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Summer Solstice Garden

The summer solstice arrives in a matter of hours here on the Pacific Coast, allowing for more daylight hours in the garden. I stepped out earlier this morning to take a few photos while the light was just so. I enjoyed the quiet, for the most part, but a male hummingbird took offense at my presence and kept flying so close to my ear that I could feel and hear his vibrating wings. He eventually tired of his warning flights and settled in at the feeder that Mike lovingly attends.

A hummingbird perched on a red feeder, sipping nectar from a flower-shaped opening.

These sunflowers are filling the corner vacated last year when we removed the invasive wisteria. The transplanted succulents are doing well there, though one of them got a bit scorched in the last heatwave. Deeply scented gardenias are flourishing, apparently enjoying the additional filtered light. It’s emerging as a lovely corner in the front garden.

Bright perennials fill the garden’s center by June, with most of the spring bulbs and annuals past their prime. Pink gladioli are fanning out from places I’m sure I didn’t plant, creating a hodgepodge of pink throughout the garden. I don’t mind a bit.

The Russian sage needs a good dressing of worm castings to improve the soil, but it’s a pretty purple nonetheless. 

Close-up view of vibrant purple flowers with fuzzy textures, surrounded by green foliage.

I had a surreptitious visit with my secret strawberry patch. I haven’t deliberately planted them for a few years, as they rarely do well. Last year, a plant appeared in the front garden under a sage shrub. Over the winter, it sent out a runner, and now we have two plants.

We shared one strawberry in May, didn’t get to the second or third berry before an unknown critter, and we have a chance at one more today. Oh my goodness, it’s the little things that make me smile.

In the “be careful what you wish for” category, we’ve harvested pounds of apricots from our grafted tree, so laden with fruit this year that I had to support one of the limbs with a garden trellis. I’ll write more about the tree soon.

As the seasons change on both sides of the world, I hope you’re finding ways to enjoy the outdoors or to pursue a craft. Immersive reading is a great escape as well. We enjoy Netflix in the evening, laughing at an hour of standup comedy or diving in to a great mystery or of late, The Other Bennet Sister from the BBC.

Here’s one more garden gallery:



29 thoughts on “Summer Solstice Garden”

  7. Oh, that blue flower in the last picture. What a delightful solstice post. The strawberries look delicious, but those apricots are what caught my attention. How I would love to have such a tree in my backyard. Only a dream, I am afraid.

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    • Thank you, Laurie! That gorgeous shade of blue is a cornflower, also known as Bachelor Buttons. The birds love eating the seeds, so it does double duty as something beautiful in the garden, followed by feasting birds.

      Its amazing how much fruit one tree can produce. We’ve had the tree for 15 years, and this is hands down the largest volume of fruit we’ve seen.

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  9. I love seeing what’s growing in your garden Alys! You have some gorgeous flowers. I really like the gladioli, and that last photo gallery too. So pleased for you that you got some strawberries! And will you process all those apricots into jam or something? Or just eat them all? Happy Solstice!

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  10. I love looking through the flowers in your garden. (I have one little bed that is supposed to have flowers but has lots of weeds instead.)

    It doesn’t look like birds come and eat the apricots? We have a plum tree and the woodpeckers come and eat them all, which I would never have imagined until I saw it over and over. :)

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    • That’s so nice to hear. Thank you. Through trial and error, I’ve sorted out what works well in our garden, and what gets by in our semi-arid, often drought-plagued area.

      I’ve not seen birds eating the apricots, but tree rats feast on them and other nocturnal visitors. The squirrels eat them as well. This year we had a bumper crump with more fruit than we can handle. It’s extraordinary. It’s messy, too, as the windfall quickly rots and then the fruit flies drop by.

      I’m not surprised that the woodpeckers ate all of your plums, but I share your dissappointment.

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  12. thank you for the abundance of pictures, your garden is delightful – and a lot of work! Enjoy the apricots and strawberries, I love the hummer, mine sits in the tree outside my back door and scolds me – -the feeder is full, what’s his problem?

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    • Thank you so much. I’m glad you enjoyed the photos. Flowers are extraordinary up close. My new hips and the subsequent recovery have finally enabled me to get down in the dirt again.

      Hummingbirds have quite the attitude for one so tiny. They provide endless amusement.

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  14. Thanks for letting us sit in your garden for a while. So refreshing in so many ways. There is nothing that tastes as good as a home grown apricot! I miss my tree in California. That shot of the humming bird is a humdinger. Amazing! I’ll catch up with you soon.

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