Can you believe it’s already the middle of June? The summer garden is coming along. I have cucumbers planted in the usual spot: the edge of my backyard shrub bed. Where there’s a bloom, I hope to soon see a cuke.

My cherry tomato plants seem to be thriving right now, and I have my fingers crossed that the dreaded tomato wilt won’t hit this year. Nothing is more depressing than to go outside one morning and find my formerly healthy green plants with yellow, limp leaves due to an attack of this fungal disease.

I’ve not had good luck growing Better Boys and Beefsteaks over the years, so I’ve learned to stick with the cherry tomato varieties. These seem to be hardier, and sliced in half, can still be used in that summer-time bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich (made with Duke’s mayonnaise, of course).

My okra crop hasn’t seemed to hit its growth spurt yet, but I think I remember this slow start happening last year. Okra likes hot weather, and we’ve had a relatively cool spring here in eastern North Carolina. Okra is easy to grow–probably the main reason I plant it–and come the steamy days of July and August, I’m betting my four plants will produce more than I can eat.

When I say I, I do mean just me. My husband doesn’t like okra in any form. I love it steamed, used in soups and stews, and of course, fried. No doubt I’ll give some of my crop away, as I’ve done in the past. Assuming, of course, this year’s okra produces. Farming is never a sure thing!

And yes, there’s a row of zinnias in the middle of my okra bed (as well as some volunteer zinnias from last year springing up in the corner). In the past, zinnias have co-existed quite nicely with my okra. They seem happy so far this year as well.

Enough about my three crops. Let me show you my flowers.

This Black and Blue Salvia began life as a Charlie Brown Christmas tree kind of plant at a Master Gardener sale. I arrived late, and a sad-looking, little unidentified pot of something wilted was about all that was left. It was cheap–maybe $2.50–so I bought it.

Fast forward a few years. It’s my favorite summer perennial. The hummingbirds will pass up the feeder I have in the middle to drink from the bluish-purple blooms of this monster plant. I’ve transplanted some to a couple of big pots in the side yard as well as given it away. This salvia may wilt occasionally in the heat, but I’ll throw a bucket of water on it, and all is well again.

I also love my Rose Campion, a perennial that reseeds itself and often shows up in a new location from year to year. I’m not sure how the seeds travel, but the batch I once had in the backyard now blooms in the side yard.

Rose Campion is considered an old-fashioned flower, and my initial plant came from the yard of my now-deceased grandmother, a history that makes it special. Although my Rose Campion is now a little beyond its peak, it still has some spectacular hot pink blooms.

Since deer love hostas and I have a herd that roams my unfenced yard at night (I’ve seen them on camera), I have just one clump of hostas in a sunny spot inside my fenced-in backyard. But what a clump it is! I probably should separate the bulbs, but never have.

I like to group complementary colors together. Here I’ve got my blooming violet hostas, a row of magenta vincas, and a Mother’s Day present of a light pink hydrangea in a pot.

Speaking of hydrangeas, I’ve seen lots of Facebook pictures of this year’s spectacular flowers. Many people have commented that they’re having one of the best hydrangea blooming seasons in quite a while.

Well, for me, any blooms on my hydrangeas count for a good year. I always have lots of pretty foliage but have yet to experience a bumper crop of flowers. I think it’s location; I haven’t yet found the sweet spot in my yard for hydrangeas. Again, it has to be within the fenced-in backyard, or the deer will have a bud-fest, so my location options are limited.

Still, I’m enjoying the hydrangea in the pot (pictured above), as well as the few blooms I see on my big hydrangea and the small one I bought on sale at the end of the season last year.

If I had to pick only one flower to plant each summer, it would have to be begonias. They’re drought and pest resistant, grow to a nice low mound, and are colorful. I always circle my giant forsythia bush with a variety that will add some color to my front yard. This year’s choice is one of the cocktail series, Gin Rose. I’ve bought Rum White and Whiskey Red in the past. (I have no clue as to why some begonias are named after types of alcohol.)

Based upon past experience, I’m confident this bed of begonias will grow and last until the first hard frost of fall.

For the most part, I’ve shown you what’s going well in my garden and yard this June. But it’s not all paradise outside. Next week, I’ll share some of my gardening problems.