One Word Wednesday - SUMMER

World Haiku Association (122nd Haiga Contest)

World Haiku Association

122nd Haiga Contest

Midsummer's Daydream

Rik Emmett Midsummer's Daydream - music for garden dreaming.

   The days have been warm and sunny, the nights cool and breezy.  The summer has been good to us.  Perfect weather for getting outside in the garden to work, then dawdle, then work a bit more.

Coreopsis

 I was wandering around early one morning when I realized that, in summer, my garden is all about attracting the birds and the bees and the butterflies.

African Blue Basil

The bees love my basil and I've planted several varieties for them to enjoy since I keep picking the flowers off the sweet basil so there will be an abundance of it for pesto making in late August.

The purple coneflowers in the back round pull in the American Goldfinches. All summer they stop by to check on the progress of the seed pods.  Then in the fall they keep coming to eat until they have exhausted the supply of seeds.

My 'Carefree Rose' holds court in the center of the herb garden, and is finally acclimated to the move.  And ready for a close-up this morning!

Just as he was purported to do in life, Francis stands so still that the birds often land on his head to rest.  He is almost hidden in the lobelia, but the doves and the cardinals know where he is.

The sunny garden has been handed over to the hummingbirds and butterflies.  There is sage, monarda, honeysuckle, lantana, butterfly bush and trumpet vine along with the lobelia to lure them into my world.

Bee Balm or Monarda

Trumpet Vine

 And of course, what hummingbird garden is complete without this aggressive climber - a trumpet vine.

Cuphea

Last year we discovered this plant, an annual called the 'cigar plant' or cuphea while we were hunting for herbs at the Peconic River Herb Farm.  The hummingbirds were crazy for it at the farm.  So, of course, we HAD to get some this year.  I'm delighted to report that we've had a male hummingbird visiting us at least twice a day for the past two weeks and he visits every nectar plant in the garden before moving on!

Coleus - center stage in the shade

I have fallen in love with coleus For the shadier garden spots.  It is an easy-going annual that can add a real pop of color in mid-summer when the shade plants are mostly green.  The best part of coleus is this.  I can take cuttings at the end of summer, root it, grow it in the sunroom all winter, then move it outside to live in the ground all summer.

Two varieties of Coleus - there are so many to choose from

 I am also spending a bit of time each day harvesting and drying herbs and flowers for use all winter.  Iam collecting chamomile, calendula and St. John's Wort flowers to make a lovely skin cream once I have enough flowers.  More on that another time.  And I pull weeds for an hour or two every now and then.
But mostly what I do is stop to smell the roses, write in my garden journal and
indulge in midsummer daydreaming!

My treehouse

Finally, when the mosquitoes arrive, it is time to retreat to my own private treehouse.  I was trying to get a bug's eye view of the sky with the bee balm in the picture, when I suddenly noticed my sunroom in the back round.  Nice view looking in or out!

I hope you find a garden for daydreaming..... today and everyday.

May Day, May Day, May Day!

 May is FINALLY busting out all over the place! My garden is alive again , with green growth and the soft colors of spring flowers.  The delicate woodland flowers and buds that are unfurling everyday  are perfect for taking close-up photos.

As I experiment with more and different settings on my camera, I rarely use the auto anymore.  I am starting to use the macro setting and gradually I'm teaching myself to adjust the other settings as well. I think my images are getting sharper.

 The joy and beauty of digital photography is being able to shoot 60 photos, go home, load them into the computer and see them immediately.  Even if one deletes 59 photos and has one keeper, it is worth it.

Here are some shots I took over the weekend in my garden.  Not bad for an old dog learning new tricks!

Delicate Daphne

Ferns unfurl (I love these!)

Wild Geranium bud

"Hello Sunshine, this is Hosta."

Solomon's Seal

Japanese Painted Fern

Late blooming Daffodils

Forget-me-nots

There is nothing more beautiful than May in New York.  Oh wait, there's June, July, August, September and October too! (November and April aren't bad either)

Introducing African Blue Basil

  A few summers ago, I bought variety of basil called African Blue Basil.  It was billed as an annual that promised to be more ornamental than culinary.  It smelled wonderful and, although the leaves were similar to basil leaves, they were bluish and much smaller than my Genovese basil.

  This plant grew happily all summer and every so often I cut pieces of it to add to bouquets or to scent a room in the house.  It was a wonderful plant, flowering repeatedly and seemingly impervious to  drought, disease, bugs and neglect. It grew to be about 3 feet tall and perhaps 2 feet wide and it added color to my herb garden.

  This year I bought another African Blue Basil and guess what?  I discovered there is even more to love about it.  I brought in a few sprigs at the end of September, thinking the plant would die soon.  I put them in water to enjoy for a week or so.  I noticed that the bouquet was not wilting, so I kept adding water.  Lo and behold, the cuttings rooted!

