The Pansies…have left the building!!

Or the barrel rather...

Remember this post?  Well I was just about accurate.  Memorial Day weekend, they took a nose dive and after a scorching hot, record breaking heat weekend, we officially need to take them out. I was excited to fill it up with a few brightly-colored flowers. Here is what I chose:

In other news…we had about 4 volunteer tomato plants from last year that popped up in our raised bed garden.  So after this weekend it’s all filled up and hopefully going to provide us with some tomatoes and such this summer!  We had plans to do a large garden mostly from seed this year, but our plans fell through and our seeds didn’t last because of it.   We did salvage a few though.  We have two squash plants and 3 tomato plants we will be growing from seeds! We did learn a few things about timing and hope in the fall to till up the ground ahead of time so next year it’s a bit easier to get our seeds going once they pop up!  Anyway…as I have in the past few years…I wanted to document our yard over the summer.  It helps me work with my camera…and it is fun to watch everything grow!

Above my infamous Chocolate Mint.  It seriously is EVERYWHERE! As I said before I love to cut this herb and make small arrangements in the kitchen and dining room and even in the bathroom sometimes. All I have to do is run my hand through a few of the leaves and the smell fills the room.

This year I thought I’d try Pineapple Sage.  It's tucked in behind the chocolate mint.  When it was planted it had some neat red flowers…I’m waiting on those to return!  Also in the mix is Bee Baum that my Grandma bought for me. 

In the above photo you will find...Our oregano.  Also strawberries which are huge this year…and next year will hopefully get transplanted into a bigger garden!  Of course you can also see our tomatoes and the squash that we started from seed.

Here is a shot of one our butterfly bushes. Last year we planted two and they were in small quart size plastic containers! It’s amazing how much can change over the course of a year. I cannot wait for them to bloom!!  I also intend to hang a hummingbird feeder out here to see if we get any action.

Oh..and we have a wren taking residence in our birdhouse!  Last year we had a tenant who built and then vacated. This year…this wren built and built and built…and now he/she is sticking around.  It greets us when we go to water and hangs around on our fence occasionally!  I love it.

All in all, I love the yard in summertime!  Every evening at dusk the fireflies amaze me…as they have every year. And it’s already started this summer!  I cannot wait for the boys to run around playing in them and catching them in jars…I know they will enjoy the light display as much as Jer and I do.

Thank God for warm weather and lightning bugs and well…honestly?  The spot he chose to put me on this planet :)