July's garden update

Sorry I haven't been posting to the blog much lately, I've been outside tending to my garden nearly every day! It's so nice to have all the hard work of Springtime done, now I can enjoy being in the garden a lot without having to work so hard. Watering is still a necessary chore, and spot weeding here and there. But overall I'm so happy with how everything is just growing and growing.

I have a bunch of sunflowers along the back fence in the back yard- they are just about to bloom. I'll take a photo of them in the next week or two. The plants are already as tall (if not taller!) than I am. I think some of them will get to be 7-8 feet high.

The flowerbeds are doing well this year, they seem to like all the rainy weather we've been having. And lucky for us the hailstorms have been very mild, with no bigger than pea-sized hailstones. phew!

I am really pleased with the Russian sage we planted last year, it wintered over just fine, and is bigger and lovelier this summer.

I like the tiny purple flowers (so do the bees!) and it makes a nice contrast to the yellow/orange poppies, rudbekias and coreopsis that are all in bloom. I also planted some lavender and purple verbena to play on the contrast.

Here's a pic of the sage with some poppies:


Like I told Chuck, you can take the girl out of California, but you can't take the California out of me! I love having those bright orange poppies in the front flower beds each year. We also have some cream-colored ones which seem just as happy in the hot, sunny bed. They both re-seeded themselves this year, which was really a surprise for me this spring. Quite unexpected considering all the snow and bitter cold weather we had last winter.

The roses are about to bloom again. It seems we have a week or two with all 10 bushes in full bloom, then after we cut back the spent roses it takes a few weeks for them to re-bud and bloom again, so they look all plain and green for the time in between blooming. I wish there was a way to have some of the roses green while the others show off their blooms, then it wouldn't seem so plain in-between roses! I guess a solution might be to plant something among the rosebushes that bloomed more frequently. Hmm... I'll have to think about that for next year!

This rose is one of my favorites, I just love the shade of pink.

This weekend I am finally able to harvest some vegetables! We have 4 huge heads of broccoli, 2 crookneck squashes, and the first of the tomatoes.

I didn't get a picture of the first tomato, as I ate it within 10 minutes of it being picked! Chuck and I had scrambled eggs with toasted english muffins for breakfast, so I decided to use the first tomato, and made mine into an egg and tomato sandwich. Oh my- so delicious. Seriously, nothing beats the flavor and texture of a home-grown tomato. This one was an heirloom variety named "Cherokee Purple". Yum! I gave one to Pat later in the afternoon, and the 3rd one is pictured above. It will make a great addition to some cheese and crackers for snack at work tomorrow!

Thank goodness Chuck doesn't like tomatoes, so I don't have to share with him. :)

Have a great week everyone!