Overnight Outflow Winds

Not as warm today. Official high temp in the upper 70s with early evening cooling that required a long-sleeved shirt. Well, as promised, here are some photos of the urn-type vase I planted Gladiolus bulbs in:

Overnight there was outflow from strong to severe thunderstorms west of here. Received a warning from the weather service that 40 mph winds were on their way. Woke up to this:

The Forsythia flowers just blew off the bush. It's too bad because the flowers only last in spring and came rather late this year.

Planted additional kernels of corn and string beans today in addition to okra and peas. Okra has never done well in this garden, neither through seed nor through transplanting sprouted plants from the nurseries. Tomorrow I shall plant some zucchini and perhaps some decorative gourds/squash seeds. Always have had success with zucchini and sometimes with pie pumpkins and decorative fall squash varieties.

Finally, a few varieties of store-bought lettuce are growing nicely:

Coleus & Chenille

Today was a super warm day--nearly 90°F! Felt so good sitting and being outside after such a nasty winter. Warmer air has finally arrived and is here to stay at least for the short term.

Today I finished planting my Coleus plants and here they are:

I'm hoping they fill up that small, shady patch of the garden. 

Each year I make it a point to find 2 hanging baskets in particular: the Chenille and the Bridal Veil. Today I came across the Chenille. There was a plethora of Chenille hanging baskets, many with plump and long red fuzzy flowers:

I also planted some sprouting Gladiolus bulbs into a big black urn. No photos of that today but I'll try to get one tomorrow. Also repaired my large wind chime that had been ringing about with only 4 out of 5 chimes after a broken string caused one of the tubes to drop. That happened during winter. What a brutal winter it was indeed. Bah!