Zinnias

Last year I sprinkled some zinnia seeds around in my flower planters when it was really hot and my spring flowers were flagging. Nothing happened, and to be honest, I forgot about it.

This year the zinnias bloomed – volunteers all around the yard, in front of the planters, beside the planters, behind the planters…. It’s been a glorious summer awash in sweet, happy blooms. But – enough is enough and it had gotten to the point we couldn’t get down the sidewalk or around the yard without stepping on them or having the stems grab our legs as we tried to walk by.

Today I’m working on cleaning out, weeding, and pruning the three 8 foot planters that are between our driveway area and our front yard. I’ve already pulled 4 large gardening baskets full and I’m just getting started. (I told you that things had gotten out of hand with all the rain and sun we’ve had this summer. I wasn’t kidding.)

I pulled the zinnias that were outside the planters, bringing in some to enjoy for a few days.

I hate to get rid of anything blooming, so I brought in all that would fit in this vase and dumped the rest over the edge of the civilized part of our front yard. (We have over 8 acres of mostly woods. I’m hoping that the seeds from these will plant themselves and bloom next year along the front of the yard.)

It has been a real delight to have so many decide to bloom on their own this year.

I’ll probably try to do a couple more sessions this afternoon. It’ll probably take me a couple of days to get these three planters cleaned up. I lost most of the cloud cover, though, so it feels hot outside.