What I'm worried about in my garden today

First off, ignore the long shaggy grass around this bed. The backyard is in such a shambles with piles of sod and bricks I've dug up from prior gardener's' beds that we just bypassed the backyard this mowing. Plus, my stupid weed wacker string is stuck inside it and I can't seem to unscrew the cap to fix it. All and all the kitchen garden looks pretty good. All tomatoes have blooms which I'm enjoying gloating about to garden buddy who teased me for spraying them with "aspirin water". She's using Miracle Grow and we are comparing notes. Anyway, the watermelon suddenly has this big long stem that shot out from it and I'm thinking either its some mutant like "big pumpkin" that is growing in Michelle's garden over at http://www.mygrandpasgarden.com/ or maybe this is just what they do we they are ready to bloom. So far, the only things with actual blooms are the tomatoes.

After reading a few blogs that mentioned "pinching basil" I freaked out this morning and ran out to the garden to pinch off basil and oregano so they wouldn't "go to seed" - whatever that means. I have no clue if I did it right, or at the right time, but it sure smelled good on my hands.



Anyway, take a look at my poor jalapeno pepper plant in the next photo. It's getting worse and worse and I don't know what is going on or what to do to save it. SOMEBODY CALL A PLANT DOCTOR!

How bout this next picture. Is it my imagination or does that look like a random robin egg laying in the middle of the dirt of the recently cleared (this past weekend) garage bed? I only know this because I think one of the garden blogs I've been reading had a nest full of these on a picture. There is no tree close to it and I have no clue where the nest could be or what the hell I'm suppose to do with this thing. SOMEBODY CALL A BIRD DOCTOR!

My Clematis arrived today from Springhill Nursery. They don't look dead, thank goodness. They will be living in the garage bed which has the unamended-lilies-wouldnt-bloom-here soil. I purchased a bag of humus and manure to try to add a little to the dirt when I plant them. I was thinking today that I feel like a woman who suddenly adopted a bunch of toddlers. I have no clue what to do with them or if what I'm doing is what they need, but I'm doing my best and learning as I go.