I’ve had many people ask me what the secret to my beautiful gardens is… and really, there isn’t one. I barely weed, I don’t use fertilizers or pesticides… other than topping up the gardens with black soil and mulch every spring, I don’t do anything special.

Well, except water. Unless it’s rained, I go out every evening just before supper and give all the gardens a good drink.

And I love it because there always something new to see.

My pink Speedwell has bloomed. I have purple in the front garden, but it gets less sun than the pink one (which is in the side garden), so it hasn’t bloomed yet.

The pink Bee Balm has stopped blooming for now, but the Purple is putting on quite a show.

The Lavender is lovely as always.

Cupid’s Dart continues to delight me year after year. It was bought for 50 cents in a clearance sale the first year we were here. One of my best buys ever!

And another great steal was these Crocosmia, which I got from the dollar store.  This is the first year they’ve bloomed, and they are stunning!

This Cherry Brandy Black-Eyed Susan just has me in awe! It’s out front with all the coneflowers.

Also out front is this pretty yellow/maroon lily…

And this orange/maroon one. They were planted this spring, but sadly, as nice as they are.. they  are not the lilies I ordered. The bulbs must have got mixed up, but the place I ordered them from gave me a credit, so it’s not all bad.

My Casablanca Lilies out back are big and beautiful and white – just as they  should be.

And while the squirrels ran off with all the sunflowers, I purposely planted… this surprise one showed up in the Little Bee garden. I don’t think it will be a Mammoth Sunflower, but I’ll enjoy it all the same.

And last but not least… it’s raspberry season again!