We have blooms! A glorious magical bounty of blooms! I do believe I could walk the aisles between the rainbow of colorful flowers continuously from dawn to dusk. I love the colors, the butterflies, the bees, and the different shapes and sizes of the flowers. I love the anticipation of what is next to bloom. Yes, I do battle the insects for the blooms, so it is always a race to see who can get to the bloom first, but even with all the work. I stand back and look at the cut flower garden and am amazed that almost every single plant in that space was direct sown seed. Honestly, nature is so incredible. The sunflowers are so tall, some are over my head and the zinnias are chest high and it is hard to believe they started from a ½ inch seed that we planted. What a gift to be given the opportunity to create this fairy-tale space.

Yes, it has been a long hot summer. Yes, the work to keep this flower garden thriving has been, at times, challenging. Yes, I’m sick of gnats from the field. Yes, there have been a lot of lessons learned. Yes, it is everything I hoped and dreamed and wildly addicting!