In case you need another reason to love summer, Jamie Rowe shares her beautiful garden she creates in her back yard. I love the little gnomes and mushrooms that reside all around the flower pots and colorful blooms. My favorites here today are the two Petunia varieties. That speckled one is so unique, not to mention the green-edged beauty. Her white Hydrangea looks like a big snowball and the Fuchsia is always a winner in a hanging basket. Indeed, I love the colors of summer!

Luke Youtuber gives us some ideas of native Michigan plants for your garden, saying that planting them creates biodiversity and helps to support local wildlife, too.

Laurium Manor Inn is in the running (again!) for Newsweek’s Best Historical B&B, and this time, they’re aiming for the top spot. If you’d like to help achieve that honor, you can cast your vote by clicking here: Newsweek’s Best Historical B&B, then click the black button that says: “Vote for the best historical B&B!”. That will take you to a pop-up window with the list... scroll down to “G. Laurium Manor Inn – Laurium, MI”, click on it, then scroll down and click the “Submit” button. The contest runs until August 14th at Noon ET, so we’ll have a reminder here each day if you’d like to vote. Thanks in advance.

Hi
There are a lot of colors of petunias. At the
gardens at MSU, I remember seeing them go from white
to a purple so dark it was nearly black, plus lots
of other colors.

I do my best to maintain the perennials that my late
mom had laid down, but gardening is not my idea of
fun.

So many things to
love about summer
including all of the
floral colors.
And a sweet video
as well. I’m just
wondering what punk
whacked Susan.

How gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

A friend brought me some hydrangeas last year, in a
vase with water. She said "let the water evaporate
and don't touch the hydrangeas...they'll dry
perfect" and they sure did...big huge hydrangeas
all dried out. LOVE that green tinged petunia, and
Fuchsia is stunning. Love the vid too. Deadhead
your columbines....you'll get a second bloom.

Absolutely beautiful, Jamie. There's
nothing like summer beauty.