The sun is shining. Here's what is going on in our garden.

The heat is on. At last. Finally. It's garden weather. After a dreary and tedious start to the season,
summer is on us like a lion. Our garden has for the most part faltered this year, but not for lack of intent. It has been a busy one. Between a pregnancy and new child, the dismal weather, the bother of marauding birds and gophers, and life in general it's a wonder we have a green sliver of anything poking through the grains of ever improving soil in the garden at all.
There are bare patches and empty beds....

And while I do tend to the garden on an almost daily basis I am adorned with new life so even though the visits may be daily they tend to be short and not altogether productive.Watering starts looking like the above picture. Convenient.
Multitaskable.



I can not complain. The bare patches do give way to shining glories sprinkled about, and it's clear my garden loves me because it does amazing things and tries so hard to please me. For example, every sunflower I planted disappeared. Birds. Only few seeds of corn grew, despite three (yes, three) planting sessions. Birds. Most of the flower seeds I planted for the children's canopy were pilfered. Birds. Then some that did manage to survive the birds were destroyed by: Gophers.
So here are a few little lovelies who manged to beat all odds, just for me ;)





































Here we have our FIRST young pomegranate! This is reinforcing my theory I was over-loving this tree in previous years and all the food and water I gave it all summer was preventing it from setting fruit. I'm glad I read up on it this year and decided to experiment and show it no love (except occasional sonnets and other tender words of encouragement haha!)

The fig tree is filling out. Our 3 year old makes mental notes of its progress every visit.

Despite all the encouraging things I've been reading about tomatoes all over the place, we haven't a single fruit to date. All are still in the flowering stage. The plants are vigorous and (as yet) untouched by the gophers. My amazing husband managed to hook up a drip system for them. Hence they are alive! ha!
Our melons are just starting to spread out, still not a single flower.

The pumpkins are just getting started as well...
As I said above, my fantastic idea about a big canopy of blooming loveliness gave way to the ever impossible migratory birds, so just a few of the countless seeds we put in remained long enough to bloom. And then there is the gopher problem.... oh the gopher problem.

And then the hen and her babes.
Oh how they love the garden.

As evidenced by all their scratching around. I keep reminding myself they are helping by eating insects. Really. Look at all this mess!(this used to be potatoes)
Leeks and carrots, anyone? Oh yes! says the hen and her chicks.
Yet through all the trials and tribulations I can still squint my eyes a bit and look in just the right direction with just the right background and all is good.
Thank you garden for giving back some love when I need it the most!