Seattle, Washington

May 2023

Birthday gift for @the-kk-crow! It’s their versions of little Dream and Nightmare, back when they were kids playing with flower crowns.

(Night’s is made of buttercups and poison ivy; thankfully neither twin has issues with the latter, since skeletons have no skin! ^_^)

Farmer Bobo was out in the yard today, tending to one of his favorite plants, the sweet alyssum. It didn’t have a good year last year because tall grass shaded it too much and then an animal dug half of it up. This year, it’s coming back nicely. Bobo helped it along by clearing away some of the twigs, dead leaves, and other debris left over from winter that might have impeded its growth. He’s happy to see it doing so well again. =)

perennial : alyssum

Book Of Shadows: Sweet Alyssum

Element: Air. 

Planet: Mercury. 

Gender: Femenine. 

Power: Protection, Balance, Calming.

Protection against glamour spells and hexes. Plant it around the house to deflect spells intended to mislead you. The scent evokes peaceful energy and spiritual and emotional balance. Wear a sprig on your lapel or carry one in your pocket to prevent and calm angry encounters. 

Properties: Antispasmodic, Kidney stones, Diuretic. TOXIC SEEDS.

Sweet alyssum

View of the Mosbacher front yard and flower garden at their home in Clintonville. July 24, 1960

Best (and worst) companion plants for growing peppers. 

My favs: 

1. Sweet Alyssum: Underplant your pepper plants with a carpet of sweet alyssum. In addition to enhancing biological control, it’s also beautiful. The small blooms of this low-growing annual plant feed a whole host of good bugs that help a gardener manage pepper pests. Parasitic wasps, syrphid flies, tachinid flies, ladybugs, and lacewings are all found sipping from the blooms. And when they’re not drinking nectar, some of these beneficial insects are eating pests like aphids, whiteflies, and thrips, while others are laying their eggs in pests like hornworms, bud worms, and fruit worms. 

2. Onions/garlic/chives: Green peach aphids are among the most common pests of peppers. Interplanting peppers with members of the allium family, including chives, onions, garlic, and scallions, has been shown to deter these small insects from settling on pepper plants to feed. Plant the allium crops around and in between your pepper plants. Or plant your peppers smack in the middle of your onion crop.

3. Nasturtiums: if aphids plague your pepper plants, consider planting a nearby companion planting of nasturtiums. A favorite of aphids, the lovely round leaves of nasturtiums are much preferred by this pest. The aphids opt to feed on the nasturtiums and leave your peppers alone. Since aphids are tiny and can’t travel very far, you’ll want these two plant partners located within a foot or two of each other.

It's late spring and my sweet alyssum is flowering into loads of tiny white flowers.

Did you know it's part of the mustard and cabbage family?

(1) (2) by Micah Richardson

more pics of the garden from today! only planted about 7000 plants today. pictured above is one of our long strip beds with 2000 begonias laid out in a candy cane stripe pattern. also pleased with how my pots are starting to bloom! (that last one wasnt designed by me tho, just loved how it looks!!)