Keep Me Away From the Seed Catalogs!

I just read in the March, Growing for Market, an article by Erin of Floret Flowers on Succession planting is the key to having flowers all season long.  I am extremely bad at succession planting.  So bad that  there are weeks without much going on as far as blooms to pick.  So I have taken this article to heart.  I made out a list of plant "must haves,"  that will give me blooms all summer long.  I have narrowed it down to what I absolutely cannot live without.  The down side is I have put in my seed orders and received all of my seed, several times over.  In reality I have most of the seeds to plant I just need to plant them in succession.  So today I placed another order.  I will have some exciting sunflowers I just can't wait!

I will have tons of blue flowers this year: Cerinthe, Bachelor Buttons, Flax, Forget Me Not, Scabiosa, Ageratum, Nigella, Sweet peas, Canterbury bells, Hydrangea.  I am probably forgetting a few. 

Seeds Are In

My seeds are here.  The long awaited journey across the United States to the Oregon Coast where they will be nurtured into thriving plants.

This years plant additions are drum roll please 


Several grasses and grains  will be included this year 

Amaranthus Green Thumb Atriplex Green Plume Atriplex Red Plume Avena Sterilis Barley Moongold Xerophyllum tenax Millet Purple Mist Panicum Frosted Explosion Gomphrena Strawberry Fields and Orange Agrostemma Ocean Pearls Solidago Baby Gold Poppy San Remo Poppy Meadow Pastels Cosmos Yellow Garden Helichrysum Monster Lemon and White Polygonum Orientale Kiss Me Zinnia Queen Red Lime

And a late addition because of my recent Dianthus craze are

 

Dianthus Rasberry Ripple Dianthus Orange Ripple Dianthus Lemon Fizz Dianthus Giant Marie Dianthus Orange Sherbert

When I was a kid

I just had a vivid recollection of when I was young.  My parents encouraged my to have my own flower garden.  It was over by the birch tree (see behind me).  I remember picking out seeds such as marigolds, calendula, cosmos, batchlor's buttons and straw flowers.  I also grew some vegetables such as radishes and carrots.  Back then it was simpler I didn't worry about the newest fad or trying to find seeds to Chocolate Sundae Nigella, by the way I have been obsesed with finding these seeds.  I can remember holding these odd shaped seeds in my hand and digging the trench I would then place them in.  I loved the shapes of calendula and marilgold seeds.  I remember wondering how could an odd shaped seed  make such a beautiful flower.  After the packet was empty I would put it upside down on the stake so I would remember what I planted there.  Back then there wasn't any 50 - 60 mph wind storms in the Spring to contend with so the packet usually stayed on.

Marigold seeds

Calendula seeds

  

I wish I had more pictures of my childhood garden.  At least I still have the memories and the ambition to continue digging in the dirt.