Around the yard. {June}

 It's no secret that I love gardening, even though I'm still a complete beginner. We have a small raised bed and really modest landscaping around our house. And I love it. Maybe one day we'll have the money and time and space to really go crazy. For now though, in this little starter house {that we're outgrowing quickly!}, I love all the little burst of color and life around our yard.

  I don't know what I did right, but it looks like I'll have an earlier garden harvest than usual this year. No complaints here! We already have zucchini and peppers growing. My basil is sprouting up fast and the tomato plants are starting to blossom.

  But my very favorite? Zinnias. 1/3 of my garden plot is devoted to flowers and I get excited every year to watch them grow from seeds to big, beautiful blooms around my house all summer. They take awhile, so we still have a few weeks before we see the first pops of pinks, purples, and reds. I can't wait!

A few years ago, Justin ripped out some ugly bushes by our bay window and planted some baby boxwoods. Every summer, I pick up these gorgeous {and totally prepotted} flowers from Wal-mart, of all places, and they grow like crazy. I had to settle for a different mix last year but was able to find my favorite go-to a few weeks ago. After one dose of Miracle-Gro and some good rain, they are off to a great start. I also pot some impatiens every year by our front door. It's a tricky spot, since it gets a weird mix of heavy sun and shade. Since I have two planters flanking our door, I'm pretty diligent about rotating them from each side so they don't get too much hot sun. I'm always so amazed at how resilient they are and how they literally bloom all summer.

And last, but definitely not least. My day lilies. For most of my life, I lived on a gravel road in the middle of the country. On both sides of our road, and all around our house, were corn and bean fields. But lining most parts of the road were also big patches of deep orange morning lilies. We also had a huge patch of them along the side of our garage and I love to water them in the summer and pull the dried stems out in the fall. So when I discovered the previous owners had planted yellow day lilies by the front of our house now, I was so excited! They were getting a little overgrown and we had a stretch of our side yard the was bare, so I split them two years ago and transplanted them. It took them a season, but they are finally filling it and blooming like crazy now! I love that little reminder of my childhood.