Happy 1st Day of Summer 2014

Summer has officially arrived
and my garden is in those lazy, hazy days of growing ....
Here's a look around the yard to see how everything is doing:

What a happy flower bed greets me when I pull in the driveway!

It's come a long way from the ugly hedge of bushes that were growing

there the 1st year after I moved in: Here's the "before" picture -

Hedges trimmed with a "Buzz Cut"

Overgrown hedges since I don't own a Buzz-Cutter
(removal of right bush had begun since there was  no growth underneath them to trim back)

Here's that flower bed today!

Checking out the veggie garden: the okra pods seem to grow overnight!

 I think I could actually stay out there and literally watch them get bigger.

I planted 6 different kinds of tomatoes this year and they

seem to be finally setting fruit nicely ...

The oregano obviously loves our Texas heat -

it's spreading out way past it's brick paver boundary.

This cute red wheelbarrow was sitting on the side of the road

begging to be taken home and loved once again ... and home it came with me!

The begonias are quite happy blooming here along with

a cypress vine that is coming back from last year -

Don't you just LOVE perennials?!

The ajuga I planted started as a small starter pot and look how

it has spread! I'm so happy to find a plant that can grown in the shade

of my oak tree overhead. What is that other plant blooming alongside

it? It has blue flowers so I decided to let it grow. Is it a weed?

I let "blooming weeds lie" :-)

And last but not least, my Mr. Sun face
 that I found at a garage sale this summer for $.25 

He's hiding the orange utility pole that's lurking

behind the wooden pallet. That's why He's Smiling!