Celebrate the Season with a Summer Garden

A Summer Garden's True Value

Why not plant a summer garden this year? With all life’s challenges and demands it’s easy to lose sight of why one should plant a garden in the first place. Why put attention on something so trivial? Whether it is filled with succulents, native plants, vegetables, flowers or anything else you can dream up, we plant gardens because they give us beauty and pleasure.

To lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. John Lubbock

One cannot overestimate the value of beauty and pleasure. There have been numerous studies about the healing effects of nature and gardening. As gardens and gardening reduces stress and anxiety, gardeners seem to live longer and have healthier, happier lives. Beauty and pleasure win again! In summer that pleasure is intensified.

Imagine if after a long, hard (or not so hard) day you stroll leisurely through a summer garden filled with colorful blooms, fragrant herbs, fruit trees and under soft, healing shade. Pluck a tomato off the vine and savor its enticing perfume; sweet juice explodes with flavor when you take your first bite. That’s summer in a mouthful. And that’s why we plant gardens—to enjoy and celebrate the spectacle of summer and all of the seasons.

I must have flowers, always, and always.
Claude Monet

Blooms for a Summer Garden

I’m not sure who is quoted as saying, “You can’t be too thin or too rich”, but having been neither, you can quote me as saying: “You can’t have too many flowers." Imagine someone walking into your garden and saying, “Oh my, you have too many flowers!” Inconceivable! Much joy and pleasure can be derived from a summer garden filled with flowers. There are many Summer-blooming flowers that you can use in the garden. Cosmos, Sunflower, Calendula, Poppy, Ginger, Geranium, Bearded Iris, Penstemon, Zinnia, Delphinium, Shasta Daisy, Yarrow, Status, and Alstroemeria all love our coastal summers and if you have good, living soil and lots of mulch, a flower garden doesn’t need much water.

Shall I compare thee with a summer’s day?William Shakespeare

Shakespeare compared his love to a summer’s day but you don’t have to be as poetic. The key is to get out and enjoy the best the season has to offer. Run through a meadow of wildflowers, take a walk through an oak woodland, hike the mountains, amble along the sea or stroll the streets of Santa Barbara, Montecito and Carpinteria. Summer’s here, so splurge on it! And, whether you have an acre or an apartment terrace, be sure to create your dream summer garden.Until next time, fill your garden with joy!