The garden and farm in summer

Summertime is simply my favorite.  The yard and farm are bursting with color and LIFE.  I like to sit out on the front porch in the mornings and see how many sounds I can notice, from bugs and birds or Bouncy (our dog) laying peacefully at my feet.  Everywhere you look there are flowers blooming, spider webs strung, and the best of all-garden produce ready to pick and savor.  

While I might not faithfully write about our garden each year, it's always there.  Anything outside the walls of our home, such as our landscaping, garden, or flowerbeds, are all Brett's domain.  He has such a good mind for dreaming it all up and I simply try to help weed and pick what I can.  Some years are better than others for our garden.  This year has been amazing! We currently have: kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers (all kinds!), squash, zucchini, dill, cilantro, basil, and thyme.  Oh, and some beans! Not sure what else.  But everything is really doing well this year and we are enjoying the fruits of our labor for sure!

My favorite job is to tend the tomatoes.  I worked for a couple of hours last week getting the rows weeded.  We've also started using more bagged mulch, which we resisted at first because of the cost.  However, we have also figured out we don't have a couple hours a day to spend weeding.  

This makes my heart flutter! 

Brett picked a red, ripe tomato last week and carefully sliced and salted it.  I could hear the girls' loud exclamations about the taste and then took a bite myself.  It was rich, savory, salty and so packed with flavor.  The taste of summer itself.  All in one bite!

Some of these photos aren't my ideal lighting, but they'll do.  I was out watering and weeding one morning when I remembered Brett had asked me to please take some pictures of our garden.  

Isn't this neat? Another idea by my creative husband! The cucumbers just love to climb up this trellis. I find it quite magical. 

The garden! 

This year Brett also added in that little rock pad on the right, which not only looks lovely but gives us a place to set garden tools or sit.  We have a little metal table and chairs we like to move down next to the garden at night and sit at while we watch the fireflies in the back pasture.  It doesn't get more relaxing than that!

The yard is also bursting with flowers!  A bouquet of flowers does my heart such good.  I keep reminding myself I should spend the money on flowers during the few months of winter that we don't have anything to pick.  

Isn't the color just so happy? I'm so glad God designed a colorful world. 

The golden hour on the farm is as lovely as ever too.  

It just sets a haze across the flowers that feels slow, warm, and dreamy.  

My, how much things can change in a year! Last year I spent countless hours running up and down the driveway, holding onto the girls' bikes and teaching them to ride.  This year they are taking off all on their own and have even learned to ride through our country yard!

We have one little patch of coneflowers in the wild that come up every single year.  

We do a lot of back deck and front porch living!

The girls are also still enjoying their playhouse Brett built a few years ago, as are the kids that come over to play.  It's usually the first spot in the yard the kids flock to! You can't imagine how much mud is inside, from the "kitchen and bakery and restaurant." 

Wildflowers and weeds are my favorite! I'm trying to really, really soak these small things in because how I miss them when winter comes around. 

We've also had our fair share of summer storms this year.  Sometimes I think the stormy skies look beautiful. 

Here's a neat sunflower story-some seeds from our bird feeder dropped down into a planter below and we have our first sunflowers because of it this year.  I am absolutely in love!

Sunflowers and stormy, summer skies.

This is also the time of year Brett makes garden salsa.  It is so good I have been known on more than one occasion to drink it with a spoon. 

My best friend asked recently if we still had Bouncy-we do! She is such a fixture for our family, always by our side when we're outside and running out to greet us when we get home.  We love her so much! She likes to get up in Brett's lap and sit like a baby.  

"carrops" -insert heart squeeze and a laugh here.

We can't forget these!  This is a look at the garden when we first started preparing it for the year.  It's not all about the lush, magazine-worthy photos right smack in the middle of growth.  This step matters too! I think that will preach.

A look back! We did indeed enjoy some radishes, although not as many as we would have liked.  

I suppose that's part of the reason why I like the garden so much though.  You just never know what you're going to get and you must be willing to overlook what didn't go well and rejoice in what did. 

A lesson we can all learn, yes?!