June Blooms

Let's take a walk through my June Garden, shall we? I won't start at the front door, that's too formal. Let's start at my arbor. It's one of my favorite spots in the yard because it attracts every bird in town. I think they like the perspective from up here. This robin was proclaiming loudly for all to hear that this was HER turf! The goldfinch below her seems to be asking if she'll share the birdbath at least. I've never seen a bird bathe there, but it is a popular watering hole.

Down below the arbor is another popular spot, only with the bees. June is when my lavender comes into bloom, and you'll find plenty of bees lapping up all the best nectar here. I've tried to get them to pose sweetly for my photos, but they are simply much too busy. 

Next stop is the patio, and there is lots to see here, especially my containers. My patio is a hot and sunny spot, and my containers here usually reflect that. I've discovered that there is no sense in using thirsty plants in this spot, because I'll just get frustrated with watering them constantly. I did make an exception for the Starry Night petunias, because they were simply too lovely to resist. 

Around the corner from the patio is a somewhat chaotic corner that I once called the butterfly corner. All of my garden is actually geared towards attracting butterflies, but this corner retains the name. It's a little early in the summer for most of the butterflies, but this 8 spotted forester moth did pose sweetly for me on the daisies. 

The west side yard doesn't hold much interest right now, only the evening primroses are blooming here. Soon the button bush will put out its interesting pin cushion flowers nearby. 

Now as we circle around the front yard, we can see the window boxes full of begonias. It's pretty shady in this small area, so I can sneak in some shade lovers here. The hydrangeas are starting to bloom, so my next post will surely have more of them to share. I only have three, but with so little shade, it's all I have room for. 

Now we've made it around to the front. It's a somewhat backward way to walk the garden I suppose. We won't bother with the east side of the house today, because that's the rose garden. Roses peak in May, and June is somewhat dull on that side right now. 

I hope you enjoyed your walk through my June blooms. Come back again! 

June Feels Summery

Summer sunshine means butterflies are starting to show up here in Robin's Nest. I haven't seen too many yet, but imagine my excitement when I spotted my first monarch of the season recently. Not only that, but she posed so sweetly for me on this orange butterfly weed right next to the lavender. I'll have to check to see if she left me any eggs.

The calendar says it isn't summer yet, but we all know that June is when summer starts. All the cool weather is gone, and every day is hot and muggy. We are already begging for rain! That doesn't normally start in June, so it looks like it's going to a hot and dry summer. Our summers usually are very dry, but every year, I wish we'd have a rainy season instead.

I've already started the daily garden hose rodeo, which I really dislike. I always swear that I garden with drought tolerant plants, and I really do have many. But in May and June there are still seedlings to baby, and containers getting started. These are the things that keep me wrangling that darned hose.

Despite the hot and dry weather, the garden glows on. By the end of May and the beginning of June, it seems to be a time when something new blooms every day.

Roses usually peak here in late May and early June. I do have problems with what I believe are sawfly larvae eating holes in the leaves every year. I'm all about organic, so mostly I just tolerate the holes. But I wish there was a solution. I'm sure I'm the only one who notices though, because the holes are small and the flowers are pretty enough to overshadow it.

One of the best parts of summer here are my patio evenings. I spend many nights out around town with all of my musical activities, but when I'm not singing, I'm thrilled to stay home and enjoy the "veranda" after dinner. My tools are my phone, my iPad, my glass of iced tea, and my camera. Some nights I swap the iced tea out for a glass of wine. My companions are usually the birds who call my yard their home.

This is the first year I've had any birds in my mostly decorative birdhouse. The babies are large enough to come out and fly a bit, but I'm not sure how many there are. They are a noisy bunch! Mom and Dad bird are constantly flying back and forth with tidbits for them. These are house sparrows, and not generally known to be desirable. But I don't mind having them around.

It's all about the flowers here though. You know I just can't resist filling my garden with as many flowers as I can fit. The goal is to attract butterflies and hummingbirds with most of these blooms. But if the flowers don't attract them, that's okay. They can still stay here.

Thanks for coming back to see me here in Robin's Nest. I haven't done very well at keeping up with posts, but then again, it's that time of year when all my spare time is spend outside working on the yard. Housework can wait, but garden season is just too short to waste. And on that note, I'm heading back outside!