Exploring our deck

We have come to my favorite time of year, when all of my favorite plants are blooming, the days are looong and my birthday is just around the corner. These are the days when I like to have coffee in the cool of the morning on our deck, while enjoying the bird song and small changes that have happened in the night. We found this just this morning...

And our sweet smelling lillies opened up the other day!

Our deck is really my favorite thing that we added in the renovation of our house. Here is what the back of our house looked like when we bought it...

Through a friend we found a very eccentric man who specializes in building decks in Brooklyn in the summer, and wintering in Costa Rica. He talked with us about our vision for the deck and then built this...

Our dream deck, right off of our kitchen, where we took out a window and added a large glass door so that we can walk right out. Most of the plants that I have out there are like old friends now after 5 years of growth, this year the daylillies that I have outside of the door grew taller than I am, and our cat Pepper spends most his time lounging luxuriantly somewhere on the deck.

There are places for both adults and kids to hang out, and always a toy or two laying about.

Seeds that we planted indoors in tiny pots back in March are now plants thick with flowers.

I am very much an adventurous and experimental gardener, so along with my perennials that live on the deck all year round, we have flowers and tropical plants that I like to grow and bring inside for the winter. We also grow grape tomatoes, strawberries, basil and rosemary.

More than anything the deck is my gardening playground, a place for us to get a little messy and unwind. We have been lucky that this year so far the Mosquitoes who can sometimes swarm the backyard in summer have not been bad yet. So we've had more carefree time out there.

Taking in the sun.