Fascinating...

... watching our plants grow.

My basil was the last herb to sprout, and then it shot past the parsley and chives in the container. Then, after a sweltering July, August began with overcast, 60 degree days, and the basil for some reason started to die.* Dying off seems to have been incentive for the parsley and chives to grow. Now they're taking over the container!

After planting the four sunflowers in the yard, the one that had already bloomed continued to die (the other three were taller, and in the container had blocked its light). But the other three bloomed almost immediately. Instead of growing taller, however, they have grown wider in the yard; that is, they've all branched out and now have about four or five sunflowers growing on each plant. I imagine there's a way to cultivate sunflowers so that they grow up rather than out, but it's fun and interesting to watch this happen.

Even though I was the one who wanted to start gardening, hubby has joined in with a flourish. He not only planted tomatoes and green beans, he later added squash, cucumbers, green peppers and eggplant. The cherry tomatoes ripen every day, and they're so sweet I've taken to eating them like candy. We have tons of cucumbers right now, and I need to look for a cucumber smoothie recipe in order to use them all! Everything else seems to be doing well, except the green beans.

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* We're back to real Tacoma summer weather now. The last few days have been in the 70s to 80s, and sunny.