The Shortening Days

The days are now getting shorter in the Northern Hemisphere. Can you feel it? You know summer is just weeks away from ending.

And yet, the baby birds are still slumbering in my garden. Yet another sparrow has made an eye-level nest at the top of a tomato.

There is still so much beauty everywhere, and yet I know it is going to change soon.

“Just ask the animals, and they will teach you.
    Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
 Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you.
    Let the fish in the sea speak to you.
 For they all know...

Job 12:7-9

In Victory, 
Sherry

Garden Success

I have really liked mixing the beds this year with multiple plants. It seems to work with the natural order instead of against it.

I planted mostly native plants this year, and it was a definite win. More pollinators for sure!  

I have tried growing the Queen Anne's lace plants that are made for gardening, but I have a problem with the biting black bugs that love to spend time on them, so my new replacement plant has become oryla, and it was perfect! 

Sweet peas are a favorite, but we bolt to hot weather so fast here in my climate that it might not be worth it to grow them. They really are pretty though and smell great, even if they succumb to the heat in June.

I discovered you can just throw sweet alyssum seed in the garden about the same time you plant peas, and they grow without a fuss.

Cosmos, always a favorite, but I like the shorter varieties.

Major excitement over these strawflowers; they were stunning. 

Johnny's Ballerina zinnias with some volunteer zinnias; they were very pretty, and I was a fan.

Of all my roses, this Lady of Shallot has been performing well.

I continue to have good results with the Bubblegum petunias in my raised planters.

The pollinators have been very comfortable in my garden this year.

The Pelargonium continues to like the backyard with a little afternoon shade. Geraniums...I think it is funny to call them by their scientific name, like the British do.

We have had several more bird nests. This is a cardinal's nest.

We had to get up high and get a picture of the eggs to identify them, and then we saw the mother and father cardinal tending the nest.

We just love our beautiful butterflies. I do as much as I can to give them habitat.

These are some of my favorite garden successes this year. I have been emphasizing native habitat over obsessing about weed control. Sometimes the weeds get ahead of me, and then I pull them and take note if any beneficial insects are living there! The chipmunks are very happy with my yard too. They are hard to spot because they are very quick, but the 45-degree angle they hold their tail at when they are scampering about gives them away. I saw one this morning and thought it was a butterfly at the top of the fence, and I watched for a few more seconds and realized with that give away angle they hold their tails, it was a chipmunk.  

In Victory,

Sherry

Sunflower & Black Forest Dahlia

I had a volunteer sunflower come up, and it went perfectly with these Black Forest Ruby Dahlias I got from Baker Creek Seeds this year. 

I have had mixed results with dahlias in my climate, but these did really well.

The key to growing them seems to be where I place them in the yard. These had some bright morning and noonday sun but a little afternoon shade. This dahlia has to be my favorite dahlia I have ever grown from seed. 

I saved my sparrow's nest that came from my flowerpot. The babies happily made it to flight and took off with a watchful mother.

I continue to enjoy the flower shed, and I am often arranging.

Here is a Lady of Shallot rose with a miniature tea set I found at a thrift store for my granddaughter.

My favorite cosmos fell over during a storm, so I picked most of them and made a bouquet,

In Victory,

Sherry

Summer Zinnias

Here is a bouquet of some of my favorite zinnias this year.

strawflower

There are also a few strawflowers I grew for drying. 

I placed the bouquet in the cottage corner by some recent thrift store finds. Yes, I found Mason Cash mixing bowls at the thrift store!

In Victory,

Sherry

Happy Birthday America!

 
Happy 250th Birthday America! 

May God bless America! 

In Victory,

Sherry

A Pink Bouquet

Many flowers are in bloom, so I went to the garden and made a bouquet.

I probably don't do this enough, but with new varieties this year I wanted to try them in a bouquet.

I had some spent violas that were ready to come out of the pot for summer, and when I pulled the violas on one side of the pot, I found this. 

When I gasped and saw them, they did this! Needless to say, I put the violas back and left them alone. I have seen the mother bird back at the nest feeding them, so they are safe for now. 

In  Victory,

Sherry

Drying Flowers

I have always wanted to try drying flowers. This year I grew several varieties I could try that out with.  

The plant shelf my husband put in for me has been a really great addition to the yard. The planters were mostly water-saving and the rain comes off of the shed and waters them. I haven't had to water them much. They are also thriving and growing several of my drying flowers.

Now that I have a potting shed, I also have a place to dry the flowers.

Here I am drying oryla and strawflower.

The garden shed continues to be a favorite prop and staging place. 

The Lady of Shalot rose blooming. I need to catch some of these in the bud stage to dry also. 

In Victory,
Sherry

Garden Progress 2026

The garden is off to a good start here at the beginning of summer. I started eighty percent of it from seed this year to save money. There were many more native plants that like our climate. 

Every year the garden is an experiment. I try new things and change things around. I used to be bothered by the change-ups due to something not liking the place I put it or the weather being so harsh, but now I like it. It gives me something to go out and tinker with. This garden planting system was new to me this year, and I am still seeing how it turns out, but so far so good. I mixed up as many herbs and flowers as I could in with the veg; this confuses the bugs. 

So far it has worked. I have some beds not planted as densely and some planted really densely. A few things are also volunteer, and I just let them come up and fill in the bed. 

The chives got repotted. They had been over run with grass seed that had gotten into the pot by mowing. 

The lavender I started from seed two years ago, it is really beautiful this year. I brought an ornamental bee skep out to place in the bed for fun, and it really looks at home here.

I have grown nasturtium for years and the seed from the store doesn't germinate very well at all. Last year I noticed the one plant I had that was thriving was producing a lot of seed. I saved that seed and this year I planted it and I had close to perfect germination. That is a trick I will use again.

I love these dark purple bachelor's buttons, this was Black Ball.

A clematis that is new to me. Last year I noticed Menards was selling $5 perennials. I found this in the selections and was thrilled to find a clematis that wasn't expensive. It is growing really well. 

I have also found the secret to sowing poppies. It is called snow sowing. I get a lot of ideas for gardening off of YouTube and one person I watch said to go out in the winter and sow your poppy seeds right into the snow. This gives them moisture, cold stratification, and they germinate when the time is right. I have done this two years in a row and it does work. 

The Cathedral Bells rose.

These sown last year only bloomed this year. They are related to chamomile, but you don't drink them. They are the Marguerite daisy. I always wanted some of these but couldn't find them in a garden center, so I just grew them from seed. They will come back each year.  

For all the seed that I started and didn't have anywhere to plant it, Hubs made me a plant shelf along the shed. He just used a large board on top of concrete blocks. 

I am now starting to get bouquets! That is the best part of growing all of these flowers.

In Victory,

Sherry