Floral photography Late June flowers

I have not put garden tasks into my schedule these past couple of weeks. Although, I am hoping I can at least work in one of my gardens tomorrow; hoeing, weeding, and stringing up around plants. 

When I'm home, I mostly have been caring for my houseplants. They love the heat and humidity but they don't love when the sun hits them in the evening hours (my porch gets evening sun where I keep the plants.) 

I have some Hibiscus flowers blooming on my porch...

And of course as you know, I also have a habit of taking photos of others' flower gardens...

My partner's mother is the nurturer of these beautiful flowers...

My grandma has worked festively on her flower beds...she likes petunias, impatiens, and begonias...

Here is a peach I picked, straight off the tree. It took a pool skimmer to get it. It was deliciously juicy. These peaches were at my other grandmother's. Here, I also admired the flower garden...

My grandmother's flower garden consisted of passion flowers, lilies, roses, yucca, and the dahlia.

Chocolate mint growing in patches of a flowing creek.

Everybody has their "thing" that they grow. And plants have their "spots" where they want to grow. 

Rainy day tulip flower spring garden

Of all my tulip varieties, I love these little red stripey numbers. They are nature's eye candy! 

After a rainy afternoon, I made sure to snap some photos of these tulips where they glisten in the garden. 

I also snapped a photo of this beautiful flower I found by the creek. This wild flower was growing in sandy soil. My grandma called it a blue bell when I showed her the picture. 

As you think about your beautiful flowering Spring garden, and are mesmerized by your bounty of the veggie garden; and as you're studying your plants and tending to them-- also tend to your community-- pay attention to what is affecting you and your neighbors. There is much that is going on in everyone's community where we can actively help and be a good steward to others...

My lettuce garden & wildflower haven

In my yard, I make sure to avoid mowing down the milkweed. Now, the milkweed stands growing tall and will be flowering soon. From what I've heard, milkweed is the only food source for the Monarch butterfly, so every year, I'm sure to keep the patch of Milkweed growing just for them.

Also, my patch of wildflowers are doing great. I may fertilize them again soon, but I'm glad that they're growing so that it attracts bees and other insects in the hopes that the insects will pollinate the flowering vegetables or fruit trees.

Grapes getting bigger

Basil

This garden is different from my other I showed you in my last post. It is my permaculture garden which I continue mulching and layering with compost. In the  garden beds here, I planted an abundance of radish, many varieties of lettuce, cilantro, spinach, arugula--and now most of these plants are going to seed. The lettuce will be flowering soon too. I have continued to pick the lettuce for salads, sandwiches, and wraps. I have been giving lots of lettuce away too, but as mentioned, the lettuce will be flowering soon and I will not be able to pick it any longer because it will taste old and bitter.

Cilantro and lettuce

Yarrow flower 

Onion flowers

Lots of onions flowering 

Here I have some strawberries growing too amongst the lettuces but animals are eating them.

Strawbery plant

In my pots, I have squash, melons and tomaotes. I have struggled with these though because of animals digging up plants and making holes. It has been a constant struggle this year with animals, unfortunately.

Today, I composted around the tomatoes  in pots. I brought some pots that animals ate the plants from to my apartment to transplant tomatoes in. It looks pretty good! And I brought compost from my home garden to my apartment garden for the tomatoes!

Tomatoes in pots for apartment garden

Already getting big!