Another Planting Frenzy

I went outside yesterday morning with the intent of putting up a support for my tomato plants that were spread out on the ground. That only took me about ten minutes, and the next thing I knew this overwhelming urge to plant plant plant overcame me! So here is what happened...

This is a view of what the garden looks like from the southwest corner of the garden. Where you see pink "Here" are the three spots I didn't have anything planted. Of course, me being who I am, I couldn't leave it that way for long!


In the middle of the three squares I planted Black Beauty Eggplant. I already have one eggplant that has teeny tiny fruits forming, but it is the white Ghostbuster variety. Even if I am the only one in the family who eats it, I still like variety.

In the last of the three spots I planted cauliflower, Snowball X. I might have to thin it if they sprout; I might have been overzealous. Because I wanted to make sure I got at least one, I planted four.

In the spot where I previously planted the lemon cucumber, only one came up, so I planted another seed in place of the one that didn't sprout.

I also planted Burpee's Golden Beets in the first empty square. I had to soak the seeds for a couple of hours and ended up with more soaked than I intended. I believe I ended up with about six in the one square and two in the middle of the corn squares. After I planted the seeds I actually read the packet and found out they do best in the south from fall to spring. I thought it said spring to fall when I read the packet the first time! Oh well.


This is my formerly blank bed I created with rocks and mostly decomposed compost. I plan on topping it off and making it deeper in the next few months.


Dividing the length of the bed into three rows visually, I planted Long Imperator carrots,

In the second row, I planted Danver Halflong carrots,

Then I planted the remainder of the Burpee's Golden Beet seeds in the third row.

Still not satisfied that I had planted enough, I grabbed my two packets of sunflower seeds. I love the look of sunflowers! There is a farm just down from us with lots of sunflowers, and I admit I am jealous, so I wanted some of my own.
The first variety is Dwarf Sunspot sunflower which only reaches about two feet tall. I planted a row of these along the length of our house. It receives full sun from about midday on, which should be adequate for the plants and the house will provide support if the sunflowers need it.

Next, I planted Mammoth Sunflowers. I don't know if these will be only the yellow variety or if there will be more variation. Time will hopefully tell! I planted these along one corner of the square foot garden to provide shade on the far southwest corner during August or so. This time is generally our hottest (even though it is already in the 100's now with the heat index) so I wanted to provide some eventual shade to prevent scorching.

There were also a few spots in the yard that I planted these at random. Quite a few seeds came in the packet, so I just put them wherever I thought we would see them best. FYI, the seeds are huge! They are about three times the size of the kind people buy in the stores to eat.
After all of this planting, my frenzy was satisfied for another day, so I quit my insanity and returned to the air conditioned living room and recovered from this horrible Alabama heat!