Gotta admit...

I love gardening! Some women I know like to scrapbook to relieve stress. Scrapbooking makes me want to poke both of my eyes out. But give me some fairly good weather and some time in my yard, and all is right in the world.

My dad makes these beautiful wood flower pots all winter and gives me a few new ones each May with some flowers to plant for my birthday! (Yes, I realize I am L-U-C-K-Y.) I LOVE container gardening. The begonias and pansies have done especially well this year.

Flowers aren't the only thing I like to plant in containers. Here's one with a baby elderberry bush that will be transplanted to the backyard in the fall.

The tulsi plants are in smaller pots. These will be transferred to larger containers in the fall and kept inside through the winter, as they can't handle the frost. I'm trying to add to the number of medicinal plants in my yard each year. So far, I've got marshmallow and mallow, two varieties of holy basil, two beautiful lavender bushes, elderberry, calendula, red raspberry, violet, feverfew, and, of course, dandelion. (And possibly one or two I haven't identified yet!)

Only one of my original rose bushes remains (the one closest to the camera)- it's a favorite! Perhaps I might be able to harvest some rose hips in the fall.

I tried planting some lettuce and spinach in my front garden bed this year, as the back yard is under construction, and it has grown pretty well. Unfortunately, I have found that this garden bed is prone to people stepping and spitting in it, and cats playing in it and using it as a litterbox. Not cool.

The irises I recently cut back were used to decorate many family graves on Memorial Day.

I finally found a perfect place for the sandbox. Who is that adorable child playing? 

 This plant has really outdone itself this year. The flowers emit one of the best fragrances I have ever inhaled. Bees have flocked to this thing like it was their mothership. What is it? As far as I've been able to find out, it is some kind of landscaping variety of milkweed, with milky white juice that is poisonous to humans and predators. (Don't drink it!)

My potatoes are planted in the white trash cans at the end of the driveway. First year I've tried that and they are doing great! And, not the best picture, but one of my very favorite plants in the world: the wild yellow rose bush. They only bloom once a year, and the blooms are short lived. As, I am writing (end of June), the blooms have all withered and are gone. I have fond memories of picking flowers off a similar bush as a child, carrying them around with me and smelling them all day.

See? One of the best smells ever!

I really like this tree. It is almost palm-like, and I recently found out its identity- Sumac! It sends out shoots everywhere and tries to take over the world! Here is my little climber hanging out in its branches. 

Some surprise strawberries from my backyard-in-transition.

Future home of tomatoes and other delights. :)

Can't forget the flag! Happy gardening, and Happy Independence Day!

"And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land- but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate-" Alma 46:40