My Summer Love

I admit it. I have a not so secret passion. It's green and pink and red and gold and every beautiful color in the rainbow. My wonderful husband encourages me by digging holes and building fences and listening to me ramble about each plant like it's a brilliant child or pet.








Every year Chris and the kids get me a rose bush for Mother's Day. The red and pink roses frame the garden gate. There's a lovely white rose that forms a triangle with the other two roses.

























Last year we planted lilies along the garden fence. They are blooming beautifully. I love the personality of the tiger lilies. The gold and the deep burgundy are my favorites.











This year has been so wet that a lot of seeds came up unexpectedly. We have huge mustard plants that are in bloom now. The flowers are even spicier than the leaves. The greens are fantastic sauteed and served with noodles.














We also got some great garlic scapes. They're fantastic sauteed with the mustard greens too.
















Some of my favorite things are the fruits. Chris and I have planted a new fruit tree on each of our wedding anniversaries. So far we've planted a peach, a plum, and an apricot. We'll get our first peaches this year. Over the years we've also planted strawberries, grapes, and raspberries.



































This year my mother gave us a male and a female hardy kiwi vine. The hardy kiwi is actually a member of the gooseberry family. The kids thought it was neat that we could grow "kiwis." Today, Chris helped me plant the blueberry bushes that we bought at the blueberry farm. It was really sweet of him to help me, especially since gardening isn't really his thing.















Last year we realized that the black walnuts growing in our yard were going to make it nearly impossible for us to get good tomatoes or peppers. This year we're trying to grow them in buckets to see if we can get a harvest. So far, they look beautiful:











We don't seem to have any trouble growing cherry tomatoes though. I planted a few plants that seem to be doing really well. We also have an entire bed of "volunteer" cherry tomatoes. Hopefully we'll have a huge harvest this year.


















The crazy weather really slowed down planting this spring, but we're starting to make up for it. Here are some of the first leaves of our cucumber crop. Cucumbers never seem to last long here.


























As much as I love food crops, I do have some ornamental plants. Chris's favorite is the yucca. We were able to split our large yucca into 4 smaller plants this year. They all bloomed even though we disturbed them. Another of the kids' favorites is the bamboo grove. The rain this year has helped it really take off. I love the sound it makes when the wind blows through it, and the kids love hiding in it.












Kira loves making bouquets out of the wildflowers that are growing just outside of the garden fence. They threaten to take over the asparagus bed, but we keep cutting them back and transplanting flowers into the front beginnings of a cottage garden.
















I think we're well on the way to reducing lawn and increasing food and beauty. In the meantime, playing in my gardens makes me happy and greatly reduces my stress level. Every day in the garden is a good day.