It's raining out, so the guys are playing indoor football, and our daughters are playing House. We can't garden, so Mommy suggested that we let you know how the garden is doing – much more fun then football!

Where we live, tomato gardeners aim to have their first tomato picked on the Fourth of July. To pick that first ripe tomato on that date (no one picks any before that date) is as big a victory as winning the championship game in sports.

Behold! Our first July fourth tomato! Isn't it perfect?

Daddy picked it, took a picture of it, and then brought it in for all the Garden Gals to see. We gathered at his desk, so he could show us the other pictures he took, also.

Here are some more pictures taken within the last week – before the rain came.

Our butterfly bush is living up to its name.

Each flower head is made up of many tiny little flowers.

The butterfly sticks its proboscis into every little flower. The proboscis is the butterfly's mouth, but works more like a straw. It rolls up and out, too, like a party favor, although they don't toot theirs.

It can take the nectar of all those little flowers, and then move on to the next flower head. Imagine being that size. Doesn't it take in a whoooooooole lot of nectar?

Since nectar is sugary, we know why butterflies always seem like their bouncing along in constant motion. Tehehehehe

We grew more flowers this year. Last year, most of the flowers bloomed late in the season, and we wanted some all season.

This is our ageratum. It's called "Danube Blue," but we're not sure if it's blue or purple. This picture shows the different stages it goes through to bloom. First, it looks like little pink buttons. Then it turns into larger lavender buttons. Then it explodes into big fluffy bluish purple flowers.

(Lady tells this part.) We grew them from seeds, but thought only a couple sprouted. Spaulding is showing me the different plants. This one is taking a little longer to bloom, but doesn't it look good in the watering can? Better yet – doesn't Spaulding look handsome? He's just … just … just the most wonderfullest husband! ::::::::::sigh::::::::::

We're in front of the first one we showed. We call this area "flower row," because many of our flowers are lined up along this side of the garden.

Below us is our passionflower vine. Another name for it is Maypop. It's not flowering yet, but we've made this heart-shaped topiary out of two wire clothes hangers, so it can wine around them. Maypops are only winter hardy to zone 7, and we're in zone 6. By wrapping it around this heart, we're letting it grow without it getting wrapped up around other things. That way, we can bring it into the front porch for winter. Our porch isn't heated, but it is sheltered from the wind and cold plus we're not weatherproofed, so heat escapes into it a little, so it is like zone 7. They are such pretty flowers. Can't wait for them to bloom, but it's nice sitting with my Sweetie right next to a heart!

We're sitting together on the old big grill. Our Cinnamon Basil and Sweet Basil are growing well, sown by rolling last year's flower heads together between our paws. Below the grill, our foxgloves are blooming and dying at the same time. I must be bigger than a fox, since the gloves don't fit me.

Here's a closer look at the foxglove. It's from a week ago though, as you can tell by the container of grasses next to it. The container has blue fescue in the front, and our Russian sage before it flowers. We just moved it to a new location a couple of days before these other pictures were taken.

(Valentine's tells this part.) Teddy took me for a climb through the garden, too. He's so beary handsome, and the sweetest, strongest husband a gal could ever want! ::::::::::::sigh:::::::::::::::

Here we are next to Chief Gnome. The big old grill is on the other side of that weathered terra-cotta colored planter to the left. Below us is our rose bush. We didn't trim it last winter, because it never lost its leaves. We didn't know it could grow so wide! Behind it is our Blue and Gold Tradescantia. (No! We can't say the words out loud, but we know how they're spelled. Why do they have to have such big names?) It's really a chartreuse grass with violet flowers, but the flowers only come out in the morning. Can you see the foxglove in the bottom left corner? Behind us, in our blue wagon, is some dill growing, and behind Chief Gnome is our new container for our Prickly Pear Cactus, and that fluffy blue near the gate is our Russian sage flowering.

Here's a better picture of the new location for our Prickly Pear. Wellllll, now it's more than one cactus, but they all came from one pad three springs ago. One of the little pads is growing even a smaller pad now! They're so cute, but you don't want to get the no-see-'em thorns under your fur – can't pull out what you can't see! Of course, Momma Turtle and her two babies have hard shells and skin, so they moved in to enjoy their new location.

