standing tall at a little over six feet and putting out more flowers every time I turn around. What fun these guys have been this year!

As the day began to fade, I decided to check out the scene at nearby Banks Street Beach. It's a south-facing beach, which means the sunset actually happens over land, which is not quite as spectak as doing so over the bay, as I have been spoiled to enjoy at First Encounter in Eastham. But it was still a pretty great show.

[Technical difficulties: only now am I discovering that something went awry with the slideshow. Please stand by. Well, check back later--this may take a while. In the meantime: ]


There. That's something, anyway.

10 comments:

dykewife said...

i enjoy gardening vicariously through you. actually, i intensely dislike getting dirt under my fingernails and the pain in the back stooping to plant/weed a garden involves. any of my future gardens will be raised beds and tended to by some nice cute college students.

oh, have fun removing those sunflower stalks come fall. those things take root like oak tree.

Butch said...

Wow...real tomatoes! If there is one thing I miss from the east and the mid-west is the beautiful tomatoes. The ones here in the northwest do not have a long growing season and they never taste as good as the one's from back east.

Birdie said...

Yesterday I was walking down the street (pretty much the only street) in Highlands. I saw a beautiful flower garden in a store courtyard and decided to take pictures. See what you've done to me? I have no idea what they are. But I'll post them and let you tell me.

Greg said...

Dykewife: until such time as you can properly select some cute college students (or are you grooming Boy for this...?), I'm quite happy to be your proxy gardener.

I recently found myself wondering about those sunflower roots.

Butch: When they do finally ripen, it appears we'll have quite a crop. I find I'm enjoying the occasional cherry tomato, but really building some anticipation about that first tasty tomato sandwich!!

Birdie: I can't wait to see your photos...BWA HA HA...my master plan to o'ertake the world with my legion of gardeners and gardens is slowly creeping forward. : )

Unknown said...

Them's is gettin' t'be some mighty big 'maters there, son....

I have no idea why I channeled my grandfather there, but still..

Hope the crop of them goes well, and you have some fried green ones if you wish, as well as some nice juicy red ones for salads, BLTs and the like. MMMMMM....

Lacey said...

Just the mention of mater sammies has got my mouth to waterin'. With mayo, please. Well I emptied my compost tumbler (last summer) into the place where the tomatoes are this year...the plants are SO tall, the leaves HUGe...the fruit...not so much. But there's 12 plants, so...I'm looking forward to making chili sauce. I think it's going to be awhile though...I got the plants in late.

Love the orangey cosmos. Haven't had any cosmos is a few years. Maybe next year.

Marc said...

I don't want to burst your tomato bubble, but Early Girls aren't really worth growing in my experience. They are terrible. My mother didn't take my advice and planted them this year. They recently began ripening and when she cut them open, they were green and yellow inside and tasted like cardboard. Now mine weren't green and yellow inside, but they DID taste like cardboard...and mine took forever to ripen, despite the moniker. I do hope you have better luck, I do...but I think you'll be much happier with the Big Boys.

The sulphur cosmos is gorgeous.

Ha ha...the word verification is bedfx. Uh...yeah. :)

Greg said...

Mmm mmm. Light mayo, wheat bread, thick slices of tomato and just a smidge of salt and pepper. It's a bit of heaven for your mouth!

Hi Lacey!! I've loved cosmos for about twelve years, after learning they grew quick enough to be one of the few kinds of seed I could play with during the brief Adirondack growing season!

These sulphur cosmos are fun--I've bought them as seedlings before, but they were always low plants. These guys are shooting for about 2-3 feet!

I'll try to remind you to get some seeds next spring!

Greg said...

Fortunately, Marc, I didn't put my meager fortune in one tomato basket, so there's only that one plant of Early Girl. Sorry to hear about the taste, but at least I'll have had the pleasure of watching the plant grow...maybe they'll fry nicely.

Meanwhile, that's a pretty racy word ver!

Java said...

Love the sulphur cosmos! I look forward to seeing more photos of those in the coming weeks.
A first shot of a morning glory is always appropriate.