My Deep Green Summer Garden

It's late afternoon, just after a thundershower. The sun has returned and shines more gently than earlier in the day. The air is as cool as it will get, on a day in my deep green summer garden. I grab my camera and take a tour, breathing in the moist air.

First I step onto the patio. To my left is a view over the front garden. Across the lawn, lavender crepe myrtles are blooming. They were sold to me as dwarfs, to reach about three feet high. They are triple that and still growing. To my right is the herb bed, centered on a birdhouse and bordered with knockout roses, reliable bloomers even in the summer heat.

I walk down into the arbor garden. This is my favorite spot to sit and listen to the birds.

A  couple of striking plants catch my attention. The first is a magnolia seed pod and the next is caladium with the sun glowing through the leaves.

I stroll across the drive and down into the woodland garden. It is verdant and dripping wet, the sun glinting off raindrops.

Colorful foliage with multiple textures and shades of green provide interest in the summer garden.

I hope you enjoyed this walk through my garden. May the work of your own hands, whatever that may be, bring blessings to those around you.  Deborah

A Time to Persevere

Hot and sticky today with forecasts of more to come, and it's time to retreat from the garden. The grasshoppers, the white flies, the molds and fungus will thrive, while I neglect my duties in favor of air conditioning and icy drinks. 

Our summer will test the mettle of both plant and gardener, and the weak ones die or go dormant. I make quick forays in the mornings and evenings, yanking a few weeds and checking on the status of my tomatoes and green beans. I hastily tour other parts of the garden. It's green and lush, but on closer inspection I find leaves that are wilted and pitted with tiny holes. Something has been chomping on the foliage, leaving jagged edges. Weeds are sensing my flagging efforts and are putting on a new offensive, determined to take my paths. I won't let them. I will get them with the hoe this Saturday morning. Early.

Normally, people in my part of the country visit the Gulf this time of year. It is part of our culture. In the summer — and other times, too, if we can get away — we go to the beach. Now a great sadness has descended, and we wonder if the oil has reached our favorite spot. I heard that it has come upon Orange Beach. I am glad I spent a few days at Orange Beach earlier this year, before the greatest oil leak in history began its deadly flow into the Gulf. I sigh when I look back at my photos. It seems that summer has no redemption this year.

But I am an optimist. Gardening has shown me the resilience of the earth, and it has demonstrated resurrection and new life. It has taught me to take up my trowel and persevere, for there will be joy in the morning. 

Enough with gloom! Here is what is happening in my garden, today:

Trees are prospering, invigorated by the deep, soaking rains we experienced all spring.

The woodland garden is a quiet retreat.

Hydrangeas are still beautiful.

And a few other flowers bloom, too.top: Caryopteris ( blue mist spirea). Clockwise from above: Asclepsias (butterfly weed); Crepe myrtle; Gardenia; Speedwell

May you never lose hope. May you have courage, and may you have eyes to see things that are beautiful and good.

Happy summer!  Deborah