Finally, some sun!
And what goes with sun? Sunflowers!
I started these sunflowers inside because I didn't want the rain to hurt them. But it turns out that sunflowers are pretty strong and I probably could have just planted them in the ground ("ground" being my raised bed.) Oh well. Just look at their nice roots!
Along with the sunflowers I also started some summer squash inside. Again, it probably could have been sown directly in the ground but I like to baby my little seedlings. Like the sunflowers, these little ones seem pretty hardy and the leaves are a nice shade of dark green.
I don't have too much space left for plants outside (or at least space that is sunny) so here's where the sunflowers and some squash will go:
The rest of the squash is going to the right of that picture, to compete with the mint (just kidding, I'll help the squash out until it gets big enough to fight for itself.)
Here are some droopy, newly-planted sunflowers with a few squash:
And here's the rest of the squash
It's a little late to be planting squash (probably should have done it about a month ago) but I think the growing season here is long enough that it shouldn't matter too much. Here's the squash again, this time with my new little rosemary I bought at Urban Jungle on Passyunk Ave.
The rosemary was so cute and looked nice and healthy and I couldn't resist, even though I have rosemary seeds. But I would have had to have waited to plant the seeds in the fall and I wanted rosemary now, dammit. What can I say, I am prone to impatience.
Oh, hey. While I was prepping the raised bed for the squash and sunflowers (basically grabbing handfuls of dirt and worms and mixing some compost it) I found something interesting:
Hmm. Not a rock!
Some little animal skull! My picture is sadly not too great but those front teeth mean business. I probably should have mounted it on a stick as a warning to all other animals Lord of the Flies-style but it kinda freaked me out so I threw it out. I know, I know. Or I could have just kept it in there and let it fertilize the soil and decompose on its own - do skulls even do that? - but I didn't really want to come across it again. I might have screamed when I found it. Maybe.
That was the excitement for this week! Still lots of flowers on the tomatoes:
And, well, lots of tomato plants:
My grandmother warned me that some of the flowers might fall off the tomatoes without any fruit but I think that's okay because there are many, many flowers now.
I'm going away this weekend so I'm kind of hoping it rains here a bit. If not, though, I've got a backup waterer. Thank you!
Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks. She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.