The past couple of scorching days have been spent in the garden planting the vegetables - assorted tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, beans, squash and numerous herbs. Sometimes I think it's so much work and it would be easier to pop out to the market or a roadside farm stand. Then comes hot, steamy July and I watch DH filling a basket with warm, sun ripened tomatoes, placing them on the kitchen island alongside shiny peppers and tender new zucchini, and I'm thankful we did all that work to encourage those little flimsy plants, and tiny seeds to burst forth, climb up those cages and stakes, and bring forth their tasty fruits to grace our plates..............................and then to keep me so darned busy making gallons of messy tomato sauce and dozens of containers of pesto to fill the freezer for another year.
Would love to know who grows a vegetable garden ~ always happy to get tips, or share tips, for making it easier, if possible!
Meanwhile, until the veggies start to grow, I'm sending you flowers from my garden. I looked around today and was pleasantly surprised to see so many beautiful new blooms. Guess these last two days with temps. in the mid 90's have really got things growing - and now some rain expected in the next day or so which will be great.
The Allium is like a cluster of stars ~ the purple Clematis on the porch rail is one of my favorites..JPG)
This very rose pink Clematis is on my mailbox post.
This rose "Peace" is one one of two bushes in the front beds - it's so beautiful.
The gorgeous pink Geranium buds.
Bright and brilliant yellow Lantana ~ and then the amazing yellow blooming Jasmine which is covering about 20 feet of chainlink fencing installed by my neighbor along the back side of the property - yeah! chainlink now almost invisible and I planted just one small plant a few years ago. The perfume is intoxicating.
The coral blossoms of the Honeysuckle on the back fence.
Has anyone had success planting between flagstones? The pathway we had laid around the gazebo looks OK but I would really love to have some low growing, creeping plants as shown in this landscaping book. These appear to be creeping thymes which will take foot traffic. Yesterday I dug holes, added good potting soil, and sprinkled with expensive, organic, thyme seeds. My fingers are crossed. I feel this is a leap of faith. Will the squirrels dig up the dirt from above, or the chipmunks and voles from below? Will the rains come and wash it all away before the teeny tiny seeds have a chance to grow a root, a stem, a little leaf? 
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If the thyme grows I may try other low creeping plants and would love lavender and chamomile along the inside edges, perhaps some Irish moss - want the area to look more like a "Secret Garden", a little overgrown and faded by time. Actually some of the flagstones have already started turning a bit green where they remain damp - these pics were taken late last Summer when all was new and perfect!
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