Basket of Zinnia

I gathered as many vases that I could get my hands on and filled them halfway with water, placed them in a large basket and headed out to the zinnia's and cut flowers for hours this evening. Had to fight the bumble bees, spiders, and grasshoppers off, by the time I was done they had decided I was fixing them dinner or something. I left them plenty to eat in the flower bed but my husband had to practically hand pick them off the flowers before bringing them in for me. The spider's are my least favorite and let's hope they didn't come inside. Aren't the colors fabulous? 

The grassy weeds took this bed over about mid summer. We are going to dig the cannas and and till some black magic into the soil this fall. I'm going to replant the cannas and put the elephant ears in the ground also. If they don't come back that is okay. Bought some great mulch to put down to control the weeds next year. I really love how my husband lets me go wild in this narrow bed and even helps me when the gardening gets OUT OF CONTROL! It is 40 foot long, so too much work when not mulched properly. Adding packs and packs of seeds each spring, along with the re seeding going on, it is chaos of the best kind! I hurt my arm one year trying to pull them, so that is why we are going with this other plan. I will, for sure, plant lettuce in the big pots next spring. That was a great success and I have never had such delicious lettuce in my life. So tender and fresh! I planted garlic and green onion on one end but not sure if I'm going to keep that up. It was really fun to go out with a colander and scissors to cut the salad each evening.

I love the shabby chic look of these pink pompom zinnia once they start to fade. We have lived here for eleven years now. The longest I have EVER lived anywhere. I have the itch to move but am enjoying our mature trees, lilacs, magnolias and really every flower in the yard. We have a nice shade garden until the grasshopper swarm from the field next door. Thankfully they don't enjoy the fern so they are the backbone  this time of year.