Strawberry Summer

Doesn't this just scream elfish-forest garden?  

I swear, little people could live beneath that greenery.

Strawberry tops for hats.

This is the first year that I've had a strawberry crop from my lakeside garden!  Even the garlic that I planted behind them came back (I had taken them for dead).  3 cups worth of tiny strawberries and there's more to come (I should check that out today).  We had them with a lemon-zest shortcake and whipped cream, courtesy of Ricardo (I love his Québecois culinary genius-ness).

That's the thing about gardening...there's lots of surprises.  Like the 4-petaled velvety purple flower on a long, spindly stem that popped up in my purple (and red and pink) fireweed and wild-rose garden.  I don't remember planting it, but there it is, right next to the rubble from our newly dug-out foundation.  Hence the importance and fun of maps.  Draw out your gardens, adapt the drawings as you add to and rearrange your plantings.  Oh, the excitement never ends...