Random thoughts day

(Bloom Day is tomorrow. I'll have to find a way to make some of these pictures look new again.)

Are your garden paths very narrow? Mine are very narrow. At a couple points, I have to come to a complete stop, turn sideways, and kinda scoot myself through. And I'm rather thin.



Over here I have to step over the irises and salvias lest I crush them.



This clump of coast melic grass (Melica californica) sprouted in a most inconvenient location.



Noone tells you to grow a garden like this. People advise you not to have a garden like this. They tell you to have wide paths. They tell you not to have "too many plants", that having too many plants in the garden is "not relaxing". So I apologize to anyone who feels unrelaxed. I'm sorry. I can't help myself.

The narrow strait between the tomatoes and raspberries is the worst. And now the artichoke leaves aren't helping.



This is also the scene of this morning's wildlife encounter. So to speak. Someone's cat shat in my dill-and-carrot patch (under and around the artichoke) and kicked a bunch of dirt into the path.



It's important to find and remove the offending turd. Otherwise, I'm hosting a fly convention. I can't do anything about the dirt in the path except cover it with more gravel (which I did). And I have to do that otherwise Guy will come through with a hose like he did last year and spray the path which makes a big mess.

I'll have to re-sow carrot seeds now too.



Like the cat who comes here bearing gifts, I sure do love the cocoa hull mulch. I'm always afraid the nursery will stop selling it because, as a cocoa plant product, the mulch is allegedly toxic to dogs. My question is what kind of nervous, hyper dog gulps down mouthfuls of garden mulch?

The blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii) was smothering the blueberry, so I parted them and that seems okay.



I planted out some of my 'Magda' squash a little too soon I think. One seems dwarfed. I'll take him out and replace him with an 'Eight Ball' I have growing inside. I have more hope for the other Magdas. And the leeks are doing really well! I want to grow some more leeks.



Spittlebug is not as bad this year as it has been in years past. Mostly I ignore it, but if there's a lot, I'll wash it off.



Really, I have no idea why I'm growing lovage (Levisticum officinale), or where in the garden to put it. I blame seed catalogs for seducing me with their fancy writing sometimes. I love this picture of it. Looks like something you'd expect to find in my garden, I think.



I have a bunch of meadowsweet too (Filipendula ulmaria). I think I was reading Piet Oudolf when I bought this seed. Does that sound right?



Does it really get 7 feet tall? Yikes.