So, I got a new addition to the garden on Saturday. Yeah, i know it’s Thursday and this is a long time coming and all, but that’s just the way it is. Too much is happening, not enough time to process it all.

So, without further ado:

The Hansel Eggplant, planted in the back of the new bed extension.

The Hansel eggplant is supposed to produce finger-shaped eggplant that can be picked at 3 inches, if I remember correctly. You can let it grow bigger, though. I was inspired to buy this $3 young plant after eating at a well-regarded Thai restaurant called Kanomwan, on Telephone Road, with the co-workers. It was great. Can’t wait to cook my own fresh eggplant.

On Sunday, I moved all of the seedlings and put down newspaper over what will become an extension of the flower bed. Another part of the extended flowerbed had already been dug, after I transplanted some of the grass from there to other parts of the yard.

In this spot, I dumped some new garden soil and transplanted some cosmos, my top gun tomato and a new eggplant that I could not resist when I saw it at Lowe’s when I bought the new garden soil. The soil in my yard is so clay-like, amending it when I start a new bed is the best way to kickstart it. I’ll post more about the eggplant – and what made me want one – tomorrow.

I also went through all the seedlings, and separated the ones that did not sprout from those that did. I dumped the excess soil into the large pot where the Top Gun tomato was, and it filled it! Then, I transplanted eight coleus there. All said and done, I had at least 50 empty seedling containers when I was done. I packed them all up in the garage.

Here’s a shot of the extended flower bed that hasn’t been finished yet.

And to think, there used to be at least 50 more seedlings than pictured here.

Sunday through today, I have transplanted the strongest of the blanket flower, half of the portulaca, most of the Cosmos Happy Ring, some of the Cosmos Psyche mix, about eight bachelor buttons, a cut flower wildflower mix here and there as well as the previously mentioned coleus.

I transplanted at least eight cosmos between Kim's flower bed and the new bed.

Into my bed, I dropped at least 11 blanket flower, five zinnia and two wildflowers.

From left to right, some marigolds, some what I think are zinnias that I direct sowed a few weeks ago and the newly-transplanted blanket flower.

Photos from the fourth week in the garden are up, spanning April 4-10, and have been tagged "Week Four" in my Gardening 2010 album in my Picasa Web Albums.

I started transplanting cosmos this week. Pictured here are some Happy Ring cosmos.

This week, I transplanted four of Kim's jalapenos to my bed. And then I told her about it.

This week's Saturday shot of the bed.

I found this guy in one of my seedling starter cups. I startled him, and then I watched in amazement as he tried to run away – but couldn’t. The next day, I thought I saw his crumpled dead body in the cup, but then a few days later, I found him in another cup – and so I let him out. In the rose bed. Anybody know what kind of spider this is?

Mystery spider

HoustonGrows blogger and longtime Houston Chronicle editor Molly Glentzer has a post tomorrow about the Carefree Beauty rose, and in it, is a picture of her large Carefree Beauty bush.

It was great to read about the history of the rose that’s thriving in my bed this year, even though she inadvertently posted the post a day early and it hit my RSS feed. I know it was posted early, because when I tried to add a comment, MovableType had a cow.

So, I’ll just comment tomorrow.

Now, this sort of thing happens to me all the time. Especially when I’m writing yesterday’s post today … because I’m trying to write a post each weekday, sometimes life forces me to cheat. NOT the same type of cheating Tiger … oh, nevermind. There really is nothing more I can add to THAT conversation.

But, today I can post the picture of my Carefree Beauty rose that I just happened to take a day before Glentzer accidentally published her blog early.

The Carefree Beauty fully opened this week. I did blur out the background in Photoshop.

A shot of the Carefree Beauty bush earlier this week, as it enters its second year in my flower bed. The blooms hadn't fully opened when I shot this one.

I love this close-up shot.

I also searched my Google Reader and Mr. McGregor’s Daughter has some great photos of her Carefree Beauty, and a nice story about how she succumbed to have a rose – but just this rose – in her garden.

Yesterday, I had a reason to celebrate and a vacation day from work so I went down to Frank’s Nursery in Richmond near one of those large master-planned communities on FM 359 and I bought myself a Neon Cowboy rose, with Kim’s help, of course.

Orange-red with a yellow center, I've never seen a rose quite like this Neon Cowboy.

For a while, I was kind of undecided between the Neon Cowboy and the Gizmo rose, which looked very similar, but this one in particular looked the fullest and healthiest, so I went ahead and chose it. That, and it has a funnier name.

The Neon Cowboy right after its purchase.

So, right away I transplanted a few seedlings out of the way and dug a nice, big hole and dropped the Neon Cowboy down into my flowerbed in the space where the mystery rose that I bought from Needville was (it died last year in August, if memory serves me well). The cowboy is now between my Carefree Beauty and Marie Daly, both of whom have performed wonderfully so far this season.

The Neon Cowboy hangs its hat next to the Carefree Beauty.

Photos from the third week in the garden are up, spanning from March 28 to April 3, and have been tagged "Week Three" in my Gardening 2010 album in my Picasa Web Albums.

This week, I’ll offer four photos sampled from all of the ones I took.

On the right, is a purple coneflower that I planted last year in my flower bed. Its brothers and sisters all perished, I think because they were shaded too much by the red sun sunflowers. This one didn't grow that much last year, but this year, I removed a little more of the netting around its roots that was there when I transplanted its jiffy starter peat kit and it has really taken off. It's already about as big as the begonia I put on the edge of the bed.

We only had one patch of dianthus survive the freeze(s), but it’s a really strong patch in the front bed. I bought two packets of dianthus seed so it would have company this year.

A post-watering shot of the bright red-purple dianthus that Kim planted last season or the year before in the front bed.

I’m really looking forward to the two packets of coleus seed wizard mix that I planted. However, it was pretty slow to show some signs of germination life. It’s doing a lot better, now, about two weeks after I sowed them.

Baby coleus! Squint and you can see it ...

And now for the requisite full bed shot … at the end of week three.

Week Three: April 3, 2010