Spring & Summer Dreams....

What motivates and inspires you on a daily basis?? You know, the thing that gets your juices flowing and brings happiness to your days simply because it exists...... I know it is a different thing or concept for everyone but for me, it is my spring and summer garden. As spring seems to be inching closer each day now, I wanted to take a walk through my favorite garden photos, starting from spring and moving through summer. I look forward to each May because that is the month my beautiful Bearded Iris collection blooms....I have a lot of them and seeing them each day and cutting some for a vase in the house, always makes me happy.

Before my Bearded Irises bloom though, I have the pleasure of seeing my English Irises pop their cheerful heads up and surprise me with lovely blooms.

Each spring I look forward to the arrival of my Clematis. I have pink, deep purple and white!

Clematis buds bursting into life.....

A lovely example of some deep purple.....which just happens to be my favorite color in the world.

Around the front of my house, I'll start to plant my annuals as the fear of frost diminishes.

You might remember the wooden planters that my husband salvaged from a fence of ours that fell down a few years back. I had him keep the wood until I could think of what to do with it. I thought making planters from these wooden planks would be really cool, so that is what I had him do. The annuals have just been planted as well as the 3 flower carpet roses. The mosaic birdhouse is from the very talented artist Michelle Legler www.mosaicqueen.typepad.com .

In June I have my Lilies to look forward to. I enjoy them outside as well as cutting them to bring into house.

My backyard perennial garden.....you can see along the right hand side that my Hydrangeas are starting to form their buds, they will be thinking about blooming soon. The Flower Carpet Roses down in the front are full of color and the Lilies in the back row are just starting to bloom.

Some time has passed and now my Hydrangeas are in full bloom.

Pots hang from my back porch and go down each step of my back stairs leading to my garden and driveway area. If you think I might be laying on the ground to get this shot, you would be right. From this angle I can see the Coreopsis, Yarrow and Coneflowers in bloom.

From this photo I see my garden in the height of summer, in full bloom. The Carpet Roses up front are cascading over the curb...sometimes I have to trim them back as they can run pretty wild, but I love wild.....in the garden anyway. The Black Eyed Susans are in full bloom and the Lilies that looked so pretty a couple of months before have been ecliped by my tall perennial Hibiscus you can see all the way in the back. One of my favorites in the garden.....

A pink Hibiscus in full bloom.....

Last but not least, this sweet hummingbird that likes to visit my back porch. He and his friends love my Cascading Geraniums and no matter what I'm doing when they visit, I find myself dropping it and racing for the camera.

I hope you've enjoyed the walk through my spring and summer.....they will be here before we know it.