The Mid-Summer Garden

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining,

the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing,

and the lawn mower is broken.

 ~James Dent

Ah, mid-summer, when the garden is bursting with flowers...

and humming with activity.

What would summer be without flowers in the garden and birds, bees, and butterflies to flutter about them?

This summer I am beyond excited to see a good number of Monarch butterflies in the garden - more than I've seen in the previous three years combined.

Such a hopeful thing sign!  We've also been fortunate this year to have a cooler summer with enough rain to make up for last year's bad drought.  Mid-summer has brought some big storms, but other than a few downed plants, my garden is not complaining about the extra water. 

Mid-summer has also brought new blooms to the garden.  I am in love with the color of these 'Shell Pink' Balloon Flowers, winter sowed a couple years ago and finally in bloom.

'Shell Pink' Balloon Flower

Does anyone else grow Sweet Peas?  I grew them for the first time from seed this year.  They sulked after being transplanted and I thought they might die off, but they rebounded and began blooming in July.  The smell is divine!  It's a plant I don't seem to see often in other gardens, despite being one of those 'cottage favorites'.

Some other plants blooming in my garden for the first time this year include Black Cohosh, Whorled Milkweed, Gray-headed Coneflower, and a pretty pass-along daylily.

Clockwise from top left:the greenhouse garden, Black Cohosh, daylily, Swamp Verbena, Gray-headed Coneflower, Whorled Milkweed

The vegetable garden is producing green beans and zucchini aplenty by mid-summer.  The garlic has already been harvested with turnips, carrots, and bok choy sown in its place for fall.  I thought I hadn't gotten many snow peas this year... until my kids informed me that they had been going out and eating them off the vines every day.  The coveted snow peas kept producing until mid-July, petering out just as the beans kicked in.  I am still eagerly waiting for that first ripe tomato, though, which should any day now.

vegetable garden

While there is always work to be done in the garden this time of year (thanks to weeds, weeds, and more weeds), one must stop and just soak in its beauty once in awhile!  In my opinion there's nothing like walking through the summer garden in the early morning, when the air is still cool and the birds are beginning to wake.  

Alas, in the early mornings I am usually stumbling to the coffee maker while mumbling incoherent things to my wide-awake children.  Thankfully summer evenings are often just as lovely, if a tad warmer!

I hope everyone is enjoying summer and all the beauty it brings.

As always, happy gardening!