(Lady is telling this part.) This is that long terra-cotta container behind Chief Gnome. We grew Bright-Light Chard in it, but only two seeds sprouted. It's called Bright-Light, because the stems are an assortment of bright colors. Then we found another plant was growing with them. We didn't plant it here, but it's malabar spinach that must have seeded in here from last year's plants. Now, I'm telling this part, because poor Valentine feels funny about admitting this – being a bunny rabbit and all – but we found out we don't like the taste of chard or malabar spinach! It's OK though, since we think these are beary pretty plants, even if we don't eat them!

(Valentine pretends she didn't even know Lady admitted that problem, and continues with what she wants to tell.) Teddy and I like lying together in our hammock and dreaming about what to do if we ever won the big lottery.

Truthfully, I can think of nothing better to have then what I already have – Teddy, our family, and a grand garden to enjoy together. Of course, it would be nice if Daddy didn't interrupt us by taking our picture. As you can tell, he took me by surprise!

Teddy likes protecting his family. He's showing me how he watches for squirrels. He's ready to shoot, if they ever dare to return to our garden. I'm sure I worried him when I got so upset after the squirrels ate our fig tree and brussel sprout plant. I'm glad he is trying to protect the garden, but I make sure he doesn't stay out too long. It's been beary hot this year, and I think the garden is safe while it's raining this much!

We're sitting in front of Campy while she is in full bloom! Teddy and Spaulding really like this coffee cup, so they really like Campy! Too bad you can't read the sign in the cup. It's a black bear holding a sign that says, "Watch for bears!" It's doubly funny, a'cuz a couple of months ago, Philadelphian suburbs kept having bear sightings. Now the sightings were the big, growly kind of bears, but news stations wanted viewers to send in pictures of bears. We have bears in the garden all the time! Some protect the garden, and sometimes they just enjoy it with their family. Tehehehehehehe

Now, our kids were playing with some friends at the Teddy Bear Pool, so we could all enjoy the garden without worrying about how high our kids were climbing. (We're sure out friends watching them were worrying about that though. Tehehehehe) Even Axlerod came out to enjoy the garden with his two little buddies. (See them behind us?)

(Valentine and Lady are speaking together again.) There's so much to do and see, we were all out together, but having different adventures, too.

Axlerod and his buddies, Pez, who is his BFF, and Star Bear, who is our Christmas ornament, but got lost when the ornaments were put away. Star Bear doesn't get outside in summer, so he's really enjoying seeing the other side of the year.

Now, they wanted to make sure Mommy got a good picture of the Bee Balm, so they asked for their picture there. We're excited about how many flowers have bloomed on it! They also like the smell of the lavender in front of them!

Ax didn't know Daddy took their picture, too, but Pez and Star Bear smiled for him. They think the butterfly bush flowers are huge! They like the smell of our new hummingbird bush behind them, too. (It's under the Bee Balm…or the Bee Balm is shooting out of it, we're not sure which!)

Here's a closer look at our hummingbird bush – to the right of the Hens and Chicks. We bought it last August, it survived it's first winter outside, grew four times as big as it was last year (it was about a foot tall then), and is now blooming! The smell is yummy – really! It smells like liquorices and clover!

Now, our Hens and Chicks, or more exactly, our Hens, are doing something exciting and sad. Hens only live for four years, but produce chicks every year. At the end of their lives, they go out in a big way! This is the fourth year for our first Hens. We can tell which two were our first Hens, because they're beginning to blossom! Did you know Hens blossom?! Hard to tell in these pictures, but the two in the back – the Hens – are getting taller, and their leaves are budding. We don't know exactly how they will change before they die, but we will keep taking pictures, so you can watch with us. (Also, look at our cabbage in the bottom right-paw corner of the picture! We've known it wasn't a pepper plant, like we first thought, but we sowed several types of cabbage family seeds. Now that it has a head, we know it's an honest-to-goodness cabbage – the first we've ever grown!)

Last year, we grew a sweet potato plant that we started from a grocery-store sweet potato. The vine got so big that we had to cut it back constantly, for fear of never seeing the grill again. You just can't expect flowers on it, if it keeps getting cut back! We started this one in April. We found a good home for it, so it can grow however long it wants. It seems to enjoy its new home. Can't wait to see the big purple flowers!

Hope you like our garden as much as we do. We'll add updates throughout the summer. We know we've forgot to tell you some things, but, hopefully we’ll get to it all.

Please remember that fixing up these pictures is the reason our entries take so long to make. Valentine and Lady speaking – over and out!