happy garden stuff

cattitude spotted a monarch butterfly on our milkweed today. We hadn't seen any, there or anywhere, all summer. There's a lot of milkweed in our front yard and planting strip, courtesy of the previous resident--but I'd been going to order milkweed seeds last year before these sprouted on their own, and after not seeing any caterpillars two years running, was wondering if we had the wrong kind of milkweed.

There's now purple clover blooming in the front garden: I planted that (having ordered seeds last summer). There's also white clover, which might be from my seeds or might have turned up on its own, since there's some growing in front of the house next door. (42itous, I have a lot of clover seed left, if you want it.)

Three of the sunflower seeds I planted sprouted. One plant now has three bright yellow flowers, with several more buds, and a second looks promising.

We have a lot of basil. (Also rosemary, but I haven't been using that.)

I did a bunch of weeding yesterday and today. It doesn't look like it at first glance (I've been dealing with tendonitis and needing to move, both of which got in the way of gardening lately), but the tomatoes ought to have more sunlight now. I can't do much about the cucumbers, because what's shading the cucumber fruit is the leaves of the same vine.