It is cloudy and humid here in the Carondelet Garden this Friday morning in late June.  The veggies are loving the weather as we have harvested the Candy Sweet Onions, cucumbers, more tomatoes and some of our sweet peppers.  A beautiful site this early in the summer season.

It's a busy day for the old gardener.  It's time to rehab a rose garden and the work needs to get started so I'm heading out the door!  It's a good day to remember four words:  "Do not be afraid."  The phrase appears 365 times in the Bible.  One for every day of the year.  A very timely reminder today and always.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

The skies are cloudy, and the rain is coming down on this Wednesday morning in late June.  What a joy to see the heavenly moisture falling from the skies.  We were desperate for a break from the unrelenting heat of the past two weeks, and it arrived with a lovely, soft rain to offer a bit of balm to the garden.  Blessings received!

"Into each life a little rain must fall" is a quote from the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  This is especially appropriate for gardeners.  A little rain must fall for the flowers to grow.  The rain comes down and hope grows.  The temperatures are moderating a little bit and you can feel the edginess slipping away, little by little.  The balm we need when we need it most.

One of my favorite Emily Dickenson quotes is this one:  "Who has not found the heaven below, will fail of it above.  God's residence is next to mine, His furniture is love."  As gardeners we know that heaven is truly all around us rather than beyond use, somewhere in the distance.  The challenge is to see deeply enough to notice it.  Open my eyes, Lord!

It's a perfect nap day.  A perfect day to relax just a little.  A perfect day to truly see deeply and take all of it in.  All of it.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

It is a hot and humid morning here in the Carondelet Garden.  The sun is shining brightly and the watering continues.  The flowers are still hanging in there and loving the extra attention.  Here's a bit of sunny yellows to celebrate Monday morning!

A busy week ahead for the #supercoololdpeople here in Carondelet.  Heading to visit the doctor for my annual checkup and get those prescriptions refilled.  Better living through chemicals.  Probably not, but it keeps me going.  The little Garden Doodle visits her friend Maggie @the_matted_doodle this afternoon for her spa day visit.  Dentist tomorrow.  It just keeps going.  Get it done and move on, I say.

It's a good day for a good day.  Be careful outside, stay hydrated.  Rest often.  There is already a heat advisory for Tuesday.  Be good to yourself this week!  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

The weather seems to be the same day in and day out lately.  Hot, humid and sunny with a few partly cloudy moments.  The watering regime continues today but the results are pretty amazing.  It's a pink-purple day here in the Garden and the flowers are lovely!

I know that gardening changes my sense of the everyday.  It awakens something inside of me that sees more than just things, and beyond things as I gain new insights about life, about new feelings, and a growing sense of serenity.  If we make ourselves a seeker of beauty and create a garden that is, truly, a holy site that rejects the tawdry, the artificial, and the vulgar we will find the serenity we are looking for.

Let us rejoice and be glad.  The weekend is almost here with Farmers' Markets and Makers' Fairs.  A great time to visit and discover the best this amazing City has to offer.  Be good and be kind to yourself this Friday in Ordinary Time.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

A warm, humid, overcast morning here in the Carondelet Garden.  Did I mention it was humid?  Oh, my goodness.  The heat is hanging around after a bit of a respite yesterday.  It looks like 90-plus for the next fourteen days.  Water, water, water those plants!

I am in love with our Calla Lillies this year. Calla lilies, with their elegant tubular shape and fantastic colors (not just white!), add grace to perennial gardens, patio containers, and cutting gardens in the summer; their blooms last for weeks, attracting butterflies and hummingbirds.   Calla lilies are not true lilies; however, they can be grown as annuals or in containers.  Planted in spring, the flowers bloom for 6 to 12 weeks through the summer.  We have taken a chance the last couple of years and left them in the ground over Winter and have had amazing results.  

Gardening, like life, is a bit of trial and error.  We celebrate the successes and mourn the losses and in-between we carry on.  A lot of the success in growing anything well is a simple blend of confidence and intuition.  You win some, you lose some, and you learn as you go.  The right answers are very few and are usually much less interesting and informative than the right questions.  

Failure teaches us so much more than success.  As we have learned over the years, you never really know a plant until you have killed it twice!  We all make mistakes all the time.  The key is learning from each and every mistake.  We won't make that mistake again.  We will make new ones!  

