A Little Blog Break

Hello everyone!  The days are getting longer and time in the garden is busier than ever.  We've been trimming a lot of overgrown Aucuba that seems to need a haircut every couple of years.  Thank goodness my sweetheart likes to join me in gardening tasks!  The Wisteria is in the stage that I've referenced before as Love/Hate.  The Love stage is over and now we need to keep our shears sharpened to take care of its long, ever growing tendrils.  All these chores are happily done on a lovely day such as today.

This America Climbing rose is finally taking off in our garden.  Though still just a little over two years old, she has produced many lovely blooms to grace our table.

We bought this little bird to sit on the ledge overlooking our patio.  He was inexpensive, so I'm not sure he wants to sit out in the weather.

The little purple finch is wondering what in the world that little fellow is on the ledge.  He really doesn't know, but is happy to have his feeder full of safflower seed.  Did you know squirrels don't like it?  If you have a problem with squirrels raiding your feeders, buy safflower seed.

The Pulmonaria is filling in the garden nicely.  Its speckled leaves add interest to the many shades of green.

I enjoy having Hosta in our partially shady garden. 

The old Oak Leaf Hydrangea is beginning to light up the garden with its white blossoms.

This year the month of June is going to be quite busy for me.  I wanted to let you all know I won't be blogging or visiting your lovely posts during this month.   I do look forward to checking in with all of you in July.  

Thank you as always for leaving such lovely comments and sharing your time with me.  

Flowers in July

♫Flower Therapy♫

I thought I would show you around our home and look at what is blooming.  We've had the most rain I can remember in June, almost 10 inches!  It's almost been like Camelot.  It mostly rained in the evening and at night.  July is starting out quite steamy and hot, but still we've had rain.  I did need to water a few pots of flowers.  As plants get larger they require more moisture as they dry out quickly.

Impatiens and Squirrel Proof Feeder

This is a shot of our patio.  We love to eat our meals out here.  When the weather is nice it's great to hang out here and read, relax and enjoy the birds.  I'm an outside girl and need to find time there whenever possible.  This is my spot on an afternoon with a glass of iced tea and a book or my Kindle.

I have impatiens planted in the brick planter.  I planted these plants from seed.  This is the first time I tried that.  I usually buy bedding plants. Last year I had saved an envelope full of impatiens seeds. Before we went to England, I planted the tiniest seedlings and left them.  Samuel kept them watered nicely and now they are beginning to grow larger.  I was not sure how things would fair while we were gone, but everything lived!  Yay!

Let's go out the shell walk (another story for another day) and take a look around.

That's my Uncle Sam--made by my dear sister, Susan.  He really needs repainting, but I don't have the heart to paint over my sister's work.  Susan passed away 5 1/2  years ago of pancreatic cancer. She was only 57.  I still can't believe she is gone.  She was so talented and could make anything out of nothing.  She would find things along the shoreline and use it for her art.  Uncle Sam was made from things that washed on shore from the Chesapeake Bay.  She had a wonderful cottage along the shore.  I miss you every day sweet Susan!

Above Uncle Sam is a Vitex.  I was afraid it wouldn't bloom this year---it was a little slow.  Nature takes its time and it is now blooming.  The first time I saw Vitex blooming was in Williamsburg and I bought this plant there.

Don't you love when the garden gives you gifts?  These are a couple of gifts from my garden this year. Volunteer petunia--I haven't had petunias for years and Lamb's Ear from seed that my sister Inkie gave me.  Of course I could list all the wonderful weeds that have sprung up, but let's keep it positive.

This used to be the Secret Garden that my daughter and I planted 35 years ago.  We had roses here for as long as they could stand being in the shade that has slowly taken over the space.  Now this area has plants that are suited more for shade--Like Painted Ferns.

The perennial garden in the back was made in honor of my Mama. There is so much I could say about her.  She first introduced me to gardening.  This bed is sorely in need of color.  The rudbeckia in the background is full of buds and should be in bloom soon.

In the back, where there is more sun, we have a few tomatoes growing!

Let's walk to the side and let me show you some real bloomers! 

Keep walking!

I learned a lot about gardening from a dear neighbor.  Her family gave me her birdbath when she passed away.  

Who influenced you the most about gardening?  Do you mentor anyone who is learning to garden?  I hope you find JOY in your garden! ♥

Beautiful Spring

Spring is off to a wonderful start in our area.  The garden is blooming and the weather is lovely.  We've been enjoying times spent with the family.  The grands always bring great joy!

Alex serving and Miles looking on.

Spring was worth waiting for this year!

Wisteria with bumble bee

I have a love hate relationship with this wisteria!  I keep it in our yard for a couple of reasons

The above photo is reason number one!  The second reason is that it came from Grayden's childhood home.  My mother-in-law's wisteria was always lovely and my husband enjoys seeing it.  If you have wisteria you know how invasive it is.  It can be quite a problem.  Wisteria is known to climb many yards per year.  So to keep that from happening in our yard, we constantly have to prune the runners. It also will pop up in the yard where you don't want it.  Many plants have been given away.  I frankly get tired of it, but keep it for the above reasons.  We have one on each side of our driveway.  They are pruned to mainly be tree standards.

It's such a beautiful time of year.  I hope you are enjoying watching the earth come back to life after a long winter!