the productive day

Spent the morning picking the biggest rhubarb I've ever seen! this variety produces massive stalks - I must find out what kind it is! Then I squished all the black aphids I could see infiltrating the quinoa plants, which are just producing seed heads - I had planted some calendula at their base to hopefully attract the aphids, but they obviously prefer the quinoa - it was surprisingly satisfying rubbing the aphids off the leaves. I then weeded the carrots and tomatoes, picked the last of the spinach before it goes bolting, planted out some brussel sprouts plants, then came back into the kitchen to make a big crisp with the rhubarb. It has been a productive day - And, to top it all off, 2 books came in for me from the library: "Small Plot, High-Yield Gardening" by Sal Gilbertie & Larry Sheehan, and "My Empire of Dirt" (A Cautionary Tale)" by Manny Howard. So you know what I'll be doing later on - eating rhubarb crisp and spinach salad and reading gardening books - blissful. Here are some pictures of the productive day: poppy seed heads and purple pods of King Tut peas fattening in the sunshine bees love the newly opened squash blossoms Yellow zucchinis long pods on the Brugmansia waiting for a hot day to unfurl These are photos of Craspedia globosa aka billy buttons native to Australia and New Zealand - my cat likes to play with the ball at the end of the long stalk This little cactus is from Saturna Island- (a native variety) very slowww growing - but it has 3 new pads forming! lemon cucumbers Abutilon in bloom I really like this mesclun mix from West Coast Seeds: Oriental Salad beautiful rhubarb and the crisp just out of the oven: smells divine!