Days go by....

and almost overnight the garden pops with color.   

We like to bring Sunflower's inside...while they last!

The sunflowers came up on their own this year.  No seed from the farm store was needed.  This is a true gift from last years planting!!

Bachelor Buttons .....

and

Zinnias galore! 

The next three weeks are busy here at our place.  Two weddings, grand kids, and more.  I'll be in and out!  I hope each of you are enjoying the bounty of summer and looking closely at what is around you! 

Simple...

....and vibrant Bachelors Buttons are straight from the garden.  They were started from seed and grown in soil rich with organic matter.  Thank you, chickens!

I will be showing small flower arrangements for the next several days, using only the flowers that grow around our place.    Do come back to see more of these captivators as the week goes on! 

Expected Pleasures

The garden is beginning to change over to a late summer state.  The earlier blooming plants are still going strong, but there is another crop of flowers on the crest of bursting open.   I obviously love growing flowers, but I'm not an expert by any means.  It is a stroke of luck that I have a second wave of blooms waiting for the later days of summer. 

Hot Lips Salvia play an important part in the herb garden.  The plant is a perennial but rarely makes it through a cold winter.  The show this plant puts out is worth the extra expense from year to year.

White Echinacea holds its strong head and flower for weeks.  It is a charmer and appears to light up at dusk.

Our brightly colored geraniums are on their second set of flowering stems.  The fertilizer has given them new life, after laying dormant in the garage over winter.  It is thrilling to be successful at keeping these alive for more than a couple of years!

Pincushion is another perennial and it thrives from season to season. It is perfect for cutting and bringing indoors!  

Black Eyed Susan take up a large space in the garden.  This is the very first flower and I found it this evening.  There are hundreds to follow.  This is not the last you'll see of these! 

I like to dry Black Eyed Susan and use them in dried arrangements or wreaths.

Flowers are my expected pleasure of summer!   What are your expected  pleasures of summer?

Safe

For the record....I uploaded all my photos to an external hard drive today.  My computer is going on five years old and we all know what that means! The big crash could happen at any time.  I have heard many people exclaim great frustration when their computer ends its life.  All I really care about are my pictures and now they are safe. 

The pictures on today's post were taken a few minutes ago.  The sun is low on the horizon and the glow is reflected in the photos. 

The shot above shows a Butterfly Bush behind the bird houses.  This is its second year and has become almost tree like.  In the foreground is Chocolate Mint.  It makes wonderful tea and spreads nicely.  We do cut it back drastically without ever fearing it won't return!  :)

Pictured below are Stevia plants.  This is the plant that is used as a sweetener substitute.  It is sweet enough for my tea and that is how I use it.  One plant will multiply with each new growing season.  They are pretty plants and fill in the garden nicely.  They look like a small Butterfly Bush.

Croscosmia is one of my favorite flowers. It belongs to the Iris family.  It grows from a bulb and the bunch grows larger as the years go by.  

Summer isn't complete without a prolific crop of Nasturtiums.  I grow them from seed, in barrels, with the same dirt from year to year.  It's my understanding they are not to be fertilized if they are to bloom well.   

We are expected to have some hotter days by this weekend.  I'll be watering in the early morning and placing a few pots out of the direct sunlight.

 Having a flower garden is much like having children. 

They flouish with attention! 

On the porch and down the driveway

Two different landscapes are taking place on our farm.  One on the porch where the flowers are flourishing......

and...

...... another down the driveway where the rain is boorish! 

It is the weekend..starting now!  Have a good one!

The yard across the street....

.....is full of flowers and some of them we don't have in our yard.  This is a common Bleeding Heart that grows in shaded areas.  It reminds me of my childhood home where they were naturalized and in abundance.

The iris across the street was so interesting.  It is rain beaten, just about worn out but still worth a picture.  The heart of this flower is something to consider!

What happens when we don't put out slug bait?  Not a petal goes untouched from the rabid nibblers!

If the rain lets up this week, as we are told it will, I'll be out in the garden planting.  This is the week it needs to be planted or we begin to get nervous about the harvest.  Corn, beans and tomatoes take until the end of August to start picking.  Time is wasting!

Iris

It takes time to realize an Iris after the bulb has been planted.  Four seasons have passed since they were placed in our ground.  This spring is bringing us several Iris flowers and it's been worth the wait!

Iris

Thou are the Iris, fair among the fairest

Who, armed with golden rod

And winged with the celestial azure, bearest

The message of some god.


Thou are the Muse, who far from crowded cities

Hauntest the sylvan streams,

Playing on pipes of reed the artless ditties

That come to us as dreams.


O flower-de-luce, bloom on, and let the river

Linger to kiss thy feet!

O flower of song, bloom on, and make for ever

The world more fair and sweet.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thank you, Iva! The Iris are magnificent!

Walking daily......

....is a healthy habit. It gets me into another neighborhood that is quite different from our farm. The neighborhood I am referring to boarders Stone Creek Golf course and is the golf course. This route has been the same path I've taken, with my walking partner, for the past four years. We have worn out several pairs of shoes and enjoyed some pretty lively conversations! We often talk about the benefits of walking like: lower cholesterol, keep weight in balance, eye health, lower blood pressure and attends to vitamin D deficiency. I'd like to say that walking has allowed me to lose weight, but that is not the case. It allows me to eat without gaining. We walk in the rain and sunshine. There is also the exception of rain blowing sideways and extreme wind! Many times we have gotten wet down to our underwear but not as often as some report! Every day it doesn't rain is appreciated and noted! :)

A friendly neighbor puts out fresh water for those who walk with their dogs.

Daffodils grow freely against the fence and will be there for years to come.

Way up, over our heads, we hear honking. A gaggle of Canada Geese fly in V formation, heading towards the East, with a stop at the pond.

We head down into the wooded area, along the creek and behind the golf course.

Deer fern grow on the rocks and trees along the path. They are so pretty and won't grow in other places...like pots.

Trillium are scattered all along the creek and path.

Ahh..the sunshine is beginning to peek out beneath the fluffy white clouds!

Many of the homes along the golf course are large and very well appointed. We get to look at their pools and lovely landscapes as we tread by.

This planting is exceptional and if we ever saw the owners outside we would say, "thank you!"

In a few short weeks it will be changed out and another amazing show will be displayed!

I encourage those of you who want to walk to find an area that is safe and one that you enjoy. Start out slowly and build up to a distance that is further than you think you would like to go. Four miles sounds like a lot to me, but it is the distance that has built up my strength and given my body the opportunity to repair itself in areas that were lacking. It is also the distance around the golf course and back to my walking partners house. It's been a good thing.

Yard work...Saturday

A trip to the nursery and a car full of plants await my attention today. I put off buying plants until the weather co-operated, and before taking that drive into the country to our favorite growers. Hopefully.......these plants will be alright! It is still a little crisp at night.

Red and purple salvia, purple petunias, grasses, brightly colored geraniums will fill our pots and be nestled into the flower beds. This is just the start of more to come and another season bursting with promise of beautiful flowers! We will water, fertilize and exclaim over the plantings as they flourish!

The color spots this year will be red, peach, orange, yellow, purple, blue, pink and white! The more color....the better!

A quick walk out to the garden area, behind the barn, we find the apple trees making their statement of what is to come! Gravenstein and Red Delicious apples are forming as the bees do their work!

The bees are here!!

Spring....the season of hope and dreams!