The Peas have come and gone...

Well, the peas have come and gone. June was a hot one in Chicago. I already had to chop the entire bush of peas down and plant a pink butterfly weed in it's place. The rooftop is still under construction, so the deck is still sitting inside our 4th floor penthouse. I doubt we'll get a chance to even enjoy the new rooftop before we move. (We found a house in the burbs and are closing on it in less than 3 weeks!)

My container plantings are doing great - everything is HUGE because of all the watering I do and the help of a good dose of Osmocote when the pots were planted.

We've already had a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes. Unfortunately, we had a micro burst of wind off the kitchen deck last week which snapped one of my tomato plants off nearly at the base. I've kept it in a pitcher of water on the deck for the past week. It's very wilted looking, but none of the leaves have dried up or fallen off...so I have some hope that it might sprout some roots and I can replant it again. It has well over 50 green tomatoes on it right now, so it would be a real shame if it were to die.

The photo below shows my globe basil plants sprouting up below the cherry tomatoes.

My Genovese basil (second from the left in the picture below) also suffered a cruel fate from the wind. I have managed to keep the entire plant (it snapped less than inch from the base) in water and it's been growing roots. So I hope to replant it soon.

Another one of the pots filling in nicely.

Below is a container that I planted up for my Mother-in-Law's birthday at the beginning of June. I saw it a few days ago and it's probably tripled in size and fullness. The colors of the Oceana salvia, the lantana, lobelia, geraniums, calibrachoas, potato vine, coleus, dusty miller and the osteospermum really remind me of an English country garden.

A huge butterfly takes a break on one of the tomato leaves.