Oh friends, the garden has been keeping me busy and I’ve had no time to sit down and write or reply to comments or visit blogs to say hello. Today, I have photos to offer so you can at least have an idea of how everything is going.
Spring is always a busy rush to get seeds and plants in the ground. This time of year is a busy rush to keep up with the still growing garden, harvest the produce and then preserve it. James and I were both going from sunrise today and it’s 6:00 in the evening and I’m just sitting down. Hopefully I will be able to get caught up with everyone soon, but if not, you know what I’m doing!
Beautiful garden, Stefanie. And looks like you’re going to have a wonderful harvest, no shortage of Vitamin C too. 😉
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Thanks Arti! So much vitamin C! 😀
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Gorgeous! I don’t think I’ve seen Peppermint Zinnias before, only the plain coloured ones, but they’re all lovely. Tomatoes are my favourites. And we have planted some morning glories but will have to hope that they seed well for future years, because they haven’t flourished this year (and already the nights are getting cooler). Beautiful sunflower! We’re thinking of planting some of those next year for the birds and other visitors and are wondering just how much support the stems would require. Do you have milkweed there? For some, it’s become “invasive” (a tricky terms) but we see very little of it here and our few stems are very popular. Good luck with the chores and take care!
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Thanks Marcie! The peppermint stick zinnias are so much fun! The tomatoes have been phenomenal this year. If your morning glories like their location they will reseed year after year. It’s rare we get sunflowers the squirrels don’t immediately destroy. I snuck in a few among the walking onions and the squirrels haven’t bothered them at all. Sunflowers have sturdy stalks and generally don’t need support. The tithonia/Mexican sunflower we did have to add support to after a severe thunderstorm blew it over and nearly uprooted it. Until then though, it was doing great without any support. I have milkweed all over the garden. It has become rather “invasive” and I am constantly pulling out new sprouts and cutting down ones that grow in the middle of the garden paths.
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Wow, what a bounty of produces and flowers! Come back to us when you’re ready, we’ll be there!
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Thanks Smithereens!
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I’ve been behind on everyone else’s blogs just from driving around and seeing friends and family before school started! And then every time I have 2 seconds to myself, I remember that I’m signed up for health interpreting classes that have due dates every two weeks!! Ack! I love your Mexican sunflower. I actually just grew my first one this summer. The library was handing out seeds, and I thought, “Well, why not!”
Happy to see that you are surviving the jungle that you created for yourself, LOL.
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You’ve been busy too! This is the first year I’ve grown Mexican sunflower. They are so pretty and the bees love them. I will definitely save seeds to grow again next year. That’s so awesome you got your seeds from the library!
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I’m hoping mine just re-seeds itself. Sometimes the birds eat all the seeds in the regular sunflower, but I’m not seeing them around the Mexican sunflower.
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I will cross my fingers your Mexican sunflower reseeds itself! With all the critters in my garden I can’t trust that mine will so I aim to save some seeds 🙂
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I’m thinking I’m just going to tear up part of the yard and plant some anyway. Woohoo!
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I completely support this! 😀
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For some reason this post didn’t show up in my WordPress reader, so I just Googled your blog because I didn’t see any posts from you in a couple of weeks. Good luck with all your harvesting and preserving! Your flowers are beautiful. I’m going to get some of those peppermint zinnias for next year. I also have a Mexican sunflower plant that hasn’t bloomed yet (just planted it this summer) but I look forward to the blooms eventually!
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Thanks Laila! I got the zinnia seeds from Pinetree Seeds https://www.superseeds.com/collections/zinnia/products/candy-cane-zinnia The flower colors are pretty much limited to white, orange, and yellow, but they are so different I don’t mind the limited palette!
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As everyone else has said, the flowers are gorgeous! I especially love morning glories. It’s only in the past couple of years I’ve had any luck with them, and it’s because I finally started some in a pot and they climbed the nearby fence and started seeding themselves and now I actually have the kind of morning glory display that I’ve always wanted.
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I really love morning glories too Jeanne! Ours began as heavenly blue and after a few years of reseeding devolved to purple and pink. I’m glad after years of trying you finally have the morning glory display you’ve always wanted! Yay for persistence!
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Such a gorgeous garden – how ever do you get everything to grow so well? We have an allotment but the past couple of years it’s been terribly sparse and thin due to heatwaves and lack of rainfall over the summer. It looks wonderful!
I have some catching up to do. I thought I’d subscribed but I haven’t been receiving emails when you post, so I need to look at that again!
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Thanks Litlove! this year it helped that we had so much rain and now devastating heatwaves. But also, the chickens have helped improve the soil over the years. And I’ve had years of trial and error figuring out what varieties work and what don’t. Actually, that’s a forever ongoing process!
Your poor allotment! I am in complete sympathy with your water and heat struggles!
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