Note to Michele: Fruit, Veg and Blossoms

Michele,

It's hard to believe we're nearing the end of July and the end of Summer won't be long in coming. We've had beautiful days with just a few showers over the past month. This week we had some powerful thunderstorms but it was all over quite quickly. Things are happening in my home garden. The blackberries are ripening, we've several bunches of grapes coming along, and many pretty blossoms.

The first of my tomatoes to ripen. These are an size somewhere between a cherry tomato and a full size tomato.

My cukes are blooming but nothing to harvest yet. Here you see a plant mulched in seaweed.

A small sunflower which seeded in from bird seed, I believe. I have several of these all around our deck area.

Red day lilies- the most common type of day lily I have next to the wild orange type.

Cosmos which I planted from seed. I don't have much luck starting from seeds, but these did quite well. If you look closely you'll see a tiny bee on a petal.

I also have bee balm in bloom, a flower which never fails to attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

I recently took some photos at a display garden in the White Mountains of N.H. The garden exhibited a large variety of native species. I took numerous photos which I'll share with you very soon. In the meantime, I hope your midsummer is beautiful and productive.

Portland Community Garden Photos-July

Note to Michele: Catching Up

Dear Michele,

It's been some time since I've posted due to the busy-ness of summer. My garden is growing and so are the weeds! Soon I will give you an update on that, but for today, I will show you some gardens I've admired in our summer travels around New England.

 Above you see the children's garden at the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, NH. I love the combination of plants.

 This delicate poppy is growing in South Berwick Maine in the formal gardens of Hamilton House.

And here are some views of the cottage and garden on the same property. The property overlooks the Salmon Falls River which you see in the background.

 This is the cottage garden which is filled with flowers and some herbs.

 Through the arbor you see the impressive Hamilton House and part of the formal garden.

 The rose garden below is in the gardens of Boston Common.

 Also in Boston, this farmer's market is part of the Sowa Open Market which happens every Sunday throughout the warm months.

So, as you see, we've been on the go. I'll be posting more about these places and some of our other excursions on my family blog Pinecones and Periwinkles throughout the upcoming week. We've also been to some other parks and a very interesting spot known as America's Stonehenge. What have you been up to lately?

~Caroline