Aww! How sweet! 
Jezzy says Hi. Sheās channeling Kobe and is wearing her purple hoodie. 
Noticed the other day that I feel better since the plants started growing in and Iāve been working out there again too. Wish you couldāve have seen it in person when it is full bloom instead of in the winter, but thatās how the 
crumbles. Speaking of cookiesā¦ 
I had a garden full of nasturtiums when I lived in SF, thatās exactly what they look like when they thaw after frost damage.
I uppotted one of the new scented geraniums, Still deciding what I want to do with the other one. I have a half barrel planter I bought last year that I havenāt used yet. Thinking I may put the other one in there where it can get huge.
My gardener came today. I know it sounds funny, but yes, he keeps my grass mowed and does the edging and tree maintenance. Anyway, I love when he comes at this time of the year. Everything looks so good with the bit of green sprouts and some blooms out there.
Somehow, I came across a website that showed me my soil temperature right now. Itās 71 degrees. Nice seed germing time for me if I want to direct sow. I have some candy lilies that I am gonna plant forthwithā¦ No sign of the black eyed susan vine sprouts yet, but itās only been 5 days or so. I wish all seeds germed as quick as cannabis. It requires a lot of patience for 2 and 3 week germing seeds!
My carnations are gonna all open at once! I had one stem that was an early sneak preview, but now itās on! Canāt wait! I read today that shasta daisies are supposed to be a native wildflower here and grow like gang busters. Not sure why Iāve had such a rough time with mine. Last year it took me at least 4 or 5 go arounds to get them to grow. I have 2 plants out there, but they seem to grow at a snailās pace. Maybe they will pick up speed and actually give me blooms this summer. I keep going outside to stare into the mini greenhouse as if any of those flower seeds are gonna pop in 3 days. lol The monkey flower seeds still have the coating on them on top. Waiting for germ and for flowers to fully open isnāt my strong suit.
@zephyr I bought a mini fan trellis, the kind you can use for a pot. Do you think a Nasturtium would trail up it? Maybe like a dwarf jewel or something? Or do you think it will more than likely just spill over the sides? I was thinking a big ass pot with the mini trellis, nasturtiums with some herbs or something that donāt like fert either. I have some orange balm seeds. lol
Hey Meesch,
Geraniums donāt grow too high and they tend to spread out, donāt they? If so, they may be good with the sunflowers. They are also perennials as well. arenāt they? Any suggestions on which might do the trick?
Geraniums are easy, can get like 3 ft tall. Depends on the variety. I still think salvia would be perfect for you. Low maintenance and low water. Good coverage and bitchen flowers. Geraniums get cool flowers too though
Yes nasturtiums could be made to trail up a trellis. It would take a little bit of training to make it work but it can definitely be done. You could either encourage them by directing their growth points and grabbers upwards, or you could let them grow along the ground until they get long enough for you to lift them up and drape them over the trellis. then they will really grab onto the trellis and grow outwards from there.
Their shoots rarely put out roots so you can arrange them, lift them up to rake underneath, and move them around as much as you want
The Salvia I was looking at didnāt seem like it spread out, though. Being that they only got about 10-12 inches high, they would be perfect but it seemed like they pretty much sent up a flower or two and didnāt do much horizontally. Am I wrong? I do like the Texas Sage. Reminds me of the greatest place on Earth!!! (God I miss Blue Bells)
Love them trailing plants! My faves! Bacopa has been my latest obsession. Thanks! Iām gonna try it.
@WMoon518 check out this link. 20% off sale right now too! They bush out! Like mini bushes.
Got this in an email today
I looked at it and liked the Blue Hill Sage, but it is only to zone 8. I sent a request to them to hear their thoughts and/or other recommendations of similar flowers. Thanks for the info.
Edit:
Was bookmarking the page and saw it was actually zones 4-9 (mistook it with another one), so this may actually work. Weāll see.
The last pic above is a crasapedia plant I started from seed last year and I got 1 flower last year. I was gonna tear it out awhile back, but decided just to let it live and lo and behold, a bunch of flower shoots came up. Who knew?
Sawed down then dug up my gigantic artichoke plant today. When I started that veggie, I didnāt realize they were perennial plants that lived and produced for 5 years. Well, I got some really nice artichokes from it last year, but it was HUGE and taking up about 12 feet of prime real estate out there. It had crazy amounts of beetles or baby earwigs or something all inside the leaves. So gross. I sprayed spinosad on all of the planters and on top of all the mulch out there. Hope to kill the starting spring creepy crawlies. I found out that BT works on grub worms as well as caterpillars. If you werenāt aware grub worms hatch into the mega destructive Japanese Beetles. I saw a bunch of what I think are lady bugs today except they are orange with black spots. Anyone know if these are actually lady bugs or something else?
I also dug out the hollyhocks. The biggest one may have a few roots down there that didnāt come up, but I got the bullk of the root ball and am hoping whatever roots I couldnāt get are damaged beyond repair.
This is only my 2nd year gardening and planting out there and I realize that it takes years to fully establish some of my flowers and plants, but even as things pop up right now, it still seems so naked to me. I know itās gonna look so different in a few months and am trying to be patient. Especially with the shade bed, cuz starting a shade garden is a complete bitch. Just not easy finding perfect plants for shade as literally all shade is different. I believe I have what they call bright shade, apparently there are 4 different types of shade. lol and plants are finicky.
Without a picture Iāll say yes. 
Youāre an A-student, Ms. The fresias, etc. look great.
I found them called Asian lady beetle. Beneficials. Even more aggressive towards their prey than regular lady bugs, but these can bite people too.
I can smell the freesia all the way inside the house in the bathroom with the window open. So good! Iām gonna cut a bunch to bring my client on Tuesday. I love giving them away!
Probably a stupid question, but direct sowed seedsā¦ If they need dark to germinate can I throw the mulch back on top after I plant them or should I clear the mulch until they actually sprout? Iām mulch retarded. Excuse meā¦ Iām mulch special needs.
Mulch shouldnāt slow it down much but if you really have Asian ladybugs then that might be a problemā¦ 
I think if they have just 2 spots then theyāre an invader killing off the native ladybigsā¦ not sure
No they are lady beetles. They have many spots and a mark on their thorax. Iām positive now after consulting wikipedia. Beneficials
Yes! Just received my Caladium āMoonlightā bulbs! Should look bitchen in my shade garden!
They look like thisā¦
Wow those are really cool looking. I canāt wait to see what they do for you.