I have some watering to do.  A bit more weeding.  I think my onions are just about ready to harvest.  It's been a very early year for so much.  A bit of work, a bit of rest, a bit of faith and hope.  Life and gardening require all of the above.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

It is a muggy morning here in the Carondelet Garden in South Saint Louis.  Another day with 90-plus degrees and bright sunshine.  The watering regime continues as this hot spell enters week two with no real relief on the horizon.

It is definitely summertime in the city.  The heat island has built up and the humidity has definitely taken over.  The little Garden Doodle is not a fan of this heat.  She has quickly become an inside dog during the heat of the day.  I can't blame here as my gardening has entered the early morning, late evening routine to avoid the hottest parts of the day.  The good part is a nice nap in the afternoon!

The tomatoes are loving these warm nights.  We were able to harvest our first ripe Brandywine tomato over the weekend and enjoyed it on a lovely BLT!  Is there anything better than a home-grown tomato on a wonderful Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich?  Maybe, but not a lot!

As I continue to grow older, I am enjoying the simple things in life more and more.  A morning walk, an afternoon nap, food I grow myself, a little less stuff and little more living.  Simplicity may be the most radical thing we can do right now.  Living simply outside the whole system of greed, over-consumption, and hatred.  The older I get the more I realize that we live in either an attitude of gratitude or an overall attitude of resentment.  We get to choose.  I am choosing gratitude.  It's not always the easiest choice but I'm happier when I do!

It's a good day to be a little kinder to ourselves and others.  We all need a bit more kindness and gratitude in our lives right now.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

It is warm and sticky outside as the Garden Doodle and I went on our morning walk this Ordinary Friday in June.  It appears the heat will be sticking around for the foreseeable future.  That means the watering regime has begun.  It adds an extra hour to the garden schedule every day as many pots and raised beds are hand-watered to prevent issues.  It's time consuming but worth it!

Spending so much time watering and walking around the garden it is worth it to pay attention to this amazing creation we are given to care for.  The simple, ordinary task of taking notice of the glorious life around us is in inherently life-giving.

It reminds this old gardener to take that moment to reflect and see the ways God is working my life and allow for a gentle, growing gratefulness to sprout up in place of the weeds of bitterness and resentment.

It is a good day for a good day.  A glass of iced tea this morning instead of hot coffee.  Some beautiful music playing on the old SmartSpeaker.  The newspapers are waiting to be read.  Have a great weekend!  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

A bright, sunny start to the day here in the Carondelet Garden.  The Garden Doodle and I went out for our morning walkabout and the humidity was already beginning to show itself.  The watering begins with the parterre garden this morning.  The heat looks like it's going to stick around for the next couple of weeks.  Hello Summer in Saint Louis!

One of my favorite things about gardening is growing fresh vegetables to enjoy.  Dr. B in her @carondeletkitchen is a wizard at coming up with unique and wonderful dishes utilizing whatever comes in from the garden.  Fresh is best and we are coming into a bounty of goodness.  Unfortunately, the hailstorm took out the rest of the Snap Peas and destroyed our Blue Lake Beans.  Such is the life of an urban gardener.  There will always be next year.

Gardening is a great teacher.  We learn that we set our self-up for failure if we assume everyone around us expects us to forge forward without setbacks or shutdowns.  A garden is simply a series of losses set against a few triumphs.  Not unlike life itself.

A beautiful, warm, sunny mid-week Wednesday here in South Saint Louis.  We continue on in faith, with a bit of hope and as much love as possible this week.  Be good to yourself and others as you travel about.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

​Tiny but with a bold exterior, ladybugs are one of the few beetles we don’t get scared of or run away from at first sight.  Ladybugs almost always equate to having good fortune, happiness, innocence, and true love.  They’re sweet little critters that hold a lot of value and meaning.

A beautiful, sunny morning here in the Carondelet Garden as the Ladybugs came out to play.  The little Garden Doodle is fascinated by bugs right now and this one is no exception.  So happy she didn't try to eat it!

The sermon series at church these past few weeks has been on "Half-Truths."  This week's half-truth was the old chestnut, which we hear way too often, that "God will never give you more than you can handle."  We know that is not the case.  Read the Psalms and laments of David and you know he had more than his share of overwhelming problems.  We all have moments when we are literally and figuratively overwhelmed with things this world throws at us.  The thing we do have is the love of a Creator who promises to be with us in our sorrow and pain.  That doesn't mean we aren't overwhelmed.  That simply means we are not alone in being overwhelmed.  That helps.  Doesn't always fix it, but it helps.

