BLOOMING SEASON... And my little garden has finally caught up with the season!  The last few months of Spring and the beginning of summer were so confusing in the garden.  Everything was behind season about three weeks.  So imagine my surprise when I came back from a week-long trip to find all kinds of flowers blooming.

POLLINATOR FRIENDLY

The pollinator friendly plants we planted have started to bloom, mainly Bee's Friend and Echinacea.  Some of the Shasta daisies have started blooming too, and soon more pollinators will be visiting our little garden.  This has been a labor of love for us, because we did not have many until a few years ago after we planted many plants to attract them.  It took a few years but it is working.

DAHLIAS HAVE MY HEART

Dahlias are the stars of my garden.  And while the start was slow this year, they are starting to open.  We had a bad storm a few weeks ago and one of the dahlias, Iceberg. broke due to the intense wind.  Surprisingly, it is growing back up.  Pretty excited to have these beauties back up.

VEGGIE GARDEN BEDS

My veggie garden beds did amazing.  So much that again, I could not keep up with how fast it was growing.  Unless you have a family that eats produce or sell the produce, you cannot keep up with how fast they are growing.  And after the trip, I came home to a lot of bolted lettuce and chard.  The basil grew insanely The chard I can still use, but the lettuce was too bitter.  Also harvested the last of my Chioggia beets.  Salad anybody?

THE BAD.  My roses seem to have developed a pest.  Being a rookie rose gardener, I reached out to the roses FB group and apparently the cause is "rose slugs" also known as "sawfly worm".  And ugh, I hate what is doing to the foliage.  Apparently, the damage is mostly cosmetic and does not affect the blooming.  Still, I hate it.  So will be taking care of it this week.  If anyone has recommendations, I am all ears!

PLANNING AHEAD

Anybody else already planning for fall?  This is my third year gardening seriously and I have found that it is sort of an obsession all year around.  My husband finds it hilarious but I love it.  I mean, what else am I going to do during the eternal winter months in Minnesota? :)  But for this fall I am planning on growing some lettuces, but especially squash and pumpkins which I love but have never grown. Anything exciting you are planning on planting this fall?

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

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