Flower Garden

Of course we can never make something quite like an English garden out here in the hot, dry, windy area where we live, but we can do something.

My husband left a bit of ground when he worked up the rest of the garden. We went to work, me and the kids, transplanting all the little volunteer plants around the garden. Radishes are my favorite this year. Their airy, floaty little flowers that turn to yummy edible seed pods. Dill, cilantro, mustard, the greens that bloom beautifully and also taste good. Cosmos were coming up like crazy in last years garden plot, so was ornamental corn. Those got added in. Marigolds and zinnias were added from seed. We bought a few flowers, some moss rose and petunias.

It was pretty tiny and sparse at first. When the flowers went on sale at the stores in town I bought a bunch to fill in the holes. Then we hit that week in July when everything grows a foot or more a day, or so it seems.

The flowers I added in got dwarfed. The big wide paths we left grew in until we need to squeeze to get through.

I love to stand and stare at the pretty flowers, as I swat mosquitoes. Irrigating the slightly sloped patch is a hobby all on its own. We dig ditches and spread the water across the plot instead of running straight down. Children wander through picking a bit of whatever is growing to snack on as they go. Bees buzz about, spiders catch their prey.

I think we’ll need to do this again next year.