I love my garden this time of year, it’s loaded with fabulous blooms! Here are just a few of my favorites right now.

The hydrangea is looking fabulous! I really need to clip some and press it or dry it for crafting later, but I’ve been too busy enjoying it in the garden to take a snip.

My peonies were looking fabulous the other day, then they got hit with some hard rain. They’re not looking quite so fabulous now but they’re still one of my favorite June blooms.

I also have some cherries ripe! I made some cherry crisp the other night but forgot to take a photo to post the recipe. Maybe I’ll have enough to give it another go in a day or two. If not, I’ll go beg some from my mom and dad.

What’s happening in your garden this week? Happy Wordless Wednesday!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of SaferBrand. All opinions are 100% mine.

I recently had the opportunity to give EndALL insect spray a try in my backyard orchard and garden. My favorite part is that it’s a ready to use spray. No mixing or watering down. Just take it off the shelf and you’re ready to go. It’s still early in the year here in my Ohio garden, but the fruit trees have just finished blooming, so I thought I’d take EndALL for a test run in our back yard orchard.

I’m not a big fan of insecticides, and I’m always on the lookout for an organic alternative that will minimize the damage to the beneficial insects in my garden, and have little or no environmental impact. EndALL is safe to use on flowers, fruits, vegetables lawn, landscape, ornamentals and houseplants.

I decided to use EndALL on my fruit trees. They’re just finishing up blooming, and setting fruit, so it was perfect timing to keep bugs off the new fruit.

I only have a couple fruit trees, and most of them are dwarf trees, so it doesn’t take much to spray them.  The spray went far enough that I could cover the whole tree with a few squirts on each side.

I can’t wait to use EndALL later this summer on the squash bugs that always seem to invade my garden about mid June. I’m going to have it ready and waiting for the first sign of infection.

I still plan to use the insecticide sparingly, even if it is organic, it can harm some beneficial insects. If you’re looking for an organic alternative to insecticides for those times when there’s just no other way to get rid of damaging insects, this is a great choice. Make sure you read and follow the package directions to keep the environmental impact to a minimum.

Earth Day is coming up April 22nd, so I wanted to do a project that reuses something I already have. Since my old toad house rejoined the earth last year when it fell apart, I thought I’d make a new one.

I had an old clay pot that’s seen better days sitting out in my herb garden, I thought I’d re-purpose it for this year as my new toad house. The pot was perfect, it had a large triangle broken out of the top rim which will be the perfect toad entrance when I turn the pot over.

The pot had a few other cracks, but I sealed them up and painted the pot. You wouldn’t even have to paint the pot if you didn’t want to, but I thought it might be fun to paint the toad house and add a little interest to my garden.

So I wiped it down with a damp cloth, and gave the toad house a fresh coat of paint. I also painted on some spring flowers, and a welcome message for the toads (just in case they can read). I kept it simple since I’m not a fabulous painter.

Then we found a nice shady spot in the garden, tucked between a couple Boxwood bushes to give the toad house a permanent spot. Now we’ll have to wait and see if any toads take us up on the offer this summer.

The daffodils started peeking out from under the ground a couple weeks ago when there was still snow on the ground. Now they look like they’re about ready to bloom! I love spring flowers, they’re so inspiring, and beautiful, I’m always more than ready to see their cheery faces.
This bunch is in my kitchen herb garden right outside my back door. I put a layer of leaves over the whole thing last fall, so the bed doesn’t look the best right now, but it will this summer!

Do you have anything blooming in your garden this spring?

I just found out the Monarch Butterfly is on the Top 10 Most Threatened Species of 2010 list, because of the use of chemical pesticides, and many of their habitats are in jeopardy.

I love watching the Monarch Butterflies in my garden during late summer, so I always plant a few plants just for them, and any other butterflies I can attract to my backyard garden. Since I’ve been fairly successful at attracting them, I thought I’d share a few plants you might want to add to your garden this summer to attract a few butterflies of your own.

