I cut this hydrangea back hard over a year ago. Really hard, because it was somewhat overgrown and never bloomed very well. This receives laundry grey water as it’s only source of water and this year it’s blooming brilliantly! We’ve made a couple changes to how we garden due to the drought, one of which is trying to optimize our laundry grey water. As the summer progresses, I’ll be sharing what we’ve done to be water wise and how that’s working for us. So far, so good on the hydrangeas.

As sweet pea madness tapers down due to the increasingly increasing temperatures, the scabiosa are starting to bloom. I had to move a small field of them to accomodate our new raised beds. I was nervous about moving them but they survived and are thriving. We have maybe close to a hundred plants scattered around the back property now. So pretty and the bees and butterflies love them.

Shhh, don’t tell the cats, but we have a quail nesting in one of my flower beds! I check on her everyday and she sits as still as stone.

I’m having a hard time getting a good overview of the vegetable garden. The sun is never in the right angle and since we plant our tomatoes right down the middle, they are always hiding whatever is in back of them. In the picture above it looks like we only are growing tomatoes, but there is a row of melons a patch of peppers and a section of zucchini and cucumbers that you can’t see at all. Maybe my new summer project is experimenting with full view garden photography. There’s been a lot of interest in my old tomato post due to google searches and we have updates to make to that post which hopefully I can do next week.

The raised beds are certainly in a state of transition. Since the garlic and onions came out, there are a few seemingly bare boxes, but things have been planted and hopefully will fill the spaces soon. Yesterday was the last day of school for my kids and after a good walk out in the garden this morning, I’m ready for summer now. I typically drag my heels going into this season, but I’m ready now. Ready for peaches and tomatoes and melting popcicle, barefoot wild kid goodness.