Cutting Garden and Garden Notes

A while back when I wanted to try and bring flowers in to the house more, I decided a needed to actually name a part of my garden a "Cutting Garden" so I would remind myself that I planted them to cut!  I have no idea why it was initially hard to cut flowers and bring them in, but it was.  This space is also our vegetable garden which of course is a cutting garden so to speak too!  Not hard to do that at all.  Except maybe the zucchinis, ha!  Not because I want to keep them in the garden, but I am unsure I want more in the house.....They also have a powdery mildew on them so pretty sure I'm pulling them soon.

I hope I can find the package from these sunflowers because I hope to plant them again.  Great looking and the shorter version is really quite nice.  They don't have to be at the back of the garden!

Cosmos, I believe it was a mixed variety package of seeds.

Would you believe I was sort of, kind of on top of the weeds in this space for awhile this summer??  Now I'm thinking a little mower would be handy to mow in between the rows. Oh well.

Those are tomatoes and tomatillas on the right and a few different peppers in the middle of the photo.  All doing well this year.  Certainly can't say that every year.

These Balsam seeds were a trial.  Neat plant and I've enjoyed watching them grow, but most likely won't plant them again unless someday I have a space to put them in the distance.  The blooms are on the stalk of the plant and really hard to see the color.  They don't work as a cut flower either.  I also have them planted way to0 close together!  (I do that most of the time.)

  

I've posted about these Orange Cosmos before.  Love them!

Bottom left you can see that the cockscomb was just getting going when I took these pictures.

Right there in the middle are the few stalks of broom corn that came.  Not sure what happened.  I'm pretty sure I weeded out the corn with the grass that volunteered!  I had a thick row of something growing and it was really hard to tell what was corn and what was grass.  I think there are only 6 stalks of broom corn now and some of that laid down in the rain we had last night.  Oh well. I have a lot dried in the house from last year.  I wonder if I need to buy the seed each year.  I planted seed I had saved from last year.  

This little sweet flower is my 'flower of the year'!  I think it is just the neatest thing.  Small, yes, but graceful and fun with a firm stem.  The name, Irish Poet, I'm pretty sure had set the stage for me to think it was going to be wonderful, ha!  Anyway, for sure planting it next year!  To be determined yet if I'll be able to collect my own seed or not.

Cleome.  Seeds saved now for quite a few years.

The zinnia are blooming well, but not much to show here, because most have been cut. :)

I can't tell you the name of this sunflower either, but it's a good one.  It seems to drop less pollen than the yellow ones too.

(Again, ignore those pesky weeds!)

Cockscomb are a big favorite of mine and I'm happy to see them finally coming along.  They are always a bit later it seems.

This is Malabar Spinach, another plant that was new to me.  I'd highly recommend!  The small leaves are delicious if you like spinach, but I've not harvested a lot of them because I wanted to watch the vine grow. I had been told that it was a beautiful vine and it is.  It looks a lot like the Hyacinth Bean Vine of which I have eight patches growing. 

I began training it up a tomato cage to watch it grow.  The info I had said it was very heat tolerant and it is!  The leaves are still delicious and it keeps growing.

Now, I'm watching these little buds on it to see what the blooms will be like.  I wonder if I can save seeds from it?  I'll have to do some reading about it yet.

Red Zinnias

These Zinnias were from a packet of seeds that had a mixed variety.  There is only one yellow one, sadly, as I think it's color is vibrant and wonderful.

Between my Tank Garden, the Cottage Garden on the side of the house and this space, the winged friends are abundant!  Sadly the caterpillars of these Painted Ladies are doing a lot of damage to the soy bean crop out there.

I don't what kind of butterfly this one is.  Very similar to the Painted Lady, but different.

This is Tukane Ruby Buckwheat.  Again started from seed and an experiment looking for new cut flowers.  This plant is beautiful and I may plant somewhere again, but it did not work at all as a cut flower.  The little flowers did however dry well.  

I ordered some of my seeds form Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  They are missing some vital information on the website and in their catalog though.  One of the seeds I ordered didn't germinate at all.  When I went looking for more information online, I discovered that the seeds needed cold to germinate.  I"ll still use this company, but I will make sure I look for more information first.  The other seeds all germinated quite well.

Also in the garden that I didn't get photo of: Dill, Bells of Ireland, White Teddy Bear Zinnias, a number of varieties of Cockscomb, Pumpkin on a stick, and two Thai Red Hibiscus that the bugs almost devoured.  I'm still hoping for blooms on them though!

Next up: salsa and tomato soup as I believe the tomato harvest will be plentiful!