 I planted them in a pot and put them in a sunny window on the porch and I'm hoping the plant will winter over.  It will be  so nice to crush a fresh leaf and enjoy the scents of summer when the snow is flying outside!

  This plant performs beautifully in the garden and I plan to use it in my sunny garden to attract bees and butterflies and for some lovely bluish purple flowers all summer long!

  I will still reach for the old fashioned Genovese basil when I'm ready to make pesto, though.  The flavor can't be beat.  And if I want a cup of basil flavored tea, my first choice is an Indian basil called  Holy Basil or tulsi.  It is wonderfully clove- scented,  and is a healing herb widely used in India. I find it a soothing addition to my herbal tea pot when I feel a cold coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

late autumn-

I vie with the plants

for a square of sunlight

~~~~~~~~ 

   

The Best Thing About June is.....

Everything! 

June has inspired musicians and poets for centuries and there is a good reason for that.  Spring is in full gear, the blooming has begun and the heat of summer, so draining on plants and people, hasn't arrived yet.  

The birds are singing and busy tending their young.  The sky seems close enough to touch and the breezes, though warm, can bring a welcome reminder that summer is still in the future!

My garden offers so many gifts in June.  I want to be in it every moment.  A recent early morning tour took me close to heaven.  I am quite sure, if God dwells among us here on earth, He finds refuge from humans in an earthly garden.

This attractive ground cover, Dead Nettle, is creeping across my shady garden, gradually eliminating the weeding wherever it goes.

Another favorite ground cover and useful herb is called Lady's Mantle.  It blooms now and gives my June bouquets a touch of yellow filler.

This feathery plant, called Goat's Beard, grows in shade and can get to be four feet by four feet.  

Oh, there's the Lavender, just beginning to shoot up its fragrant flowers.  I love to pick the flowers and make tiny dried bunches to put all over the house.  For an occasional headache, I crush the leaves and flowers and keep inhaling the lovely scent until the headache subsides.  It works!

The honeysuckle, grabbing a bit of early morning sunlight, acts as a lure to butterflies and hummingbirds.  It is a vine, which, if you place it on a pole, it will grow toward the sun and light up that corner with bright yellow or orange.

Although the peonies are almost finished with their show for this year, I found a late bloomer hidden among the greenery.  So delicate!

 This is a new arrival to my garden.  A mustardy yellow Daylily, which begins blooming in June and then performs, non-stop, until November.  My neighbor, ever generous, gave me a clump last fall and as you can see, it has made itself at home in my garden.

 .

The roses are coming, the roses are coming!  This beauty, named Cinque de Mayo has fragrant hot red blooms covering the plant at the moment.  It will bloom off and on all summer. 

These beautiful wild flowers, called Spiderwort, brighten up any corner of the yard, sunny or shady!  

Thought for the Day:  June is a gift! Savor it, every moment! 

 

Garden Start-Up

   Winter lingered a bit longer this year, making up for the 3 extra weeks of spring we had last year, I guess.  But I have been very busy getting ready for my garden.  I picked up some new seeds at the flower show and spent a lovely afternoon "playing in the dirt" as my long-suffering mate calls it.  (I am not the neatest gardener)  

  My seed packets are mostly flowers, a few annual herbs, a few tomato  and pepper plants.  Because we planted such an extensive flower and shrub garden, and we belong to a vegetable and fruit CSA, AND most important,  because we don't have a large area that gets sun all day, our vegetable garden consists of a tomato plant or two,  several pepper plants and a lovely teepee of green bean vines.

 Herbs will tolerate some shade and I experiment with various annual flowers each season  to see what works well in my yard.  My favorite flowers are the ones that attract the butterflies and the hummingbirds. 

  This year I started cayenne peppers, an heirloom variety of plum tomato called 'San Marzano,' Genoese Basil and I'm trying some Sweet Cecily from seed I collected a year ago.

  The butterflies and hummingbirds are going to enjoy zinnias, cosmos and a rare variety of morning glory called 'Split Personality.'  They are a lovely shade of red and white and are attractive to the hummingbirds!

   The rest of my annuals will be direct sown later when the ground warms up sufficiently.  Those include cilantro, lettuce, arugula, the green beans and calendula.

 

    After spending many hours pouring over the garden catalogues this past winter, we decided to add a few roses to our front yard.  We have no flowers to speak of in the front of the house and have a sunny corner along the property line.

 There are so many things to choose from, it took us all winter to decide but we chose a  red  'Double Knockout ' Rose to fill the spot.  We've been admiring this rose for several years now.   It blooms profusely and, in our area, the bloom season extends into December! Very disease resistant, long bloom time and a gorgeous color, what more could we ask for?   Pictures to follow, once they bloom!


Take-Away for Today:  April is here!  Time to put on those gardening gloves and get to work!