Plants to create a butterfly habitat in your backyard:

• Milkweed is the most important plant for the Monarch Butterfly, they lay their eggs on the milkweed plant, and it’s the only plant their larvae will eat. Pesticides, and ditch mowing have cut back the supply of mikweed considerably. If you have a place to let it grow in your backyard plant a few seeds, and watch the butterflies come.
• Thistle is another butterfly favorite.
• Butterfly bush
• Bee balm
• Russian sage
• Butterfly weed
• Yarrow
• Shasta daisies

Most of these are easy to grow perennials, once you plant them they’ll keep coming back year after year to feed your butterfly population. Just make sure you don’t use any chemical pesticides that might harm your butterfly friends.

I’ve been thinking about trying one of the topsy turvy planters this year. I think I’ve got the perfect spot for them hanging off the edge of our front porch. I’m just a little worried about them getting enough sun, since they’d be up against the house. They’d get plenty of morning sun so I think they would be ok.

Collections Etc has 3 of the topsy turvy planters check them out:

On all these planters you add your own favorite plants, and soil. Which is cool, since I have my own favorites.

The Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter

Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter

Topsy Turvy Hot Pepper Planter

I think I might try one of each, and see how it goes this summer.

This summer I’ve had quite a few beautiful and beneficial bugs in my garden. I captured some photos so I thought I’d share some of them with you today.

My favorite creatures are the butterflies that come to visit every summer. I try to plant my garden with them in mind, so I’m always excited when they take me up on my offer to visit.

This butterfly was trying to hold on to a butterfly bush, while the wind was whipping around him.

Another one of my favorite garden visitors is the praying mantis. I usually see several during the summer, but this is the first and only one I’ve spotted this summer in my garden. He was hanging out on the rose bush, hopefully picking off those aphids.

Finally, there have been plenty of worker bees spreading the pollen from plant to plant in my garden. I know we definitely don’t appreciate them enough for all they do.

I love to catch them in the act, so I probably have 20 plus bee photos, but I’ll just torture you with two of them… for now.

Tomorrow is the official start of Spring here in the Northern hemisphere. I think that’s definitely a reason to celebrate! My garden is finally showing signs of coming to life.

Here’s a shot of the pussy willow tree. I love the fluffy white pods when they come out in Spring for a few days.

My daffodils and tulips are both about to bloom. The daffodils have buds that are almost ready to open. A couple more bright sunny days and I’ll have some photos of the blooms to share.

Happy Spring to everyone!

I love outdoor living spaces, and I’m always looking for ways to make my living space greener. I won a subscription to Dwell Magazine a few months ago, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite home design magazines. When I saw they’re having a design conference in Los Angeles I thought I’d pass the information along. It’s too far away for me, but if you’re close, or you have the opportunity to go I’m sure it would be worth the trip.

LOS ANGELES, May 21 /PRNewswire/ — The third annual Dwell on Design Conference + Exhibition + Home Tours makes its highly-anticipated debut in Los Angeles, June 5-6 (conference) and 7-8 (exhibition + home tours). Dwell “Outdoor”, a popular new addition to Dwell on Design, will encompass over 13,000 sq. feet of exhibit space showcasing modern outdoor living trends, including landscape architecture, prefab architecture and new-to-market products. The Dwell “Outdoor” component of the Dwell on Design Expo can be described as a “pop-up” community with actual prefab homes ready to see, touch and inspire.

Dwell will be featuring green structures, and outdoor living spaces. Check out some of their innovative green design information.

Find out more about Dwell on Design.

We’ve been having problems with our electrical power since the ice storm in March.  So we’re having our power lines buried today. It’s a major expense, and it’s wreaking major havoc on my little kitchen herb garden, but I’ll be glad when it’s done.

If we ever have another ice storm we won’t have to watch the ice filled trees lay on our power lines. The second reason I’m glad the lines are buried is my nine year old son. You wouldn’t think the power lines would affect him up that high, but a couple days ago he shot his Rocket Jet Cast Fishing Rod right at the power lines. I thought I was going to have a heart attack!

I can replant a couple of my herbs to have the peace of mind my son won’t get something tangled in the power lines while he’s playing in the yard.