Welcome to July 2025

Volume 1 | Issue 1 | July 2025

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What I love about July...

July is the perfect time to relax and appreciate the results of your gardening efforts! Take in the sight of blooming flowers while you sit on your front porch or back deck with a cup of coffee, watching the morning sun evaporate the dew.

Fourth of July Cake with sliced strawberry stripes and blueberry stars

July is an ideal time to make small improvements to your backyard garden. I love gardening with stones! There are numerous creative ways to use beautiful stones to enhance your flower beds. This year, I revamped the pathways from the driveway to the backyard patio. As part of the redesign, I created a faux river using large Mexican Pebbles. I added succulents (Echeveria and Kalanchoe) to imitate the look of water lilies scattered across the water. Over the past summers, I've collected stones from lakes I visited that resemble waterfowl and turtles. I added these to the river and surrounded the "water" with reeds (Cyperus Crow of Pharaoh, Big Blue Lily Turf Grass) and Ornamental Millet plants that resemble cattails (Pennisetum Glaucum Jade Princess). I also removed my overgrown Boxwood in the front yard and replaced it with a Fourth of July flowerbed featuring red Geraniums and Daisies, accented with small American flags along the front of the flower bed. See my gallery below for photos and visit my YouTube page for videos of my gardens.

Leave a comment and share what makes July special to you!

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July Activities

Make NorthShore Inn iced tea (go to my recipe link and select beverages)

Discover summer recipes that call for fresh herbs and farm fresh vegetables

Bake a Fourth of July cake topped with sliced strawerries for stripes and blueberries for stars

Buy fresh eggs and chicken from a local farm

Paint rocks to mimic fairy garden doors and houses and place around trees in your back yard

Things to Do

Attend small town Fourth of July parades

and county fairs

Visit small town antique stores

Go out for ice cream

Attend some home and garden tours

Check out weekend garage sales

Climb the sand dunes (find one in your area)

July Inspiration

Create a river with Mexican Bluestone

Go out for ice cream

Mama Duck and her baby in river of blue stones

Turtle made of blue stone sunning by the river

Fourth of July Cake

Overgrown Boxwood to be torn out

Replaced overgrown boxwood with a Fourth of July flowerbed

Succulents that looks like a water lily

Another "water lily" succulent

Decorate your golf cart for the small-town Fourth of July parade