Summer veggies and a good rain

So, this happened last night. Local news said we got more like 2.5 inches, so maybe this is a fluke.
And summer vegetable harvest time is just starting to kick in. The full sun bed in front is leafy madness, and the tomato cage isn't doing it's job.
But you can glimpse some yellow pear variety hidden in all the leaves
Can you spot all three zucchini?
A japanese eggplant

Future sugar baby watermelon?
Figs

The backyard "winter garden" is now pretty well shaded by pecan trees, so I don't know how productive these guys will be. But we've got a jalapeno
A non-regulation okra pod
A little pickling cucumber
And here are just a few plants that were looking happy after the rain. Mexican petunias are loving it here; can't wait for the burst of lavender.
Butterfly bush

Blackie sweet potato (two small plants joined up to make one mass of deep purple)

Color and a new garden bed

Volunteer sunflowers are just outside the living room windows and so cheery. Cleared out the oaxalis in this bed (pulled up half, cut back half, so hopefully it'll be nice and lush again next spring) and planted seeds for a few dark red sunflower varieties and orange cosmos.
Decided to plant some things on the south side of the front porch last weekend. Before:
And after everything got planted and mulched. Unearthed a brick border while digging in the soil and reused it. Clockwise from the left: beach vitex, a salvia w/dark blue blooms, Black Knight butterfly weed, copper canyon daisy, and liriope (not new).
To the right of the copper canyon are some false dayflowers I couldn't bring myself to uproot (still a few blue flowers there); in front of that, cigar plants.
On my 'to do' list this weekend, pull out dead cyclamen and replace with euphorbia. I should probably pull the kale out, too, but it still looks happy.
Need to get crazy with some scissors in here. Time to thin the zinnias and Mexican sunflowers...but it's so hard!

Front landscape, one month later

When you check on new plantings several times a day, like I'm doing, the growth feels glacial. I can't help it though; every seedling that pops up or bloom that sets into a fruit or vegetable just makes my day. So, I looked back at photos from when these plants went in about a month ago, and things have changed! Full sun and the drip irrigation are doing the trick. Here's the corner of the yard this afternoon:
The artemesia, gregg's mist and sweet potato vine have all doubled or more in size since this shot a month ago :

The burgundy hibiscus today:
And a month ago:

Today:

A month ago (opposite perspective):
The gaura love it here, but the firebush is not filling in as fast as I imagined; I'm already thinking about replacing it with a mutabilis rose this fall. The rosemary and artemesia went in at about the same size, but you can see below how the artemesia's outstripped the rosemary in just a few weeks. I've only ever had mature rosemary shrubs; is it normally slow to start out?
The veggie bed's had the most growth. Today:
April 9:

I knew that the zucchini was growing fast (never had veggies in full sun before!), but I wasn't sure the tomatoes were doing much. However, they've filled in nicely, and the watermelon vine is stretching out as well. I may have underestimated the space needed for zucchini (shown crowding out bush beans and eggplant):
And figs!

Gold in the Trumpet Vine

Saw a flash of warm gold in the pecan tree next door while I was sitting at my computer. Some type of oriole, I think, female or juvenile. Grabbed the telephoto lens and took these photos of the antics from the comfort of my desk chair (an entirely different view than the bare fence I looked at all winter). Apparently there's good eatin' in trumpet vine flowers.

Sunday walk at Turkey Creek

Some wildflowers I hadn't seen before (the two purples) at Turkey Creek this weekend. And Lloyd.