Photos Around the Farm in June

June is probably the prettiest time of year on the farm. Most of the heavy work is done preparing the beds so we can enjoy the first blooms of summer and the wildlife that comes to visit. Enjoy our photos from the farm in June.

Our Favorite June Blooms

The roses really took off this month. This bush was actually a creeping variety of rose that was intended to create a low border for the front of the bed. It really branched out this year growing taller than expected. But it sure did create a pretty display in early June.

brigh pink knockout landscape roses in full bloom — The roses were simply breathtaking this year.

The blue geraniums have also been spreading out. This plant has done particularly well and really brightens up the side garden.

blue geraniums in full bloom — This blue geranium has been spreading out making a really pretty show in June.

We inter-plant herbs with our potted flowers to make it easy to cut a bunch as needed from the porch.

big blue violas with parsely growing in the background — We have parsley inter-planted with the violas on a pot on the porch.

bright yellow flowers with reddish centers — These bright yellow blooms really brighten up the west side of the house.

A large patch of daisies gets ready to put on a show.

Snapdragons are a favorite of ours and always find a place in our late spring gardens. This year we grew tall snaps in the back border and dwarfs in a few pots.

yellow pink and orange snapdragons — Tall snapdragons begin to fill the front bed.

Self-Seeding Tomatoes in Our Flower Bed

If you look closely at the photo of the snapdragons, you will also see plenty of young tomatoes growing. These all planted themselves. We had 2 extra plants last year which we planted in the flower bed in the front garden simply because we had run out of room in the vegetable garden. We didn’t harvest very many from this batch so as a result too many tomatoes were left on the garden floor.

pink snapdragons and tomatoes — Young tomato seedlings keep popping up in my snapdragon bed.

Before we realized it, we had about 30 or more young tomatoes popping up in our flower beds. We transplanted or gifted as many of these young tomato plants before we had to pull up the rest like weeds.

Barn Swallows Come Home to Roost

The other fun event was the barn swallows decided to build a nest on the front porch. There is a 3 foot protected overhang which made a nice safe place to raise their babies.

momma barn swallow with her beak wide open — The barn swallows decided my porch was a good place for a nest this year.

We hesitated to let them continued to build since we were worried they would become aggressive once the chicks arrived. But after checking with the local bird expert, he assured us that they would get used to us and learn we were part of the deal.

barn swallow making her nest in my porch eves — The ledge is less than 2 inches wide, but they did a really nice job making it sturdy.

There is just a 2-inch wide ledge, so we were very interested to see how they would go about the construction. Little by little the crafty barn swallows built a nice sturdy mud nest in the corner of the porch. The nest seemed to be built really quick. Please forgive the quality of the photos as the light wasn’t the best in this corner, and I didn’t want to disturb them too much. So I shot most of the photos through the window. Stay tuned in future months as we watch the babies hatch and grow up.