One of the things I love most about my garden and gardening is connecting with nature. I plant my garden and I tend it, but I’m not really in control.

It’s truly amazing how much changes in the garden in just one month.

This week I’ve turned my blog over to my dear readers. Twelve of you are sharing your gardens with us today.

We’re more than half-way through June. The solstice is just a few days away. Summer is well and truly here.

Not much was happening in the garden in April, but now things are really starting to take off.

Before I dive in to talking about what a typical day looks like around here, I want to take a moment to thank you for sharing your experiences with online subscriptions and communities in last week’s post.

I spent Monday in my garden. Mondays are technically the weekend for me and I was so glad my time off coincided with good weather.

When I woke up on Wednesday the temperature was 43. The warmest we’ve seen this year. On my morning walk I didn’t need a hat. Chickadees and cardinals sang their delight at the taste of spring in the air.

The next day it was more than 30 degrees colder.

The sun is shining, warm and bright. The garden is humming with bees and I catch the scent of roses, mint and spicy tulsi. I step among the blooms with my scissors at the ready,

One of the first things I noticed in the oncology waiting room were two huge Christmas cactuses filled with blooms, even though it was late January.

Sometimes a project comes along which is a complete joy. My collaboration with Kickapoo Meadery was one of those projects. This fall I worked with Roots and Refuge Farm on another.

In Wisconsin by the time November rolls around, we’ve usually had our first frost. Sometimes we’ve already had our first snow, too.

I’m never certain if I’ll have flowers blooming in my garden in October or not.

In September in Wisconsin, the gardening season is winding down.

If July’s garden stars were purple poppies, August’s are sunflowers.

Did you end up writing a Gratitude List after my post last week?

Are you ready for today’s prompt to help open your eyes to the beauties and joys of summer*?

This week I want you to focus on COLOR.

The purple poppies have been stealing the show around here lately.

Wow. So much has changed in the garden from April to May to June. As I mentioned last week, summer is well and truly here.

How can it be a month already since my first garden tour?

For me, springtime in the garden always means violas and pansies. They’re some of the first things to show up at garden centers and one of the first things to bloom in my garden.