Summertime Flowers

 

Greetings! It's been a floriferous time here in my gardens. My Paradise Garden (pictured above) has been particularly flower-filled this last month. 

The Paradise Garden has been one of the most successful garden areas I've made since I started gardening more than a dozen years ago. I think that's because it's located so close to my house, which makes it easy to take care of. (I can pad out in my bare feet while I'm on the phone and pull a few weeds.) Also, it has two seating areas, and my husband and I enjoy sitting in it nearly every evening on warm nights.

The Paradise Garden was bursting with color a few evenings ago.

Here's a closer picture.

And from the back corner. Lots of daylilies and self-seeded flowering tobacco.

Another area that has turned out well is the east patio area, which I planted in a tropical garden theme a few years ago. I continue to do this each May and also bring out my houseplants to enjoy the dappled shade under the pergola, where they really seem happy. Along with our cats:

Those petunias, snapdragons and flowering tobacco at forefront re-seed themselves every year -- free flowers! And the view from the patio is lovely across the fields. (Both our cats like to snooze under the table.)

Here's what the border behind the patio table looks like, with houseplants, a coleus, more self-seeded snapdragons and a couple of hydrangea shrubs that over-winter.

The secret of these successful areas is their proximity to my house, so that it's easy for me to take care of them (and enjoy them). 

So I'm planning some changes to my garden areas to eliminate larger borders that are farther away from my house, and move the plants to closer areas. I'll post more about the changes in a future post, but I'm excited to be making these plans.

I hope you're enjoying warm -- but not too hot -- days in your own gardens, and find them easy and enjoyable to maintain. Thanks for reading! -Beth