I have never liked the summer (at least a southern summer) and so I find myself entirely annoyed throughout wishing it would give my poor flowers a break and hating how it awakens all the bad bugs…I’ve even had Japanese Beetles earlier this year than usual because of it and don’t get me started on this weird green bug with long orange striped legs that likes to eat all the leaves of my plants. It’s actually quite a funny bug that backs up slowly when it sees my eyeballs seeing him which make me laugh a bit…clever little bug.
I have to say with being pregnant this has been the hardest year I’ve experienced in our flower garden. I have been sick since the beginning and 5 months later there’s no sign of relief. I have given up hope that I will improve before giving birth. I know I am not alone in this and though I get frustrated and defeated some days, I am still so grateful for what awaits us at the end of this year. Because of my ongoing battle with “morning” sickness, I haven’t been able to stay on top of the gardening as I have in the past and that has been hard on me.
I’ve actually caught up on weeding two times now but we’ve just received a ton of rain so I imagine I’ll be behind now…and some things I can’t even do because it has been too hot but for the most part everything is still doing well. Luckily, a good portion of the plants are old enough now that they can handle some bad bug action and not be effected, so I am keeping a closer eye on the younger plants still unable to fight them off as well.
My lilies are not blooming yet but they are close and boy are they just as lovely as ever and just as HUGE. I had a man stop by to tell me those were the biggest lilies he’d ever seen and we must have wonderful soil! Very sweet of him and honestly, they really are ridiculously huge…I don’t know what to make of it but I am sure there are others out there that have super lilies too.
However, the truth is, we don’t have good soil but we’ve worked super hard to improve it and it has given us the love back that we’ve put into it, but of course there’s always more to be done especially when you do everything naturally.
The blueberries have arrived and they are so good this year. They’ve always been good, but we felt they could be better and this year, I feel like they’ve finally hit their stride! We only have 5 bushes but they keep us on our toes and fully stocked with antioxidants.
No matter what, for me, the best time to enjoy ones garden in the summer is right after a rain, very early morning or dusk. Everything looks happier then and you feel much better about things then you did at noon high-kicking Japanese Beetles off your Wisteria.
There are a lot more blueberries than pictured here, but Andrew picked just the right amount for pancakes.