In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

A wee sunflower newly placed in the garden! But I need to preface it with the notion that I feel like I'm cheating. Yet I've put a number of plants in the ground and in planters, so that counts, right? And they are live plants, lol, so yeah, I've kind of found my outdoors mojo, even during a mostly cloud-filled week. Boysenberry plant that I started last year from a tiny plug; it's the berry of my childhood and doing well. So why do I feel as though I've skipped many steps? Well, last year I started SO MANY PLANTS FROM SEED. Oh my goodness, I was a seed-starting fool last spring. It was our first full year at this house and with little rain and plentiful if not cold sun, I went nuts for veg and flowers. Not all of it did well, due to hungry deer and other critters and meh soil, as well as our mild summer weather. Did I burn myself out, perhaps. Our very wet and cold winter hampered my efforts this spring, as well as malaise from grief. Yet I'm making up for it n...

Just past the large boulders is where the sand drops off about ten feet to the shore. We bought some plants today, then went to the beach, hence the title. Cloud cover should lift tomorrow and we'll put the various flowers, fruit, and veg into the ground then. I've been considering starting some pumpkins from seed, but hesitated because last year's were such a bust. Finding nicely sprouted plants at the store pushed me over the edge and I'm toppling into minor gardening with my fingers crossed. In addition to squash, I chose a cantaloupe plant and a dozen petunias split into two six-packs. And a coleus for our planter that dwells in the shade, into which I'll put one yellow and one pinkish-purple petunia merely because that leaves ten, which is plenty to scatter where the deer and other critters won't eat them. My husband chose a watermelon plant, he LOVES watermelon. No idea how the fruit will do with our mild temps, but experimentation is good. And the petunia...