It's the start of July and, boy is it hot! This seemed to happen rather suddenly (although I was in cool Paris last weekend so my perceptions might be warped). I feel like there is still a lot of gardening to do -- and not just weeding -- so I hope there are some more moderate days now and again before autumn. But meanwhile, this weekend, it's too hot to go outside for more than 15 minutes at a time. So, my first views are views from the windows! Visit Town Mouse and Country Mouse for some other garden "first views".
This is the backyard, what I call the butterfly garden. I said last month that it was just about to explode in Black Eyed Susans and so it has.
We moved the bench outside the bed just this year. I originally designed the garden with the bench and a path inside it, but once the plants grew I realized the garden wasn't as big as I thought it was! Since we moved the bench, we've gotten a lot more enjoyment sitting on it, watching the garden and the butterflies or just reading in the evening after work. I also spend a ridiculous amount of time staring out the bathroom window at the garden in the morning before I've fully woken up. The garden is north of the house, so all the flowers obligingly face the house.
And here is the front garden. This view is from our guest room. I actually had this in mind while I designed this garden (although the guest room view was only one of many priorities) but ironically our house guests usually come in the wintertime when there is much less to see. This view gives an unusual but more complete view of our little patio garden, which was conceived and built over the last few years (with the patio itself being the latest step and just finished last summer). The fence gives us just enough of a feeling of privacy for me to feel comfortable hanging around out front. This is the sunniest part of the yard so I really appreciate this garden a lot.
