Some editing.

I came home for lunch today and did some gardening. I'm doing that a lot these days. I change my clothes and everything. Makes it hard to go back to work, that's for sure.

I'm not happy with the calendula. I'd be happier if I'd just gotten the species.

It's crowding the lemon bush anyway. So out it goes. I think some herbs around the lemon would be nice and make sense.

Before:



After:

[Whoops! I didn't get an 'After' shot. I'll add it tomorrow.]

Behind it, Madia elegans. I like the way the flowers smell.



Kinda weedy looking? I think it's lovely. It keeps growing all summer long making more and more flowers.

This sweet pea has seen better days. It goes too.



With its rampant, disorganized growth, variable texture and masses of tendrils, sweet pea has a high sense of intrinsic disorder. I think that makes it hard to use in a tight spaces of a densely planted small garden like mine. Imo, plants with a net directionality and flow seem to work better and produce less visual chaos. Plus, sweet pea foliage, especially the lower foliage, seems prone to drying out and looking ratty. I suppose I could have more plants like sweet pea if I had fewer plants overall, but that's not my preference. Feel free to take issue in the comments.

I haven't paid much attention to the planters on the deck.



I need clean out the leaf litter, but I'd rather add mulch.



And I don't have any mulch right so I'll have to go get some.

I can thin this aeonium.

Before:



After:



And now I have 15 new plants.



The other container on the deck has some sweet pea, and they look done. I'll take them out and tuck a few cosmos seeds.



The pumpkin is starting to vine on the fence. Yay! Lots of female flowers and ovaries, but I haven't seen many male flowers so far. You can see a flaccid one in this picture.



I'm not going to edit anything under the deck, despite the chaos.



I'm not even going to deadhead.



Vigorous new growth on Bartlettina sordida after a hard pruning in March.



Really excellent foliage.



I pulled the abutilon out of the bed here and potted it. The ribes is growing and needs the room.



I did this on Saturday, and you can see the abutilon is struggling. I pruned it way back after I took this picture, and I'm sure it will be fine in a day or two.



Temporarily, I put these white rocks in the pot with the abutilon. I think I mentioned I find it hard to resist buying small quantities of odd rocks at the stone yard.



What I want to do is put them together in a basket, or something that looks like a nest, and tuck them in the garden somewhere like a clutch of mysterious eggs. I know, I know--talk about contrived! Well, I think it'll be neat.

I'm going to put more cosmos in and around the bamboo. This works well for me.



I know some gardeners wouldn't dream of growing anything so common. To them I say, "Feh!"

Cosmos is one plant you cannot pinch. You have to use clippers.

This is the area I finished landscaping in December (remember?). You can't really tell from the picture, but the area on the right slopes down to the path. I was worried sediment eroding down the slope and obliterating the path.



That hasn't been a problem, but what is a problem are the plants crowding the path making it difficult to traverse without fretting about damaging them. So I'll get a few cobbles and bank the bed to keep the plants out of the way. You can see what I mean in this picture.



I'm going to bring this stacked iceplant up to the roof, just like it is in this picture. The plants can trail over each other and the pots, and spread a little bit on the roof. Contrived also, but the stacking adds an interesting vertical. Maybe I'll put a sweet pea in the very contrived small pot half-buried on top.



Up on the roof, I'm ready to move this morning glory back to the garden. I brought it up here to get it started, because something was eating every single leaf that emerged on the seedling. This is the 'Kniola Black', supposedly the darkest of all morning glories, practically black. Well, that description piqued my interest. I think it should be able to withstand losing a leaf now and then at this point...



I'm going to leave this silver bush lupine up here so I can enjoy the flowers from the bedroom.



But I'm going to dig out this Datura wrightii growing from a seed that I forgot I put in here before I put in the lupine. This is why I need to label my pots. I put too many balls in the air to keep track of them all.



The melon is growing on the deck and looks healthy! I add handfuls of compost every couple of days and regular fertilizer. I feel optimistic about harvesting melons in San Francisco! Wish me luck.



Isn't it funny the way the flower stalks rear up on...whatever these things are?



I guess I should pluck some of those pups and pot them up.