Summer Colors

The thing I love most about Summer is color. Specifically in landscaping and flowers. There is nothing pretty or beautiful about Winter here in the South. Hardly anything stays green, even the grass goes dormant, and everything just turns nasty. And then there's the Georgia red clay.....grrrrrrrr;(
HOWEVER, Spring and Summer in Georgia are absolutely STUNNING! So stunning that I can look past the gross red clay that I speak of....

Every Spring Craig and I both say that we are just going to plant a little because it takes so much work to keep everything alive and looking good. Every year we fail to keep that goal.
Now, for those that don't know us, Craig and I are complete opposites. We like different tv shows, we eat different foods, we talk differently, we have different humor (for some reason he doesn't usually find me funny.....or the trouble that I get myself into. I personally find it down right hysterical at times, but hey, to each their own right?), and so on. I'm sure you get my drift. We are textbook examples of the saying "opposites attract"(btw, who DOESN'T love a good 'ole Paula Abdul tune from time to time?).

ANYWAYS, having said all that, we both LOVE flowers (not sure if you knew where I was going with the whole opposites thing, heck, I wasn't sure, but I feel confident now that it was because I was trying to say that we have at least one thing that we both love to do together! HA!). I admit my obsession with gardening is more recent than Craig's, but either way we now both enjoy flowers/plants and love to grow and care for them in the Summer. Together. But I think I've now driven that point into the ground, so I will scoot on. We still disagree on the colors of them, but I'm sure I don't have to verbally say who wins that argument...

I have to say, Craig is THE MAN when it comes to getting flowers to grow and keeping them alive. He really does have a green thumb. Me? Not so much, I just copy him and then take credit for it;0.

I always like to take pictures at the beginning of Summer and then again at the end of Summer to see the growth. The following are pictures taken from my iphone, so they aren't the best quality, but I wanted to document early Summer.

Before we get to the flowers, I will share why I have a picture of a gas blower (not sure that is what it is called, but I think I've seen Craig dump gas in it, and it kinda smells like gas when it's on). Yesterday I begged Craig to "fire it up" for me because I thought it looked fun! He said no about ten times and I'm pretty sure it was that lucky 11th time that he finally agreed/gave up. Choose your battles I always say, and seriously, was this really a battle worth fighting? *Insert honest confession right here*: Ok, in HINDSIGHT Craig probably should have stuck to his guns.

WHO KNEW how heavy and powerful one of those things were(I mean, I totally didn't think Craig actually meant what he was saying during the first ten no's)??? It was worse than a 150lb dog taking YOU for a walk. I flapped around like a giant bird unable to take off. I was completely being led by the dang blower. Craig saw right away that I was in trouble and tried to get to me. But, it was too late.
I blew our brand new Calla lilies right out of the ground. Of course at the time I had no idea what had happened, all I could see was red metal, a black elephant like trunk thing that seemed to be taunting me, and grassy mulch swirling around me like a hurricane. ION:(oh, that's my initials for IN OTHER NEWS. I will use that alot. FYI. For your information.) I now know how Dorothy felt in the Wizard of Oz.

Here's a little of the destruction. Notice the beautiful yellow Calla lilies. That are no more. Last thing I'm going to say about this: Craig should have never let me near that thing. I could have lost my life. Of course this is his fault. Moving on now. Barely alive I might add.

These are our hanging baskets this year. We had them planted kinda different from previous years, so not sure what's going to happen with them, but I will post pictures as they grow.

I LOVE my elephant ears!

Here are my blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. This is the first year that we have had TONS of fruit from them, and they are AWESOME!

Knockout rose bushes in back yard. They were super tiny last year when we put them in. I am anxious to see how big they will get this Summer.

These are the knockout roses on the side of the house. They started out super tiny three years ago, and now I can't even begin to reach to the top of them.

We have three hydrangeas. This is the first year that this one has bloomed, and they are gorgeous.

I love my wild and crazy wisteria.

Go outside! Enjoy the beautiful color!