Lush July Flowers

My flowers haven't suffered too much in the heat that we have had in Michigan this year.
There really haven't been a lot of very hot days yet and I hope they don't come at all!  I also haven't
used any fertilizer at all this year except what came in the soil that I planted them in.
I think they look nice and lush for all the things I didn't do. :)

Every year I try to feed them liquid fertilizer through the hose, but just haven't had
the time and we have had a LOT of rain so I didn't need to either.

They have come a long way since I planted them back in May.
I can grow nice flowers outside , but can't grow anything inside to save my life! HA!

The fern is HUGE and so green. I always get it at the same place every year.
I have tried Walmart in the past and did not have good luck so I stick with
our local greenhouse.

I have an old wooden white screen door that I would love to replace this one with, but
haven't taken the time to measure it yet. Hopefully it will fit. It has spindles on it and
I got it FREE several years ago. Wouldn't that be nice if it fit just perfect??

I adore WHITE flowers...don't you?

I can't wait for my Sweet Autumn Clematis to flower this fall. I love it that it is
a late blooming plant so I can extend the beautiful floral season a bit more.

How is the weather where you are? Hot, rainy, cold, snowy? EEK! Snow
will be here soon enough.

Blessings~

Sharing my hydrangeas

I truly think the right name was picked for these hydrangeas!
I wonder how they come up with the names? They never ask me, I know that! lol

INVINCIBELLE SPIRIT...perfect fitting name for these gorgeous flowers!

From the day I planted them they have grown leaps and bounds every year.

I purchased them on clearance a few years ago for $5 a bush instead of $24.
I wish now that I had purchased every single one they had.

{Click on this link to read a great article of how these flowers came to be}
It is very interesting!

They grow tall and lush for me in my black Michigan soil.

The sun was really bright on the above photo thus it looks washed out.
They really are as bright as the previous photos.

Do you see a running theme in my flowers?
Lots of PINK...I love pink flowers.

I hope you are having a great week. The temps here are gorgeous for the next couple
days. Not too hot and not too cold. Just perfect.

I love summer when it isn't scorching hot!! I am not one for liking hot weather
at all. I guess it is a good thing that I don't live down south.

How are your flowers doing? I would love to know.

Summer in Michigan!

Please come up on my front porch and sit awhile if you so desire.

I love decorating outside just as much as I do inside so it spills out onto my front porch every year.

This year I wanted to add a bit of blue/teal to my decor without it being totally blue and I think I pulled
 it off.  What do you think?

I love vintage plant stands and have had several over the years. This is one that I hung onto
and I use it ever year. The flowers in my urns are just coming back after a nasty run in
with a raccoon! 

I always add impatiens to my porch in either pink or white. They are very easy to grow and this
gal LOVES easy. 

Front porch view from my yard. I am wanting to do something to the floor. We have lived here for over
 33 years and it has stayed pretty much the same. I either want to put a wood floor over the cement or get a
 nice big sea grass rug. I also want hubby to enlarge the porch posts and put some decorative angled trim
around the top and maybe the bottom. Hopefully we can get that done this summer.

One of our kitties are always photo bombing! lol

This is reality living in the country. I got up one morning to this mess! I never did get the large
terra cotta planter replanted. The plant was broken off with no roots left. ugh!

Doesn't this look like a fun clean up?  At least all these still had the roots attached so I could replant them.

As I said earlier, the flowers in the urns are finally coming along nicely. I hope we don't have any more
run ins with raccoon's. Hubby caught one so hopefully that is the only one around. ha!

The plants growing in front of the cement are tall white phlox, but they don't bloom until late June or July.
I love their fragrance. Also, the plant growing on the arbor is a Sweet Autumn Clematis. LOVE IT!
It has gorgeous white flowers in the fall.

This is also another flower I purchase every year and they are getting harder to find. I don't
understand it and neither do the growers because an IVY GERANIUM is the easiest flower
to grow! Makes no sense. 

 For the past several years I have had a tall white wicker table
in this space, but I wanted to mix it up this year. First I had this bookcase sitting the "tall" way and I
just didn't like it. I turned it on it's side and loved it. I want to put numbers above the openings, but
haven't gotten that done yet. I can change out the decor in the cubby holes anytime I want.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of our humble abode. I love living in the country...in Michigan...
in the Summer...without the raccoons!! :)

Playing in the potting shed

I have been busy lately playing in my potting shed so I thought I would give you
a few more peeks at what I am doing.

Do you remember this old white shelf that I purchased a few weeks ago? It ended up out here and I
think it is just right for my goodies.

I did add a bit of fake greenery before I got the bright idea {DUH!} to add real plants. :)

My flowers are still doing just wonderful despite the awful heat we had this summer.

I love this chippy green chair. I purchased FOUR of these chairs at an estate sale
years ago for 50 cents each! Everything was cheap at that sale and I was carrying
my baby granddaughter who was living with us at the time so that was about 11 or 12
 years ago. This is the ONLY green one I have left. I have two more that I let set outside
and they lost all of their paint and I sold one in my booth {dumb thing to do I know!}
I am hanging onto this one!

I love real bird nests and this one is a beauty.

Still trying to figure out if this is too much shelving , but it is what it is right now
so it is staying for awhile anyways.

Did you notice what I had hubby do?? This shed does not have interior walls except
on the back wall. It is something we have always intended to do , but just have not
gotten around to it. I was tired of waiting so a week or two ago I grabbed some paint
that we had sitting around and painted the top two thirds of the walls white.
I painted OSB board, I painted old beams...I painted, painted, painted!

Then I had hubby put the fence around the bottom part of the walls! I love how it
turned out, but once again the whole shed is not done, so you are seeing this one
wall! ha! We replaced a few sections of fence this year that were rotting and I
wanted it all to match so we took the above fence down also even though we had
just put it up a year or two ago. I do LOVE to recycle!!

More fake greenery in this cast iron wall vase.

I realized I should have added some gardening gloves and clippers or scissors , but I had already
spent too long taking photos so I opted not to redo it. I don't know how photographers do it!!
It must take them DAYS to do some photo shoots.

I have lots of goodies so I have pottery and all kinds of treasures sitting around in here.

Still lovin' my burlap potting bench skirt. See the slats in the top of my bench?
When hubby made the bench he added a pull out plastic tub underneath the slats so
that after I pot my plants, I can just grab a whisk broom and brush all the soil
 down the holes and right into the tub. Then take it out and dump it and wa-la all
nice and clean! :)

My favorite chair again with my pretty pink impatiens.

Loving my little *GROW* knife that I made last year.

A little nest that I spray painted white. That ends the tour for now. I know it isn't the most perfect
shed in the world , but it is mine and I love it. I decided whatever I did to fix it up this year I was
NOT going to spend any money doing it and I am happy how it turned out. Now on to the other
walls...oh goodness. Woman's work is never done...:)