The Garden

 Our garden is a pretty sad affair this year. I suspect that it's the result of a commercial compost that was still hot when we added it to our soil. As a result, all of our plants are either struggling or have simply died off.

I took a picture of the sunflowers we planted that shows the difference between plants in the soil without compost and the soil with compost.

The orange arrow points to sunflowers that we planted (from seed) in a patch of soil that, because it had established herbs in it, we didn't turn the soil to add compost. Nice, healthy plants, huh? The green arrow points to a sunflower planted (from seed, at the same time) in the soil amended with the compost.  Sad, huh? We actually planted sunflowers all along the curve of the wall, but many of the seeds either didn't sprout, or they sprouted and died off.

The other raised bed that we added compost to is equally dismal. The marigolds, cucumbers, and chile we planted are either dead or dying off. The seeds we put in the ground either failed to sprout or sprouted and died.  It sucks.  The only solution that will save this year's garden is to dig out the soil and replace it. 

In other plant news, our little sempervivum hen and chicks plant sent out a bunch of little plantlets but then a little while later decided to up the ante by putting up a foot-tall spike covered with dozens of flowers.

Double reproductive strategies for the win, little plant.

I had no idea that these things also flowered. Strange little surprise.

Aww. I just looked them up online and read that the mother plant only flowers once and dies after. Sad!