Zinnias bloom

We moved here in late summer 2009. There was a lot of work to be done to get the property set up so that we could farm here, and do so efficiently and with a production level that would support us.

Flowers were not one of the things we could spend time planting or growing. And each subsequent year we continued building infrastructure and ran out of time for getting flowers into the ground.

This year we purchased 3 packets of zinnia seeds, for a total of about $7. And found a spot to get the seeds into the ground: way past the squash plants now starting to produce. We focus on vegetables and livestock, so flowers are certainly lowest priority even now. We managed to get the seeds in and even weed a couple of times.

So now there is this.

An entire bed of buds and blooms!

We cut a few and brought them inside.

And put a few in a vase that utilizes a frog...a spiky thing that holds upright flowers in place.

And a mason jar filled, so that we have cut flowers from the farm in two rooms!

For years: decades really, I've grown flowers enough to have extra to bring into the house. We lived in houses with azaleas and rhododendrons. Many bulbs: tulips, daffodils, crocuses. And a series of perennials that bloomed spring, summer and fall. There are plants that flower here but not ones I want to cut and bring in the house.

We are still working every day on the farm. But the infrastructure we have worked to establish is working, and now, our 5th season growing here, we don't have as much of that work to do. The chance to get a pack of seeds in the ground and have flowers in the house...from now until fall...makes me ridiculously happy.