It's Raining...

So I thought I'd show some pictures of what I'm *not* having to water today. It's not like watering plants is such a big deal but it is nice to get a reprieve from mother nature- plus it makes the house cooler. This is basil and some flower I planted from a packet of seeds somebody gave me at the mall. I can't remember what it's called but apparently I didn't research it very well because it's almost as tall as the basil. I thought it was supposed to be a creeper. So it's not beautiful but I get excited anytime something I plant grows *and* flowers. I can get lots of things to grow but they don't always flower. Blanket flower come to mind. I'd like to try those again though. It was the soil, you can't grow stuff in just anything.

I have 1 little african daisy so far. I think I might get more though. Apparently it's an easy grower that blooms "profusely", hmmm, we'll see. They're kind of crowded though and I planted them as an afterthought. I got the seed packet wet and they started to sprout and I felt bad for them (I feel bad for plants so I probably won't make a good gardener) so I tossed them on some potting soil and covered them with a little more soil, watered them and they grew. Go figure. I like this flower though so I might try to do better next year. This is a marigold variation. I can't remember what they're called but I like them better than regular old marigolds. They look terrible in that pink pot though. Note to self- next time buy something not pink. I don't even like this color. I also planted cosmos in this pot and bush morning glory but I *always* underestimate how big the plants will get so the morning glory was crowded out- it sprouted but they aren't going to bloom. I'll probably put them in the front containers next spring. The cosmos should bloom soon. They're no-brainers-almost. I've learned that whenever someone says they're "fool-proof" that it's relative. If you're a gardener and are outside every day at least watering things and keep an eye on everything then, yes, these are easy. You still have to water them (even though the package says "drought tolerant") and fertilize them- but not too much- you just have to get a feel for it and learn things little by little. I find it much more helpful to look up all the plants online rather than just by going by what the package of seeds says.
This is Chloe's pumpkin plant. I have really high hopes for it and we got some blooms that bloomed and then died and fell off. I was so sad until I found this website and found out those were male blooms. Who knew? I certainly didn't. And I thought all our chances were gone but there are about 20 or so blooms on this plant and the info on the web said that they just keep producing blooms trying to make pumpkins. But it can't be too hot or too wet and it needs enough phosphorus (bone meal), I shouldn't get so invested in plants but I want Chloe to have her very own pumpkin, please.
Here are some more pumpkin blooms.

And this is my lemon tree. Remember that? I've had pretty good luck with it so far- even though I had to take it out of the pot it's in and put more potting soil in. This must be one hardy tree because I couldn't get it out of the pot without a lot of the soil falling off. I expected it to die but instead it started growing like crazy. I did all of that just before vacation and even had dreams about it while we were gone that the leaves had all fallen off. So it was a nice surprise to see it like this. I planted some parsley with it in the hopes that when I have to repot it again the roots from the parsley will help keep it all together. I don't know if that will work or not, I'm trying to not be too attached. And here are my sunflowers. These were grown from the seeds from last years sunflowers. Those seeds are harder to harvest than I thought but it's cool to grow the plants from them this year. I also have some chianti colored sunflowers growing but they won't bloom for probably another month because I planted them late. And I really like this door on my house. There are a handful of things I actually like about my house and this door is one of them. The others are the yard and patio and that it's all brick- and that's pretty much it- oh and that it's mine. But the door adds a little character even though it's just the entry to a storage closet. And I'm sure I'll like my house more the more we fix it up. It's just taking sooo long...K, I'm done posting about plants now.