First Day of Summer

Today is the first day of summer, hooray! And almost the end of my “vacation”, boo!

Posting on Wednesday made me realize just how much I missed this space and blogland. So, here I am back again with another post.

Really not much to share in terms of a Friday catch up as I did a whole two month catch up in my last post. As far as this week, I didn’t do too much. Read some books, watched some television, cleaned out my      email (oh, that was scary!), and tried a new recipe for dinner (it was a “doom”, not a “boom” as the kids say I suppose).

Today, we’re under a heat advisory for our first day of summer. So I suppose it’ll be a mostly indoor day but I did get out early (well, not really as I’m on “vacation” so waited until about 9ish) and water my flowers.

So for today’s post, I just thought I’d show share of my favorite front porch and backyard flowers. Even got out the real camera!

One: Front Porch

It’s nowhere near finished like it should be for this late in the season (might be the first day of summer but it’s been warm and nice for months).

My poor little lemon tree, fell off the table during a spring storm and sat in a broken pot until I plopped it into a much too small pot. Finally, I repotted it properly without much hope. However, there’s always hope:

 

The flowers in them are bit neglected but here’s a view of some concrete pots I splurged on at Menards one weekend morning:

I have two more out there, one with a bumblebee design and one with a butterfly design. I’ll have to share photos of them next time.

Two: Front Porch Cart

For a bit of privacy, I have an odd cart parked on the side of the front porch filled with plants. (Disclaimer: this is quick phone photo as I realized I had no cart picture).

Close up of my Mandevilla, not visible on top of the cart:

My goal is to fill the whole second shelf of the cart with fairy garden things and whimsy just because it makes me happy:

THREE: Garden Beside Front Porch

My hanging basket of petunias from Mother’s Day:

Just starting to bloom in front of them is the bee balm:

FOUR: Let’s Go to the Backyard

I have a vision of fence line filled with hydrangeas! It’s a bit slow going as I wait until they go on sale half-dead every summer and then buy them. 

(Bargain flower shopping tip: Know your perennials! The garden centers clear them out every late summer and fall as they look half-dead. They bounce back!) 

I transplanted this one last fall:

The mama plant:

FIVE: Her Royal Grouchiness and Random Photos

I apparently wore her out and now she’s down here curled up ensuring she gets her full 23 hours of rest in today. Here’s a quick view of our front porch garden tomatoes and another angle of the ladybug planter plus a bit of Russian sage growing in the background.

Hope you enjoyed the mini tour of my flowers that make me happy on the first day of summer! What flowers make you happy?