It's a blooming beautiful Ides of June

We've been watching these lilies grow from little sprouts early in the Spring, through the first blooms on the red lilies, and now we have these gorgeous golden yellow ones providing such nice contrast to the deep red ones. We're also enjoying tints of pink and bright white lilies also. James said (last night) we just needed some blue ones. Unfortunately, the blue spikey flowers haven't started yet.

I'm really appreciating this school fund-raiser! We ordered some $30 worth of perennial bulbs from Miriam's chorus fundraiser last year. Most everything has come up even stronger this year than last. Much better than the usual candy bars or over-priced wrapping paper!


Another piece of excitement in the garden is watching the beans growing. It won't be long now!





And this is what the color scarlet looks like growing in the Three Sisters bed:

Given that we can't do much to control our teenagers any more, we're shifting our focus to the garden. Lots more mulching is on the agenda for the summer, with virtually all of the intended plantings being some sort of edible food crop. It's amazing how much more sun there is when we cut back or remove some of the very well-grown (overgrown) shrubs/hedges.

And woe unto the kid who runs through and tramples a newly planting bed!


And, while we don't seem to have much influence over their academic performance, unplugging the dryer for the summer does somehow inspire them to hang their laundry outside to take advantage of the gorgeous day! And it gives them something else to complain about to their friends. ("You think your parents are bad? Try my eco-nuts! So much for modern conveniences, we have to hang our laundry outside, and they even have us hauling our bath water out to water the garden!!!")

They are looking forward to picking berries off our own bushes next spring!

We almost bought a washboard at the Oriental market last weekend-just for the humor of it. James chose the indoor drying rack instead. He'd considered getting one last year, but didn't buy it the first time we saw it, and they've been out since then. Liza grabbed that to hang laundry in her room yesterday when the sky threatened to rain on her clothes.