And The Sun Shined - ALL DAY!!

Today finally the sun shone ALL DAY LONG!! It dried up, got warm but not humid - the perfect work outside, paint lots of stuff, build lots of stuff kind of day. So did I get anything built, painted, worked on or even looked at???? NOPE - I spent the ENTIRE day in my garden! I got rid of 2 wheelbarrows worth of weeds, found all of my vegetables, rototilled a huge new garden area, planted new stuff, divided old stuff, moved around stuff and got completely and totally covered in dirt and mud - honest, when I came in to shower I found dirt in places, well let's just say in odd places!! And I couldn't have gotten all of this done without the help of my 25 year old son Kjell who really prefers to look at nature from a nice deck with a beer in his hand while sitting in his black leather and chrome chair - I know, I know I SWEAR he was switched at birth!

Anyhow - when I got done I was filthy, tired, swollen with bug bites, sore and achy - but mostly very proud of how things look so of course I just had to share it with EVERYBODY!! I like to design and decorate gardens as much as I like to design and decorate rooms! So here goes.......

I already have 2 good sized green peppers in my vegetable garden!

And it looks like I am going to have a bumper crop of raspberries - YUM!! We'll be fighting over them - there are just never enough!

Galardias - my mother's favorite perennial so I always have some in her honor.

And look - one red tomato already!!! These tomatoes were started indoors in March by a little old man at the flea market.

Half of my back 40 vegetable garden - there are onions, peas, cayenne peppers, sweet yellow banana peppers, sunflowers, yellow beans, galardias and lettuce on this side - oh yes and a couple of pumpkin plants for the little boys next door!

The other side of the vegie garden with tomatoes, red and green peppers, pole beans, more onions, raspberries, squash, cantaloupe and along the back fence some hollyhock, a climbing rose (the first photo) and clematis - and NO WEEDS!!

My honeysuckle in the front sun garden - I LOVE this stuff!

Half of my front sun garden - wish you could see it better - there is a beautiful climbing rose on the windmill.

The other side of my front sun garden

Part of my new hosta garden - with one of my favorite varieties front and center (and nope, I can't remember what it is called but the leaves are HUGE!)

and the overall shot of the hosta garden - so many varieties thanks to my good friend Ingrid!

A shot of my side shade garden. Our patio table and chairs and swing are right where I saw standing under the big tree. This side of the yard is always cool and breezy and cozy no matter how hot it gets - even when it is humid outside it is bearable under the tree.

Another shot from the side shade garden with our smut cleaner and hog oiler! I wanted a hog oiler for so long and finally got this one last fall. Next I want a watermelon hog oiler - but they usually go for two to three hundred dollars at auction - more than I want to pay!

So tell me about your garden designs - do you get as much enjoyment from yours as I get from mine? Food for the soul - that what it is to me - food for my soul.