So Many Blossoms

Since something ate all the tomato seedlings in the front patch, I decided to focus on what is going right in the garden at the moment.  My neighbor lost his tomatoes and peppers to the same pest, so it may be a Nightshade thing.  At least it hasn't found the sprouts in the Pond yet.

This is my biggest artichoke crop so far.  Artie split into two stalks, one of them higher than my head.  Not a great accomplishment for a person, but pretty impressive for a weed.  Each stalk had at least five good buds and several small ones.  One of the Junior twins decided to bloom.  It's a different variety than whatever Artie is, with a different shaped bud.  I'll let them continue another year.  I really appreciate now how precious they are in the market, and why they tend to be so expensive.  When you only get one large and five or six medium buds per plant, and each plant is five feet across at full size, it takes a lot of resources to get one bud stalk per year.

On a similar note, I'm grateful for the sea of white blossoms on the boysenberry vines.  There's going to be a good crop this year.

I'm letting a fennel go to seed.  It hasn't bloomed yet, but it will be a magnet for bees when I get around to planting my summer squash.  Haven't decided what that's going to be yet.  I still have some butternut seeds from last year.  It won't be warm enough for at least a month, so I'm just keeping the soil conditioned and as weeded as possible.  I'm also hoping that whatever ate the Romas only likes Nightshades and will leave other families alone.