Garden Status Update / Garden Geek Out

Y'all.  There is little in life (so far in my experience - parents might argue otherwise) as thoroughly rewarding as planting some humble little seeds and, with some regular TLC, watching them grow into plants that bear fruits/vegetables and flowers that, well, bloom.  Check out the progress:


Yellow Gooseberry Tomatoes:

Heirloom Tomatoes:

As nerdy as it is, I would be content to spend an entire day tending to these plants and flowers.  And I love the smell of the tomato plant - it reminds me of my Grandpa Ray and the tomatoes he grows every year.  Another smell that reminds me of Grandpa Ray, though one that isn't nearly as fresh and delightful, is that of fish guts. 

Another update:  after a few harvests of salad greens (and after a little neglect, I admit), I tore them up and replaced them with some sweet basil (left) and spicy Thai basil (right) which will go perfectly with my tomatoes.

Another addition to the carport garden is a new raised bed garden, hand crafted by Daniel.  I'll include that in a separate How-To post.  

And last but not least...let me introduce you to my ladies:

  

This is the reward I'm talking about.  When I walk outside to do some watering or let Kisa out, I get to admire these lovely ladies.  I haven't named them or anything crazy like that (yet). But I've got several more that will be blooming in coming days and weeks:

 

It looks like the ones I planted in the regular soil are somewhat dwarfed by the ones I planted in the raised bed.  It'll be interesting to see if they catch up to the others or if they just end up as smaller (but no less beautiful) sunflowers. 

Now the question - to cut or not to cut.  I think I'll leave them be so they can be enjoyed in their natural state.  Maybe if I had a whole garden of them (next year), I would cut a few and give them to people I adore.  Or maybe I'll just plant some more on Saturday. 

I'll tell you, though - my fingernails haven't been clean since March.  But dirty fingernails are a small price to pay for a beautiful, edible garden.