There should be quite a zinnia abundance in our garden year. I know that I am not the only one who loves these bright flowers… check out Mr. Butterfly. It looks as though he has had some rough times with his left wing, but that does not stop him from enjoying this flower.
Clearing the Jungle
This year, I was lucky to find a whole shoebox full of zinnia seed packets in the garage of an estate sale for $2. Of course, I bought them even though they were from 2002, so why not? They will either grow or they will not grow, either way, it was worth the investment. I planted all of those seeds in a wide row about 18 feet long in this garden patch. They are all overgrown with weeds, so it is time to spend some serious time weeding. I have dug out the borderline of the iris and placed the guardian gnome at the garden entrance.
A kind of search and rescue mission ensues to discover where the zinnias, marigolds, and other flower seeds are located among the ground cover weeds. Can you see the different shaped leaves in a row? It is hard to see, isn’t it? I start with the for-sure weeds and work my way around until I can discover where the row is.
The marigolds here are much easier to identify in this confusing crowd of weeds.
Here it is all weeded and transplanted. They sure wilt and look horrible for a little while, but I always follow my grandma’s advice. Immediately, give any transplant a real good drink and they will be fine. She is totally right!
Tired and overheated, I feel as though I should give up. But, thankfully, I notice another area of Zinnia’s already blossoming just a few feet away. They were planted with seed last year and re-seeded themselves so they are a welcomed returning garden resident. I am encouraged. The anticipation of being able to paint these colorful petals with their light highlights, and shadows that exaggerate the shapes is all this artist needs.
We have bachelor button flowers in patches all over the garden in various colors. “Bee”lieve that flowers belong everywhere in the garden adds to our success. Whenever you walk through the garden you hear bees buzzing everywhere and birds busily flying around.
Our garden is showing a lot of iris extravagance right now. These guys burst into bloom right after the crocus and daffodil show every year. Not only are iris great colorful bloomers, but they are also sturdy bulb plants that make an excellent border for my herb garden here. They hold the soil very well, in an area that is susceptible to excessive drainage and erosion problems otherwise.
Purple delight with some crazy white stripes and yellow pollen thingy in the middle. Just gorgeous! Unfortunately, these blossoms don’t last a really long time. Their colorful display is flamboyant and so worth including in any landscape.
I got many fancy colors from my artist friend Sue who shared bulbs with me as she was thinning hers years ago. Here is a more wine-colored purple blossom here, that has a sweet scent.
Besides the pale yellow generic blossoms that grow all over, here is an intense YELLOW beauty. She is what I would call safety yellow.
Now here are the Dark Dark Purple guys, I sometimes refer to them as the “black purple” in the garden. They have a heavenly lingering perfume that I wish I could put in a bottle. Light dances on their dramatic surface showing off all the different shaped petals.
I couldn’t close this post without mentioning that the iris is one of the flowers that survive the onslaught of deer around here. These were planted last year right at our deck and Bambi has not eaten them to death. Yay, the iris thrive even outside of the garden fence!
8 ft More of the Rock Wall was needed to set up the boundaries of the tea and flower garden. If you look to the left of the newer rock wall section you can see the fill heaped up behind it. This was a driving area about ten feet wide, where we walked or drove the tractor down to the lower level of the garden. Now it has mint teas and flowers planted there.
We have to build water dams to slow the rainwater drainage because our entire property is on the side of a hill. Unfortunately, the garden is one of the low areas where runoff likes to accumulate so a little thought has to go into each change that we make. Stuff goes downhill.
You can clearly see that the tractor is a real lifesaver, but Peter still does an awful lot of the heavy lifting.
First Purple Blossoms Appear
I look up the name 
