Oasis in a hot garden

I'm going up to the teeny tiny garden as soon as I finish my cereal and take pictures. Not that the garden is all that great, but it is growing...

Got the idea from somewhere on the internet of turning old tomato cages up side down and and putting a flower pot on top to pull the legs together. 

The old tomato cages here are over the pepper plants. Does it look cute, or is it silly. I kinda like it. 

Would you believe, after months of too much rain...it is now dry as a bone around here. Well it is. The garden needs watering daily. Seems we jumped from winter right into the hot dry weather of summer.  

and speaking of hot dry weather...a little Oasis, right here in the garden...

actually, my thoughts were on the lizard and couple of frogs that lived in last year's garden and how I had placed a saucer of water under a squash plant for them. Water in a saucer didn't last long in the sun.

"Do you think you will ever grow up", Poppy often asks. "Well, no, I don't have any plans to". Why not make work more like having fun??

The half barrel is full of Bee Balm. Hope it blooms. We now have two wattle fences, yay! But, I've simply got to be done cutting small trees, and stay out of the woods. Ticks are terrible this year.

Hope there is room enough  for both the squash and zucchini in this corner.

and back up in yard...

Smokey, stretched out in the sun, against this snaky looking background, made a right pretty picture. Our birdbath has started leaking, so I'm using this antique bowl from the thrift store.

and the vine, the vine, the vine...

Have you ever seen anything grow like this chocolate vine has!! Oh, I should have taken a picture in early spring when it was covered in tiny white sweet smelling blooms. (I'm not showing off my pink wheelbarrow. It just happened to be sitting there). :) 

It was Lynn who told me about the Chocolate vine or Five Leaf Akebia several years ago. Info on line from NC State Extension says:

"It grows rapidly and can over take other shrubs and vegetation in the landscape if not kept in check. Flowers are followed by a large sausage shaped purple fruit which split open in the fall to reveal edible white flesh and tiny black seeds".

This huge healthy looking vine of ours has never grown any fruit, but the puny Chocolate vine that once grew on an arbor near the front porch did bear fruit once. Isn't that weird? I was afraid to taste it. :)

Well, that's about it. Hope you too are enjoying gardening and working outside. I'm just thankful for every day that I am able to work. 

Hope to be back real soon.

Love, 
Henny