a view before the full bloom is as beautiful as the full bloom

I am not sure if a love of gardening is something that is inherently inside of you.  Or maybe the interest starts with a teeny tiny seed of curiosity and then with tending, time, and trial & error that curiosity grows into a full fledge love of gardening.

a different perspective

My first memory of noticing flowers was when I was in college.  Is that late? Even at that I was just thinking “hmm, those are pretty”…  It was not until years later that  I had the chance to grow my own flowers.  I was pretty busy with young kids, so it was a very small garden.  My next door neighbour, a Master Gardener herself, assured me that one day I’d have plenty of time to have a garden, and that a small garden was a great start.  A very kind and wise woman!

A look at my first garden in the spring

My first garden later in the summer

It was a good start! It was also a great learning experience. What I love about our garden now is that we mix it up every year and try something new.  This year, our new addition is the sunflower.  Oh wow!  I am in love!

the bees are also enjoying the sunflowers

These guys are only about two to three feet high but boy are they lovely!  My father-in-law started them from seed in his glass house for me. He could grow *anything* from seed!  That is a whole other story as he is simply a gifted gardener!

teepee structure

I know these guys are rather short for sunflowers, but our area is incredibly windy.  One afternoon I was watching the bigger plants sway back and forth and I just couldn’t sit there and do nothing.  My daughter and I  tied up some sticks in a teepee formation around the bigger plants.  They just seemed that bit more secure to me!

more and more blooms

They are all coming into bloom now and it is a lovely sight to see.

Sunflowers with an apple laden apple tree behind them

Some of the flowers have multiple blooms

Sunflower view in the evening (a week or so ago)

A look at the garden now

Our garden is definitely a work in progress! We have strawberries on the far left, peas front right, with blueberries behind them. On the left in front of the strawberries we have garlic and squash.  Way in the back on the right are the asparagus fronds.  I think the sunflowers frame the garden nicely!

Sunflowers in mid July

The most important aspect of gardening though, is having fun with it.  I now have my growing love of photography also spurring on my working in the garden.  That makes all of the required weeding worth while!

I hope I have encouraged you to try growing something new in the garden! What do you think, will you give it a try? 🙂

With flowers,
Dana