Today we’re off to the Mohawk Valley in central New York State to visit Lee’s beautiful garden.

It’s midsummer, and I do believe we have a “bloomfest”! At times I’ve seen easily over 300 blooms at once. We’re heading toward the peak, with many buds remaining and the phlox and Maximilian sunflowers yet to start their show. Lots of colors, BIG hand-size blooms, and lilies towering over 7 feet tall! In a previous post (Lee’s Garden Through the Eyes of an Ant) I showed all of the plants starting their push, and now those little lilies that looked like mini-palm trees are 6-footers of a light pink.

I’ve gone through 75 bamboo sticks (which are virtually invisible) and a number of “lumber sticks” (which aren’t invisible); the lilies taller than 4 feet love to be supported due to the weight of the blooms. I even used two expandable tarp poles to string-support the 7-foot red lilies along the rear of the vegetable garden. A storm came through and that wasn’t enough. I almost lost a few to breakage down the stem, but I quickly got some paint sticks and duct tape and made splints. Gotta do what ya gotta do!

I certainly hope people enjoy the pictures, maybe tickle their thought-processes in a way that keeps them thinking forward with a vision of their own. My wife and I are quite pleased with my continual effort to make the next year even better. She says that I succeeded. Why disagree with her?

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to gpod@taunton.com along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening!

Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here.

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

Buffalo-Style Gardens: Create a Quirky, One-of-a-Kind Private Garden with Eye-Catching Designs

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

Buffalo-Style Gardens is a one-of-a-kind, offbeat garden design book that showcases the wildly inventive gardens and gardeners of Buffalo – and offers readers "the best of the best” ideas to use in their own small-space gardens.

Buy at Amazon

SHOWA Atlas 370B Nitrile Palm Coating Gloves, Black, Medium (Pack of 12 Pairs)

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

Lightweight and close-fitting for excellent dexterity. Machine washable. Breathable back of hand to reduce perspiration. Designed for easy movement and continuous wear. Ideal for aerospace, assembly, automotive, construction, final fix, gardening, manufacturing, operating machinery, packaging, precision handling, tiling, warehousing.

Buy at Amazon

Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

Featuring gorgeous photography and advice for landscapers, Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West is dedicated to the idea of a new nature—a hybrid of both the wild and the cultivated—that can nourish in our cities and suburbs.

Buy at Amazon