All the recent snow and freezing weather have our Missouri birds searching for food. We have nine feeders in our backyard and we have really enjoyed watching the birds as they fly in and eat their treats. We fill our feeders with with a variety of types of bird feed including Wild Bird Seed, Black Oil Sunflower Seeds, Finch Food and Mealworm Snacks.

Even in town, we get such a variety of birds – cardinals, blue jays, purple and yellow finches, juncos, downy woodpeckers, sparrows and an occasional starling.

We got started on our bird watching kick about a year ago when our youngest daughter gave us a clear acrylic window feeder, like the one above. I put the feeder on the window by my computer. It is so interesting to see the variety of birds that visit.

We enjoyed it so much I put two more on our living room window. Sometimes there will be five to six birds in each feeder. They are easy to fill and it is so fun to watch the birds up close.

The ones we have are from Amazon, but they are also available at discount and farm supply stores.

Adding a heated birdbath gives the birds a drinking source – and it is fun to watch them get in and play in the water.

The bird feeders in the garden attract lots of visitors. We have the bird feeders placed so we can see them from our windows, that way we can really enjoy watching them. Start with a few feeders and soon you will have a wonderful new hobby! Enjoy!

Add charm to your landscaping with old-fashioned Morning Glories. They are one of the easiest flowering vines to grow.

The Morning Glory colors are vibrant and range from pink, purple-blue, magenta to white. The blooms have beautiful trumpet-shaped blossoms.

Morning Glories grow best and bloom more when planted in full sun. Their big colorful flowers often attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

The vine grows VERY quickly – up to 15 feet in one season. Morning Glory plants were planted on this side of the fence.

And then it grew over the fence to the other side. They can self-seed easily too. So choose where you plant it carefully – it can take over! You will probably get them coming back in the same spot, year after year.

Use them to create a rustic old-fashioned garden scene.

If you want a flowering vine to cover a fence, trellis or arch, this would be a great choice. You can also use it for a groundcover.

Morning Glories are drought-tolerant and bloom from early summer to the first frost.

How gorgeous! Find a support for these old-fashioned beauties to grow and watch them grow and bloom in your gardens next year. Enjoy!!!!

I love zinnias! They add such bright happy colors to gardens and borders! Such gorgeous shades of bright pink, red, yellow, orange and lime green. They mix so well with other annual and perennial flowers for bouquets.

Zinnias can be used to make beautiful bouquets that will last 7-10 days. We used flowers from our gardens to make bouquets for a reception that we had at the house. We started by filling quart jars with water.

Then we used clear floral tape to create a grid across the top of each jar to hold the flowers in place. This works great!

We added a 1-2 drops of blue food coloring to each jar to create a beautiful aqua color.

The blue water provides a beautiful base for the flowers.

We started with the zinnias, mixing the colors in each jar. We also used lemon and cinnamon basil to add fragrant foliage to the bouquets. The lemon basil smells just like fresh lemons and has a light green foliage. The cinnamon basil has dark red leaves and small pinkish blooms.

We also added purple loose strife and black-eyed Susan’s to the bouquets. Remove all the foliage that will be below the water line.

Such colorful bouquets that are easy to create and will last about a week.

Use variety of flowers, herbs and leaves from your gardens. Small sunflowers also work well in these bouquets.

Enjoy creating bouquets from your summer gardens!

HAPPY SUMMER!