summer garden updates

Summer gardens are in full bloom around here. Please come take a peek as I share our summer garden and how we sprinkle gardening inspiration throughout our home.

I love to bring the outside in. Many, if not most, of the flowers I decide to plant in the garden, I also enjoy inside. I have always aspired for a cutting garden. Remember this post way back when {cutting garden inspiration}.

summer hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are one of my absolute favorite flowers. We have a few varieties in the back yard and I use them all over the house.

We have a few shrubs with green hydrangeas that through the years have turned lighter and lighter and are mainly cream now. Our limelight hydrangeas have the pretty almost chartreuse color which I absolutely love. I will share them in a subsequent post with a fun project.

On the other side of the yard we have blue hydrangea shrubs, which have a touch of pink and lavender this year. Super pretty. When we originally designed and planted the backyard it included 5 blue hydrangea plants against this side fence.

Alas, only three have survived through the years, but keep in mind it’s been almost 15 years. Our neighbor’s tree hung over the fence and overshadowed this area of the yard for many years. This year the tree was pruned back quite a bit which has allowed these babies to flourish again.

I used a combination of both hydrangea varieties to create a bouquet for the foyer.

I usually have fresh flowers of some sort on the bombe chest in the front hall. If you want to read more about my front hall decorating tips you will find them here {how to decorate a spring foyer}.

Also if you are of the table setting fancy and love all things tablescapes here are some past tables where I used the hydrangeas from our backyard.

lavender summer garden

We love our lavender and we have a few lavender plants around the vegetable garden.

Once again I love to use them around the house. Lavender ice cubes are a great addition to a cocktail or a glass of rose on long summer days.

I also recently used a lavender bouquet for this fun tablescape.

I love how the bees buzz around the lavender plants. Happy bees make for a happy planet.

We have lavender plants flanking both sides of the veggie garden and in between in front of the fence we have Russian sage, which compliments the lavender nicely. We initially had all lavender plants but the amount of bees with that many plants made it difficult to tend to the veggie garden. This is how the veggie garden looked in the spring when we planted it.

summer veggie garden

The veggie garden is always such a satisfying project. Right now our small tomatoes are going gangbusters.

They are super sweet and they pop in your mouth bursting with flavor. We have a couple varieties of red cherry tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes.

I’ll share some recipes really soon on how we use all these sweet tomatoes this time of year. Earlier in the season we had some yummy lettuce from the garden.

I shared some salad recipes here {9 summertime salad ideas}. Below is our typical side salad we share with most meals, but the post is full of different salads from main courses to side dishes.

Every year I consider planting a second round of lettuces in the fall when temperatures dip but I have yet to follow through. Lettuces thrive in the lower temp months, but the fall tends to be a busy time of year, which takes my mind other places. The herbs on the other hand tend to have a long life span.

Rosemary, oregano and thyme tend to be hardy enough to handle the winters around here. The chives actually made it through last year’s winter. There’s nothing better than harvesting fresh from the garden before cooking.

I also enjoy using herbs in arrangements since there is so much we cannot eat all of it fast enough. 😉. I used oregano in this vignette and it smelled so good in the dining room {springing into summer with a frame wreath}.

And of course I included more oregano and some rosemary and lavender in {a bohemian tablescape}.

It’s just as fun to decorate with our bounty as it is to eat it.

You can see more details about our veggie garden in these posts:

• ⚜️spring garden plans
• ⚜️vegetable garden mid-summer update
• ⚜️gardening 2018
• ⚜️spring touches…slowly
• ⚜️6 benefits to planting your own vegetable garden

front yard sitting area

I just shared updates on the front yard {front yard remodel updates} and the plants around the sitting area have really matured.

Lets remember what it looked like when we planted the area two years ago.

The Dusty Miller and Artemisia have filled in nicely and I love the silver and gray tones setting the perimeter.

The Dusty Miller has yellow flowers which Miss M created a full bouquet I used in the front hall a couple of weeks ago.

And now the front hall looks like this with our summer hydrangeas.

“We might think we are nurturing our garden, but of course it’s our garden that is nurturing us.”

Jenny Uglow

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sharing @ between naps on the porch