On Saturday I moved about 20 container plants around, putting them back against the hedge where they usually live. They'd been crowding the plants on the other side of the pathway, alongside the house, for a month: I'd placed them there in the first place to make room for the landscape guy to trim the hedges, then the pots had to stay in that temporary spot after our neighbor Karl dumped a bunch of camping gear next to the hedges when returning from Burning Man. He took off to another event this past weekend with most of his gear, so I seized the chance to put my plants back in their home.

I also decided to move plants that weren't currently in bloom away from the front porch, trading these pots (butterfly bush, mums, daisies) for attractive containers of a miniature red rose and pale purple geraniums. I tidied up a lot, too: trimming back dead leaves and stems on about 30 plants along both sides of the path. Then I gave everything organic rose and flower food. Steve worked along the other side of the house, cutting back ivy under the trees and raking up all the dead leaves and pine needles from the stepping stones. Overall, a busy Saturday out in the yard!

It's finally the time of year that I'm picking a ripe red tomato or two almost every day. The yield is low, from only five plants, and the tomatoes are never bigger than baseball-sized, even the beefsteak varieties (Big Beef and Beefmaster), but they're flavorful little things.

Also adding new color to the garden this week are a couple of zinnias, grown from seed, and the rosebush at the corner of the lawn. Surprisingly, it has three blooms open at once, each a different color! This bush usually produces a sunny yellow flower with sometimes a hint of coral on the petals, but there's now a pure coral/orange one, a yellow one, and a pearly white one.