Late Bloomers

By now just about everything in my little garden has done its thing for the season . . . kinda makes me sad :( I look so forward to seeing all my little babies open up for the first time. Before I get all sentimental, I thought I'd share the latest. The good news is that now we have goodies we can actually eat, like these grape tomatoes. They really started to ripen in the last week. My favorite thing right now is a fresh tomato slice with salt and pepper on it ~ Mmmmmm!!!!

My beautiful Rose of Sharon is filled with awesome blooms like these

More purple ~ I love these coneflowers!

These are Rutger tomatoes. They aren't ready for picking just yet, neither are the Romas. When they are, we'll have more tomatoes than we know what to do with. That just means lots of Basil, tomato and mozzarella salad for us :)

We have peppers! So far the Anaheim, Inferno, and Poblanos have ripened. That means salsa making time is right around the corner.

Weed Woes

I absolutely detest pulling weeds, but unfortunately it is one of those necessary evils of gardening. As much as we try to keep up with this daunting task, we got a little behind on it ~ in one part due to the July 4th holiday weekend (I refuse to do manual labor on a holiday!) and also because of feeling a bit under the weather during the week that followed. So . . . tonight Mr. V. and I went out and tackled those nasty weeds! What a job it was ~ now I know where the saying "growing like a weed" comes from ~ they really do grow much faster than plants! I would love to hear your suggestions for keeping the weeds under control . . . please!!! While we were in the garden, I snapped this photo of a busy bumblebee gathering pollen from my white lavender plant. I can see why Mr. Bee loves this one ~ it smells divine!!

Fun with Mosaic Maker

I've been having lots of fun playing around with fd's Flickr Toys ~ here is a mosaic I created out of photos I took of my flowers: They are, starting at top left: White lavender, purple day lillies, phlox, dahlia, isotoma, red day lily. Yeah, I know what you're thinking ~ I need to get a life!! LOL

Garden Update ~ Everything's in Bloom!

When we returned from our trip, I was pleasantly surprised to see all the new flowers that opened up while we were away. Not only were they fully in bloom, but looking extremely healthy and HUGE, due to the rain we got during that time ~ thanks, Mother Nature ;) The fluffy white stuff you see all over them is from the Cottonwood trees ~ they've been spreading their seeds around the neighborhood for weeks now. Not only does this stuff clog your gutters and the storm drains, but it irritates my nose and throat to no end. It's one aspect of Summer that I do not look forward to each year, but it's a small price to pay for fun in the sun and the rewards that come with it.

Multi-colored petunias that sit by my side door ~ love 'em!! A pot filled with Calibrachoa, Lobelia and other annuals.

This is my "mini" foxglove ~ it's actually quite big and spilling over with flowers

A sea of yellow coreopsis standing at full attention

Beautiful clematis ~ this year loaded with blooms

Avens ~ so sweet and a pretty shade of red

5/22/08 ~ Everything's Blooming!

I absolutely love Spring!! Of course, I love all seasons ~ except for Winter, which I can only stand for about two weeks. The bonus to living in Michigan is that each season is distinctly different and wonderful.

You can probably tell that I'm a freak about flowers. I feel like I have my own slice of Heaven when I can look out and see the beauty that is growing in my little backyard. It makes me happy :)

Some famous person once said "Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into". I would agree. These shots were taken this evening.