It rained overnight! Color me...surprised.

 It wasn't a hard rain but enough to get the ground wet for sure. Didn't see that coming but the clouds felt like rain. I even looked at the weather app but was focused on the week ahead not the next 24 hours.

First, flowers from my walk. There are a few Magnolia trees on the block that are blooming so I got a picture of one. They are almost all St. Mary's which is a dwarf and perfect for the curb planting area. 

The rose bush is continuing its incredible show and the Brunfelsia aka Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is covered in flowers. I was walking last week and the owner of the house was out and I asked if I could smell them and he said, 'sure, you could take some too' I said they don't last long I worked at a nursery for years and told him what it was called (common name) and he paused, then agreed and said yes it is!. Um, dude I just told you I worked in the industry for twenty years...

 

I really need to figure out how to get better pictures. The yellow rose bush is at the same house as the huge pink rose and the orange flowered bush is Butterfly Weed (asclepias) that is in full flower is in the succulent garden house. It looks a lot better in person as all my pictures do.

 

I was moving the 'vase' with my rose to take the Watsonia stem out and some of the petals fell off. I realized it was hanging together because there was no wind to knock the petals off. I grabbed the entire ball of petals (that were still fragrant by the way) and put them in the scrap bucket. Had a second of regret and pulled a few out but they didn't have as much fragrance as I thought and put them back in. I then used my pruners and chopped the stem and leaves up and put that in there also.

 

Forgot to take it down with me though when I went to the garden. Oh well. That cilantro is just...wow. Every possible stem has flowers on it. That will likely get replanted in the fall for a winter/spring crop of cilantro and the cycle continues.

The soil definitely had damp spots on it at the eave edge behind the tomatoes and due to the cloudy weather, it stayed damp and moist into the afternoon. 

The lower leaves on the tomatoes still bother me so I pulled them off just in case they could infect the rest of the plant. That bares a lot of the lower stem which most people say to cover up with soil. I don't have the depth to be able to do that so it stays bare and will likely be just fine.

The lettuce is holding on and, of course in hindsight, shouldn't have planted seeds back there behind something tall like cilantro but oh well.

The peas had water on the leaves from the rain still and showing more holes from the inchworms but they are basically done growing and are fattening their seeds now. You could say it's a 'determinate' pea plant as they have all gotten to a particular height and have been flowering and putting out pods all the time until they got to that height. So, much like the tomatoes which I plucked another few buds off, they will get to their theoretical height and produce. 

The onions are doing incredibly well. Tall and straight and will be ready to harvest soon enough. Have to figure out what to plant in the front (if anything) for the summer that won't get too huge. Those two tomatoes on the right are going to fill that corner and likely crowd out the garlic behind them.

I felt I had some more gardening to do but nothing left in my own so I turned my attention to the bench garden and the roses. I noticed on that center rose (that has yet to bloom) a sucker growth that was blooming. I'm sure someone is going to be annoyed that it was cut off but only one other person is paying attention to the roses and I figured I'd step in.

Will see if that makes a difference for it but it gets more shade than the ones on the edges.

Yay for natures predators! A ladybug larva was on the fragrant rose that had tons of aphids on it. Nothing left on that flower but there was a cluster on the left that had bunches. I didn't want to risk damaging the little thing so left it where it was. It'll find it's way to where there is food.

I failed to mention up top about the fence of vines in bloom. A wonderful combination of morning glory, honeysuckle and the jasmine now blooming. The colors and the fragrance are wonderful. It is also overrun by weeds and tree seedlings. At least those pictures look good, color is pretty spot on actually, too bad you  can't smell them too.

What is ironic and true to form is on the other side of the fence is the house with two trellises that have a few morning glory vines growing on it. Yeah, basically ignored those and now it's running everywhere but.  I warned people about planting it on a fence and how it would take over and they'd say 'oh I want it to take over my fence'. I would laugh and say 'here you go, good luck keeping it on the fence'.

 It's a beautiful flower no doubt about that but with great beauty comes great responsibility.