You know what I love about this time of year?

Seeing all of the hard work in the garden come to fruition.  I love cutting flowers from my yard and making little arrangements.  It just sums up the simplicity of summer.

I’m still working on my developing my cutting garden but this year I ended up with a great crop of Zinnias which are annuals.  In addition I have been snipping Black Eyed Susans (not pictured) for the arrangements which are perennials.  I like to round out the bouquets with Dusty Miller foliage, a biennial.  Huh?  Biennial?  That means it blooms on the second year but the foliage is a nice silver accent both years.  The perennial Astilbe adds height and feathery texture.  And finally, a few sprigs of the herb Rosemary give the arrangement a wonderful scent.

So simple yet makes such a big impact!

Other than arranging little wildflower bouquets this month, I’ve also been obsessively making refreshing fruit smoothies.  I’d love to say that I grew those ingredients as well but I’d be lying.  I stick primarily to ornamentals, not edibles.

So basically I’ve been throwing about 8-12 strawberries into a blender along with a banana and about 2 tablespoons or so of Greek yogurt topped off with ice.  The result is a fresh and amazing fruit smoothie!  Sorry for the loose goosey measurements but, hey, this isn’t a recipe blog!  There’s a baseline for you to start with.  Feel free to add rum too.  I won’t judge.  Just as long as you are not having the rum smoothie for breakfast.  Then I’ll start talking about ya.

I seriously can’t get enough of these flower arrangements and smoothies right now so I thought I’d share.  Indulge yourself too!

What are you loving about August?

P.S.  I stopped by local shop Phantastic Phinds’ blog this week and revealed what I did with an old dresser that lost its drawers.  Lost its drawers?  Hmm, not sure that came out right but anyway go check it out!