I've always thought that two of the prettiest words in the English language are SUMMER DAY. When I think of summer days gone by, I remember laying in the grass behind my Ohio home listening to the bees buzzing in the Tulips, and the birds in the Cherry tree while I watched airplanes floating lazily through the cloudless summer sky. I remember trips to the neighborhood swim & tennis club, riding bikes with neighborhood friends, and collecting coffee cans full of flowers to present with a smile to my mother as she hung our laundry on the backyard line.
Sometimes I think how nice it would be to go back to those carefree summer days of childhood, when my toughest decision was what color ribbon I should tie around my pigtails. And then I think; WHAT? And miss all the fun I'm having right here, right now?? Not on your life!!!
In late February my darling husband surprised me by building me a raised garden bed just like those described in the wonderful book "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. I planted two varieties of tomato's, onions, bib lettuce, arugula, dill, rosemary, green peppers, basil, thyme, lavender, chocolate mint, strawberries, and marigolds. In the days that followed, I planted beets and two types of zucchini plants as well as cherry tomato's, both runner and bush beans and purple peppers of all things! And then I started on the flowers (a story for another day)!
What started with the intention of being a simple summer garden of bits and bobs, soon turned into something far bigger and much more joyous, and drew my husband and the apple of his eye - my 11 year old stepdaughter Chloe - out of the house into the garden. Chloe's favorite part of gardening is picking (and eating) the strawberries and cherry tomato's. She laughs with glee as she teases her father that she's eaten more than him, though she always saves at least one of something for daddy.
Husband Keith seems to be getting a kick out of how much I'm enjoying my days of leisure as a lady farmer, and is always game to let me try out a new garden-fresh ingredient at dinner. His current favorites are the sliced then grilled eight-ball zucchini drizzled with Tuscan olive oil, and the pesto I make with homegrown lemon basil. Needless to say, he also has yet to turn down my
lavender-infused Creme Brulee (made from scratch, and with homegrown lavender of course)!
Now my summer days are filled with the sound of birds fighting over figs in the tree in the orchard, bees buzzing through the French lavender and pots over-flowing with Vinca and pink Wand Flower, and the happy sight and sound of my family enjoying the fruits of my labor.
Go back to the summers of my childhood? Not a chance ... not when I'm having the time of my life!!
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Wishing you a bee-buzzing, bloom filled, beautiful Summer Day!
Wishing you a bee-buzzing, bloom filled, beautiful Summer Day!
Lori
