The sweet days of summer, and books galore!
Happy summer!
I love this time of year, when our perennial flower beds come to life, and we can begin planting the colorful annuals. I especially love Knock-out Roses and have planted them in beds all over our yard, because they survive and thrive despite my inept efforts.
Do you like to garden? Whether it’s a large garden or a pot on your balcony, what do you like to grow?
I’ve never started plants from seeds, but my daughter Emily and her husband enjoy doing so, and they shared a wide variety of tomato, pepper, and herb plants with us, with names I’ve never heard of, and I can’t wait to taste them.
Have you tried Sweet Chocolate, Purple Beauty, or Aji Dulce peppers? BrandyBoy, Chocolate Cherry, or Granadero tomatoes? It will be such fun to watch these plants grow! With all of the weeding, I think this summer will be busy…assuming I can actually keep them alive, that is.
Last month, I posed a question about your childhood adventures. Here are some of the responses. Each person will receive a free e-book chosen from my Amazon book list. See the list *HERE* (excluding all Love Inspired titles from the past.)
DIANE: We used to stand in the back of the Ute with our arms spread wide whilst someone drove the Ute at one hundred miles per hour down a dirt road. Such an amazing feeling like flying (and the same feeling after stepping out of a plane for skydiving. You are traveling so fast that you can’t consciously breathe; you need to let go and let your body breathe. The newbies would open their mouths to scream. Uh oh, bad move! You never know what’ll end up in your mouth, especially in summer with flies and mosquitoes galore. At least we were smart enough to put a mattress on the bed of the Ute, so hitting unexpected bumps in the road wasn’t so painful when we lost our balance and fell over.
ALISON: I can relate to your memory of riding horses bareback in the summer in shorts and bare feet. That is what we would do too. A neighbor girl had horses, a mare and a gelding. My sister and I would ride the horses with her. The gelding would always follow the mare. One particular day, my sister and our friend were riding together on the mare, and I was riding the gelding. We were riding through the woods, and for some reason I can’t remember, I got delayed. When I was ready to get going, the gelding was so upset for being so far behind the mare that he took off running and bucked me off just outside the woods. I hit my head hard on the pavement and slid on my shoulder and leg. I was pretty tore up. I had a horrible, horrible concussion and was so sick! It took quite a while for me to be able to get back on a horse again after that accident. Those lazy summer days as a kid though were such great memories growing up. You’re so right… no worries of strangers and all the things we have to be mindful of today.
CHRISTY: My sisters and I often wonder where our parents were when we were growing up, too!! We’re GenX, and we would ride our bikes all over the place, go to friends’ houses blocks away, go to the candy store, etc. When my youngest sister was 4, she shot my middle sister, who was 7, in the armpit with a BB gun! That was at a friend’s house. I was 10. So there we were, 10, 7 & 4, 5 blocks away…though we were at our preacher’s house! Those were the days.
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NEW QUESTION FOR THIS MONTH:
Do you do any gardening over the summer—even if just in window boxes or on a porch? Since I tend to be a spectacular failure with plants, I would love to hear about what has (or hasn’t) worked for you!
LEAVE A COMMENT by CLICKING the little dialogue box to the right of the title of this blog post, and you can receive a free book if your response is used in the next newsletter!
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Finally, here’s a reminder about It’s still FREE with Kindle Unlimited, or just $9.99 to buy. That’s just one dollar per novel!
CLICK HERE for that link!
Wishing you all my best for a wonderful summer!
Roxanne
I do not garden because everything dies. When my daughter was younger and still lived at home we would plant herbs and peppers in a box on the balcony. She would always tell me to leave them alone and she would take care of them. The only thing I was allowed to do was pick them for use while cooking.
I do not garden. I have been known to kill cacti. I have day lilies and hostas that grow just fine if I leave them alone so I stick with those.
I used to garden alot. I got the bug again 2 years ago and got a raised bed. I managed a few herbs, but most of my veggies and flowers didn’t make it. Last year I was busy w/my mom living with us and this year we have just moved. I did grow hibiscus from seeds and finally have flowers for tea. My best luck though is with my hydroponic indoor garden. I have an overabundance of dried herbs, cherry tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers
I just garden in pots on the porch. I live in Kentucky and my youngest daughter lives in Florida. I love the tropics so I have palm trees in pots. When they get too big, I send them home with my daughter, who plants them in her yard. We both love hibiscus flowers and share pictures of ours when they bloom. We share our gardening love while three states apart.
I like to have flowers on my front porch. In the yard is a lot of work. I always have hanging ferns. They are easy to grow in my climate. My husband and son do a vegetable garden with squash, peppers, tomatoes and green beans.
I have been reduced to growing on porch. Epson salts in soil of tomatoes helps them not have rot. Put where 6 hours sun a day.
We have 3 small raised beds where we have planted too many tomato plants, 4 bell pepper plants, 2 watermelon plants, 2 cantelope plants, and about 15 to 20 corn plants. The watermelon and corn were started from seeds. The rest were bought plants from a nursery. We don’t really know what we are doing but try our best. Last year we had so many tomatoes, I lost countvif how many freezer bags of diced tomatoes I put up but we did not use them all over the winter.