First Tomato of 2017

It's small, but atleast the tomato worms didn't get it !   I found 3 of them over the last 2 days, the worms, I mean, and I smashed them under my shoe !   I hope there will be no more.  I also picked a 3-inch cucumber.  I used to love them small and crisp like that, but my false teeth put an end to that.

And this pink hardy hibiscus blooms out at the edge of my backyard.......it is SO BEAUTIFUL, it doesn't even look real in this photo.

I bought another 2 Coneflower plants last night at work........ a lighter orange one, and a pink one.   They had finally marked them down $3 apiece AFTER I'd purchased 2 at full price of $6.72, so I paid $3.72.  Then, today when I went in, they had marked them to $3 even.  I don't plan to buy more unless they go to a buck or something.

A bit of gardening.......

I don't want to make this a long post, but I'm doing so little planting this year, that I wanted to be sure and note the fact that I have finally purchased some Coneflowers !

I have wanted to try these in my yard for years, as so many of the perennials that I have access to are of the 'bloom-today, gone in a week' variety, it seems.  I get the idea that these coneflowers start blooming in the early summer and continue through into the Fall.........THAT, I need !

I never cared much for the original color of pinkish-purple that I've always seen, but when I caught a glimple of red ones last year, I knew my time had come.  But I procrastinated and missed them then.

 Working at Walmart now, I am daily visiting the garden center on the lookout for clearance-priced flowers.  It makes me SICK that they will rather throw a whole LOT of them into the dumpster rather than lower them any further in price than just a nominal discount.  This is a change from the days when I've bought plants for as little as two, and eight cents.......SERIOUSLY.  I mean, they looked half-dead --- or MORE-- and I was actually rescuing them.  Rescued many a plant, yes ma'am, I did !

Anyway, I couldn't take the wait, and finally just broke down on payday and purchased 2 plants at full-price, $6.72 per plant.  I picked out a red-orange bunch, and a pot that mainly contained a buttery-golden yellow, but also had a true red flower growing off to the side in the pot (BONUS !)  I had to rip the red one's roots loose from the yellow bunch, so it is struggling a bit from the trauma, I noticed today, but hopefully it will make a beautiful comeback and flourish along with the others.

I decided to plant them within the fence that encloses my garden, figuring that they will be safe from nibbling deer until they are well-established.  The hope is that they will multiply GREATLY over the next few years and that I will be able to spread them around the yard in several locations.

Over the last couple of weeks, I purchased 3 bags of 3-each Stargazer Lily bulbs while they were reduced to $1.00 per bag.......I mean HOW COULD I NOT?  I planted them in 3 different locations.

Also, this year, the Hibiscus plant that has been trying to grow at the corner of my garden finally bloomed, and, wonder of all wonders, it is deep pink !

  Hallelujah, God is good.  I have one original deep pink Hibiscus plant that Rose gave to me the year that I moved here, and no matter how many seeds I have planted from it, they always tend to grow either white, or light pink new plants.  Even the plants that have come up at the base of the original are light pink.  So I am over-the-moon ecstatic about this new plant.

I also have had great success with Tiger Lilies growing around here now.  They are making a beautiful showing this year.

My phlox are flourishing and multiplying, and have produced a light pink one at their edges....beautiful.

 As far as vegetables go, my tomato plants have one ripening now, plus, there are inch-long cucumbers on the two cucumber plants as well.