Lawn Treasures

I've turned my focus to flowers this past week. The zinnias I planted outdoors over a month ago barely have their second set of leaves, but the ones I planted indoors more recently are getting huge. When the seed packet gives you the option of planting directly outdoors or starting indoors, they seem neutral on the topic, not giving you an advice one way or the other. How misleading! Oh I have much to learn.

I have poppies popping up outside (free seeds at the community garden), marigolds that survived the earwig rampage of destruction about to bloom, and then I went on a wee shopping spree at Buckerfields on the weekend. Lavender, a dahlia, status, allysum, and heliotrope (the last two for the shady patio in the back. Oh, and the sweet peas I planted ages ago are about six inches tall now, and we installed a trellis on the sunny patio for them to grow up.

But pictured below, are the tiniest, cutest little pansies that I found in the middle of the lawn, managing to flower between mowings to announce their presence. I quickly extracted them from the lawn and planted them in a flower bed. Aren't they amazing? There are two plants, and they're each about 3 inches tall and have lots of blooms.

In vegetable news, I believe I eradicated those European earwigs with my traps of beer and insecticidal spray, either that or they just finished up on their own and died or moved on. Hard to tell. They got 2 broccolis and 5 marigolds, and severely damaged all the carrots and radishes. I'm ready to put that behind me though, and think it's nearly time to plant another row of lettuce, spinach and carrots.