Six on Saturday ~ Let The Blooming Begin!


BLOOMING SEASON... And my little garden has finally caught up with the season!  The last few months of Spring and the beginning of summer were so confusing in the garden.  Everything was behind season about three weeks.  So imagine my surprise when I came back from a week-long trip to find all kinds of flowers blooming.

POLLINATOR FRIENDLY

The pollinator friendly plants we planted have started to bloom, mainly Bee's Friend and Echinacea.  Some of the Shasta daisies have started blooming too, and soon more pollinators will be visiting our little garden.  This has been a labor of love for us, because we did not have many until a few years ago after we planted many plants to attract them.  It took a few years but it is working.

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DAHLIAS HAVE MY HEART

Dahlias are the stars of my garden.  And while the start was slow this year, they are starting to open.  We had a bad storm a few weeks ago and one of the dahlias, Iceberg. broke due to the intense wind.  Surprisingly, it is growing back up.  Pretty excited to have these beauties back up.

Castle Drive

Castle Drive

Hollyhill Black Beauty

Hollyhill Black Beauty

Breakout

Breakout

Castle Drive

Castle Drive

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VEGGIE GARDEN BEDS

My veggie garden beds did amazing.  So much that again, I could not keep up with how fast it was growing.  Unless you have a family that eats produce or sell the produce, you cannot keep up with how fast they are growing.  And after the trip, I came home to a lot of bolted lettuce and chard.  The basil grew insanely The chard I can still use, but the lettuce was too bitter.  Also harvested the last of my Chioggia beets.  Salad anybody?

THE BAD.  My roses seem to have developed a pest.  Being a rookie rose gardener, I reached out to the roses FB group and apparently the cause is "rose slugs" also known as "sawfly worm".  And ugh, I hate what is doing to the foliage.  Apparently, the damage is mostly cosmetic and does not affect the blooming.  Still, I hate it.  So will be taking care of it this week.  If anyone has recommendations, I am all ears!

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PLANNING AHEAD

Anybody else already planning for fall?  This is my third year gardening seriously and I have found that it is sort of an obsession all year around.  My husband finds it hilarious but I love it.  I mean, what else am I going to do during the eternal winter months in Minnesota? :)  But for this fall I am planning on growing some lettuces, but especially squash and pumpkins which I love but have never grown. Anything exciting you are planning on planting this fall?

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Sharing with: In a Vase on Monday, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day (15th of the Month), Simple Saturdays, The Homemaking Party, Home Sweet Home, Gardens Galore, Floral Bliss, Home and Garden Thursday, End of Month View (31st of the Month), Harvest Monday, Blooming Friday, #MyGloriousGardens, Six on Saturday, Pink Saturday, Dishing It & Digging It, Strawberry Fields, Home Sweet Home

Sometimes Is Just about The Tea & Always About God


Sometimes life isn't about fancy teacups or indoor tea party picnics, as I like to do.  Sometimes life is just so "wow!" that what you need is the essence without the fuss. You need that healthy dose of tea to get you going, and make you take a breather.  Former Jacqueline Kennedy's social secretary, Letitia Baldrige once said "Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surrounding".  Truer words have never been spoken.

Our lives right now are a little stressful as we deal with people who are unscrupulous and want to cause serious problems.  So if you find time during your prayer time to say a prayer for us, I would forever be grateful.  I also share because I believe that that the enemy is real and always trying to get us to lose our faith.

Thankfully, we are there for each other, keeping each other strong, and knowing that we are following the plan God intended when he brought us together.  So we Praise HIS love and wisdom, and HIS unending love for us.

These times reminds me of the Psalms of Ascent, especially Psalm 121:

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore."

There is no sense is worrying (even if our human nature makes us) because the Lord has a plan to help us prosper.  And so we pray... and drink tea.

PS. Because this post is also about tea, I wanted to tell you about this delicious tea I am enamored of.  It is 'Perfect Day' from Paper & Tea.  It is like a walk in the park.  It is a white tea with elderflowers and hints of apricot. Just perfect.


You can find sharing in these wonderful linky parties: Share Your Cup, Home Sweet Home, Tuesday Cuppa TeaHome and Garden ThursdayTea In The Garden, Grace Moments,

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