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!