It's been a week of harvesting ideas at GardenComm along with tomatoes and peppers from my late summer veggie garden. These might seem like disparate topics but read on. I promise to tie them together. Some of the beautiful smaller hills in Utah. They also have huge mountains like in the background. Utah was dry, but beautiful. As my friend, Mary Ann Newcomer says, "You just have to put on your desert glasses." I just returned from GardenComm's annual meeting in Salt Lake City, and I so enjoyed the conference this year. The educational sessions were enlightening. I met four new-to-me homestead bloggers. They do a lot more crafts and canning than I do. I admire them because I do not like to can in the heat of summer. I did it as a teen with my mom, and it was hot. As my friend, Carol, of May Dreams Gardens...

The borrowed view is a great design concept, and the two gardeners who designed their own garden at East Ruston used this element frequently to great effect. The tree in the large pot is a Brugmansia. I spent most of my summer traveling. After the difficulties and sadnesses of last year, I felt an urgency to get moving, and boy did I! Along with the Garden Bloggers' Fling in Denver, I also journeyed with Bill and some of our friends to Great Britain in East Anglia for another garden tour. Then, Bill, Claire and I went to Philadelphia and Boston to soak up a little Colonial history. I'll be sharing our stops in East Anglia in the coming weeks, and I hope you'll come along. We also received happy news last night. Our daughter, Megan, and her husband, Robert, are going to have another baby! We're all so grateful and...

In case you haven't heard, it's July, and it's hot outside. How hot? This weekend, a giant heat dome will cover half of the United States. Oklahoma isn't just the center of the heartland, it's also the beating heart of summer heat. The main pathway of the back garden with the now lavender chairs. Note the shasta daisies and crapemyrtles are laughing at the July heat while 'Ruby Slippers' hydrangea blooms have turned their red hue. We need plants that thrive in Oklahoma summers. The lower lawn is still green, but with temperatures in the 90s and 100s it won't be for long. We do not water it. An angled view of the potager or kitchen garden. It's doing well, but hunkered down until September. Greenhouse and garden beds facing the street. Oklahoma gardeners aren't worried though. Like good Boy Scouts, we're prepared. We grow plants that not only survive...

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you may have noticed Bill and I went with our friends, Layanee from Ledge and Gardens, Mary Ann from Gardens of the Wild Wild West, and Cindy from My Corner of Katy, along with several new friends to East Anglia, UK. We spent most of our time in Norfolk and Suffolk. I posted loads of photos as we traveled, and I'm just now home and getting back to my garden. Mary Ann, Layanee and me taken by Layanee's sister, Sue. I don't know where Cindy was. This was in Bressingham Gardens. How is my garden doing? Well, we've had plenty of rain while I've been away--quite the rarity in late June and early July in Oklahoma--but this is a weird weather summer. It is hot and muggy, and the weeds are rampant. I don't want to think about weeds today. Instead, like...