It's been an overwhelming year for so many of us.  Illness, surgery, family strife, and everything else you can think of.  We often feel overwhelmed.  We don't have the answers.  The only thing we have is the knowledge that we aren't alone.  

Here's a bit of faith, hope and love sent to you from an old gardener in South Saint Louis.  Be good and be kind to yourself and others on this Monday morning in June.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

An absolutely beautiful morning here in the Carondelet Garden in sunny South Saint Louis.  The skies are blue with a slight breeze.  A great walk early in the morning with the Garden Doodle.  Had to get a bit of exercise in so that I could get a bit of work done.

The first of the garlic is in.  I went with an old favorite last Fall:  Inchellium Red.  This was a fantastic producer.  I have another bed in the back garden that isn't quite as far along.  It should be ready in a couple of weeks.  As so many of us have said, everything is so early this year.  I normally do not get to harvest my first garlic until after the fourth of July holiday.  A wonderful problem to be sure.

We are beginning to come out of the fog of the Spring.  We have accepted the health issues and are dealing with them head on without dwelling on the negative.  Faith and hope are our constant mantra these past few months add to that the support and love of friends and neighbors and we are doing pretty darned good.  The little Doodle Dog was an added benefit.  She certainly will cheer your heart when you need it the most.  

We need to come up with a recipe that needs garlic this weekend.  I am absolutely positive that Dr. B is up to the task.  She is always up to the task.  The Garden Doodle and I are the luckiest in the world to be a part of her life.  It's hard to believe it will be 42 years this year.  Where does the time go?

It's a good morning for a bit of gardening.  There is always something to do.  I've heard rumors of a possible visit to the garden center this afternoon.  Anything is possible for a couple of #supercoololdpeople and their little Doodle Dog.  We wish you a bit of faith, a lot of hope and heaping helping of love this weekend.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

A bit of color to brighten up this dreary Wednesday morning.  Rain this morning will turn to partly cloudy skies by this afternoon.  To be honest, we could use a nice, gentle, soaking rain.  

This strange year has finally, almost against all odds, reached the month of June.  The calendar may disagree, but it is summer, and my Carondelet Garden is well aware.  Everything has been incredible early this year.

We are relishing the blooming of flowers and perennials throughout the garden in every conceivable way as the borders burst with color.  The days are long with light and color breaks through offering us hope and grace when we need it the most!

We are just about finished with planting.  I say that every year, but it is never quite true.  We wouldn't be gardeners if we ever really stopped at this time of year.  Now is also the perfect time to begin cutting back. It's the season to deadhead spent flowers to encourage more blooms.  It is also time to cut back tulips and daffodils now spent and ready for a nice long nap until next Spring.  We can also move any Spring bulbs that may need a new home.  Hard to believe we are dreaming of next Spring already.

The work continues.  Digging in, weeding, planting, getting a bit dirty and allowing those microbiomes to enter the old body and encourage my own physical vigor.  The old knees and hips are complaining this morning, but we continue on.  It's what we do.  Keep the faith.  Hold on to hope.  Live in love.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.

It is a beautiful Monday morning here in the Carondelet Garden.  The skies are clear and the sun is shining.  The birds are once again singing their song as the fly in and out of the birdfeeders.  A wonderful morning for a walkie with the Garden Doodle and now a cup of coffee.

April showers bring May flowers they say.  Well, we had our share of May showers as well.  The good news is the flowers are looking pretty amazing right now around the garden.  The hailstorm of the end of May hit us pretty hard in the vegetable department.  Runner beans and snap peas didn't make it.  Many tomato plants were damaged but salvageable.  The squash and cucumbers are looking pretty poorly right now but we are hopeful they will bounce back.  The surprise of all was that flowers, perennials, bushes, etc. came out pretty much unscathed.  The hostas were the only one to suffer but we know they will come back!  

Things are slowly improving and getting back to some assemblance of normal.  June is here and a new month begins.  The little Garden Doodle is headed down the street for her grooming this afternoon.  We see the vet for a quick check up tomorrow.  She is learning a lot but still has a way to go.  I am a lot older than I was the last time I had a puppy.  My knees and old hip are reminding me of that fact every day now.  Worth it!

Here's to a great Monday.  A wonderful week ahead. Summer is just about here.  A little faith, a bit of hope and a whole lot of love from the #supercoololdpeople and the garden Doodle in the Carondelet Garden.