Some new plants...

Weather forecasts predicting rain during our summer are met with no small amount of disbelief; it just doesn’t happen. Today however, as predicted, we awoke to a storm, and as I type this, it is indeed raining again. Thunder rumbling in the distance and big, heavy drops of rain, making everything steamy and humid. Good for the garden but uncomfortable for us.  

Last week on a whim, I planted two packs of seeds; Giant Russian sunflowers and Brown Berry tomatoes. Due to our trees, we don’t have room for a vegie garden, too much shade and too many intrusive roots, so I planted the seeds in two large pots. Already a few seedlings have popped their heads up into the sunlight.

 

This is one of the Brown Betty seedlings. Once they're are a bit more robust, I’ll divide and re-pot them into their own containers. Being a variety of ‘cherry’ tomato, they won’t mind being in pots and we have quite a few spare. 

The sunflowers though are a different story. This variety grows up to three metres in height and have long tap roots, so will need to go into the ground. A few can join the bergamot and bog sage I’ve planted next to the bird bath for the bees, and the rest will slot into some of the bare spots between the roses in the front garden. Fingers crossed the snails won't find them before they're too tough to be tasty!

Another new addition to our mad assortment of potted plants, is ginger. I had a piece in the fruit bowl that was sporting a knobby, green shoot, so popped into a pot. I’ve been told that ginger is easy to grow this way, and looking at the vigorous growth poking through the mulch, that would seem to be the case. I wonder though if it was just good timing? Given ginger’s tropical origins, I bet it loves this humid weather.