This afternoon I returned from a short road trip, and within a few minutes I’d taken a stroll around the garden to see what changes might be evident. I hoped that the newly planted items had made it through the weekend without my attentions, and they had.
The Terra Cotta yarrow has begun to bloom, and it looks pretty against the blue pincushion flowers nearby. In a month the rows of lavender bushes will all be flowering in contrast as well, but already one variety is starting to open enough that a fat black bee was checking it out.
The vegetables have not stopped growing huge — just what magic is in this custom mix of dirt for planting boxes? I’ve never grown or even seen such lush and large leaves of kale and Romaine lettuce.
Just the day before my trip I had set out a flat of flower and vegetable starts, including this feathery fennel and two zinnias. I always like some zinnias mixed in with vegetables. In the garden, that is.
That’s rice straw mulching the fennel; another task I had completed the day before my trip was to wrangle a bale of the stuff out of my Subaru and into the back yard so that I could at least tuck it in around the tiniest plants for protection against drying out while I was gone.
It’s surprising how several of the Iceland poppies are still flowering even in the warming weather, no doubt encouraged by having lately enjoyed several spells of cool rain, and by the well-drained soil that they reportedly appreciate. Usually they don’t make it through the summer around here….
The happiness of being home in my garden again gave me the energy to actually use some of my produce; I picked a dozen kale leaves and cooked a mess of greens in the pressure cooker, to go with my eggs for dinner.
Gladsome Lights 
I love that your garden is your happiest place. It makes a happy life so simple and easy to achieve:)
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Beautiful garden growth! Your dinner looks delicious. Home sweet home.
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Your garden is so lovely – it’s a pleasure to ‘go around in it’ with you!
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I can see why it is your happy place. Everything looks fantastic. I am glad you had a nice trip. It looked nice in the pictures. Your garden is just incredible. So did your dinner. Welcome home!
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Your post made me happy for you too! It also made me hungry for greens and eggs! I’ll make some today and think of you while I enjoy eating them.
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so lovely! a real gift to have a garden! looks great!
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“The happiness of being home in my garden” is priceless. Good looking fried eggs.
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I don’t know where I’ve been! You’ve posted three times since my last visit! The garden is really coming along splendidly! It’s exciting to see the very robust vegetables. All of my “garden” is in pots on our back deck. Sammy is in charge of keeping the deer at bay. I look forward to planting these special transplants from my old garden into my future garden! In the meanwhile I smile to see how wonderfully this project is progressing for you!
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Your eggs for dinner look yummy, and I’ve never heard of eating them on top of greens — looks very nice! I also bought a lovage plant, but I don’t really know what I’ll do with it. What do you do with lovage? If you have ideas, let me know!
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