Garden -- July

Gardener nirvana!
If you have a flower garden, you have hosta, lilies, gladioli, and in my yard, it's hydrangea.
They survived Snowmageddon and I did as Mike McGrath said and did not prune in 2014.
This year my hydrangea are gorgeous!
Veggies:  ZUCCHINI!  You should be seeing those huge golden blooms.  Don't forget to look under the leaves.  If you don't pick the zucchini while they still stick up from the plant, they will hide under the leaves and by the time you see them, they'll be as long as your arm.
Beans should be showing pink flowers -- if you have been watering in the morning.  If not, your beans have been eaten by slugs.
Herbs should be going to seed.
Tomatoes should be showing flowers and you might have some cute little green tomatoes.
Cukes -- if these survived the bunnies -- bunnies like nothing better than tender cuke shoots -- should be flowering and you might even have some baby gherkin pickle sized fruits.
Notice how most of these things flower yellow.  Bees love them.  Plant these and calendula and golden cosmos to attract and feed the bees, which will then thank you by fertilizing your stuff so you get the fruits.  DON'T USE PESTICIDES OR FUNGICIDES.  Creating death traps are a horrible way to say "you're welcome" to bees. 
And best of all: in July you should be ordering your non-hybrid, non-GMO, open-pollinated seeds from reliable vendors so you can plant annuals next year.  Even if you bought these this year, and they are going to seed, you still want new seeds for new genes.  What's more, some plants are biennials.  If you left some cabbage or their relatives in the ground to go to seed, they won't flower until next year.  You need new seeds to grow new food or flowers from biennials, let alone to create a healthy gene pool.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved