summer is almost here and gardening adventures

of course nothing says summer like watermelon. carter seems to prefer eating big chunks of it that he can stuff in his mouth and hardly chew because his mouth is so full...definitely a no clothes type of food.


our favorite summer beverage in the making: sun tea!


my strawberries have blossoms for the first time in their third summer. there aren't a lot but what there is will be deeeeelicious :)


i would put more pictures of my backyard garden but there is not too much to see yet, so you'll have to make do with this little pea plant which is bravely sprouting up at a rapid pace. i need to get some stakes or tomato cages to help my peas stay upright soon. neighboring the peas there are carrots (barely showing), lettuce (maybe 2 cm tall), more carrots, cucumbers (all but one of which have dismally failed to poke through the soil so far...so i planted more a few days ago), some tomatoes (romas, of course), some green onions (very tiny, wispy, and feathery at the moment) and then my strawberries and the ravenous raspberries which are slowly (or not so slowly) trying to take over the whole plot. i have also planted some zinnias (i love zinnias) which are about two cm tall right now and there is a large rhubarb plant that my mom gave me last year. we have already enjoyed some strawberry rhubarb muffins and coffee cake from this plant this spring, which is awesome :)


i did some rearranging and planting of a few new perennials in my front flower bed this year. i am not sure what i am doing there but i guess as the plants grow and bloom i can always change it up if i don't like how it looks. this one is a columbine that i just got and it is blooming so nicely already. the rock in the background is pretty big and HEAVY. you would have laughed if you could have seen me lugging it to the front from the side of the house where it has sat for a few years because i thought it was just too heavy for me to move anywhere else. but this year i was determined to move it to the front, so i lifted with my knees, not my back (aka heaved and grunted and groaned)/rolled it/got really mucky since i brilliantly had just watered the flowers before moving the rock into the bed...:) but now it looks good and it has found its permanent home :)


the irises are all blooming late this year but that's to be expected i guess since it's been coolish until lately.


these irises are just about ready to burst into bloom and i don't even remember from last year what color they are, so it will be a surprise :) looks like maybe yellow?


this is a frilly little bush that sprouts out several slender stalks that bloom with this lovely pink flower that you see here. i don't know what it's called. i got a cutting of it from a friend at work a few years ago.


and my bleeding heart, which is (obviously) white, not pink.

i am experimenting with some sweetpeas (the flower, not peas) this year along the side fence. so far, not a lot of them have sprouted but there are a few. i love the smell of sweetpeas :) and lilacs. there are two little lilac bushes in the backyard but they are still too small to bloom. but my favorite thing is walking down the street and catching a whiff of somebody's lilacs as i go...sometimes it reminds me of this song from My Fair Lady - sing along!

I have often walked down this street before;
But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before.
All at once am I several stories high,
Knowing I'm on the street where you live.
Are there lilac trees in the heart of town?
Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?
Does enchantment pour out of ev'ry door?
No, it's just on the street where you live!