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How to Grow Zinnias from Seed
Zinnias are one of my absolute favorite flowers in the cut flower garden. When it comes to how to grow zinnias from seed, it’s pretty easy. Here in my yard, the zinnia flowers love my hot and humid weather. It’s not uncommon for them to reach heights of 6ft, and to stretch taller than my privacy fence. If you’re attempting to grow zinnias for the first time, you have a couple choices regarding when and how to start the seeds. The easiest way to start zinnias from seed is to direct sow them into the garden bed. First, you’ll need to wait until all chance of frost has passed. Amend…
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Flower Seedlings in the Hoophouse – Ready for Winter – Cut Flower Farm
Luckily, I was finally able to finish planting the hardy annual cut flower seedlings into the hoophouse. Though most of these flowers are annuals, I did include some biennial flowers under cover, as well. Here’s hoping for a beautiful spring and summer.
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The Forgotten Chrysanthemums – Cut Flower Farm
Every year, I plant florist mums. I’m terrible at growing them, but I can’t resist. They’re so beautiful, and they always bloom when nothing else does. However, each year, I always neglect them. They grow quite slowly early in the season and soon they become lost in the weeds. The same thing happened this year, but still, they’re blooming – and they’re gorgeous. I’ll be cutting these for a flower arrangement to enjoy on these cold fall days!
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Fall Flower Seedling Update – Cut Flower Farm
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Tales of an Unkempt Flower Bed – Roselle and Red Shiso Plants
If you’ve been following the blog for any amount of time, you might remember that I started A LOT of plants earlier this spring with the use of the winter sowing method. Since my yard is so small, I ended up giving a lot of these plants away. Specifically, one of my older neighbors wanted some bottles of seedlings. Today, as I was helping clear the flower bed to make way for hardy annuals, I thought I would take some photos to show how things progressed. One of the plants that my neighbor absolutely loved last year was this striped variety of morning glory. Luckily (or unluckily), this plant decided…
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Out with the Old, and In with the New –
Last week’s hail storm was a mess. I was at work when it happened, and totally bummed to see the damage to the garden. Annoyed, I left the garden alone for an entire week after it was hit with tennis ball sized hail. I was interested to see what plants would and would not make a recovery. Surprisingly, while some plants were totally destroyed, other kept on growing as if nothing had even happened. The ‘Christmas Pole’ lima beans were one such plant that didn’t even care about the storm damage. If anything, the lima beans look stronger than ever! We’re still playing the waiting game, however. I know…
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What’s in the Garden? Middle of July Garden Update
It’s the middle of July, and it’s still insanely hot. Are you surprised? I’m not, lol. Regardless, let’s take a quick look around to see what’s growing in the garden. Even though there are tons of weeds in the garden, the trellis is loaded with various vines. Most of the vines are pole beans and scarlet runner beans. However, you can clearly see that those ding dang morning glories from last year are on the vine, too. Last year’s morning glories are so invasive this year, I honestly don’t think that I’ll ever make the deliberate choice to grow morning glories again. The tithonia plants are looking really nice…
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Beginning of July Garden Harvest
It’s July, and that means one certain thing – it’s HOT. I know, somehow, I always find something to complain about. But when the heat index climbs to 112F, the last thing I want to do is go outside and work in the garden. That being said, I took a mini “vacation” and went to visit some family and friends. As you could imagine, leaving the garden for 10 days let the weeds go crazy – especially with the heat and humidity. Today, I finally got up the motivation to do a little bit of weeding. Most importantly, I was able to completely clear out the corn and bean patch.…
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End of June Garden Update 2018
I can’t believe that it’s already almost the end of June. That’s one thing about the warm weather – I spend all winter long waiting for it. It feels like it takes forever to arrive, but when it does – it flies by. That bothers me, a lot. Anyhow, let’s take a quick look around what’s going on in the garden. The pole beans have really started to climb! The beans on this trellis are a mixed lot. In addition to some scarlet runner beans, I planted seed that I saved from last year’s pole beans. The varieties I planted were ‘Rattlesnake’. ‘Kentucky Wonder’, ‘Purple Podded’, and some type of…
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Zinnias, Lettuce, Cosmos, and More…
It’s Wednesday! You know what that means – another flower arrangement! I’ll be honest, it’s a total coincidence that I’m posting this on a Wednesday. Like I said, I’m really not good at keeping schedules. Hope you enjoy!
