Less Noise, More Green: Here comes the sun...

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Here comes the sun...

Zinnia, July garden
Zinnia

June has rolled into July and with this inevitability comes change in the garden. There is a handing off of the baton between spring and summer plants and the rise of the sun worshippers who grow tall, spread their leaves and petals wide and announce to the world they have arrived.



Peas give way to beans, with a final productive push before fading into yellow.


The strawberries and rhubarb are petering out but the blueberries are ready to take up the slack with the blackberries bringing up the rear.



Now is the moment for the heat-lovers.

Black Beauty eggplant flower, urban gardening
Black Beauty Eggplant


Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes - all are in bloom and reaching for the sky.

Pepper flower, urban farming
Peppers are almost here!

Color is everywhere: marigolds; nasturtiums; milkweed; lavender; Black-Eyed Susans; zinnias and geraniums,with Batchelors Buttons and sunflowers ready to pop any day.

Black-Eyed Susan, urban farming
Black-Eyed Susan


A canvas of hues that will (hopefully) bring the pollinators, who will make the promise of a bountiful summer a reality.

Butterfly Milkweed
Butterfly Milkweed

Summer and winter squashes are growing inches by the second.


With the turn of the calendar month, the row covers come off. The vine borer's egg laying time is past and the plants can be freed. Sweet potato vines are in hot weather heaven and are spreading out without mercy.



Most of the hard work is done by early July.  It is time to enjoying the garden's daily gifts and plan for the preservation of the excess, if we are lucky enough to have some.



Picking supper moments before we eat it, anticipating tomato season just weeks away and enjoying the explosion of summer color, I recognize that life is good in the July garden.

Yellow Ladybugs - be fruitful and multiply!
 Yes, it is good for all.

Sue


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