Tell Me About …Gardens
Our blogging group has picked a topic I’m quite keen on – as a matter of fact, it’s the reason I don’t post as often as I’d like – I’ve got my hands in the dirt! All the photos in the post were taken by me, at my house….
I follow many folks in the UK on Instagram and blogs, and often wonder why here in US, a “garden” most often refers to a vegetable garden. When we refer to our “yard”, we usually mean a patch of lawn bordered by flower beds. The question “do you have a garden this year?” means “are you tilling up a patch for vegetables?”
I grew up being “forced” to work in our large vegetable garden on the farm, where we grew corn, beans, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes. Out behind our house was the sexier “salad garden” where we grew lettuce, spinach, carrots and radishes. The sowing, weeding and picking in the hot, humid summers were followed by shucking corn, hulling strawberries, and stringing and snapping beans on the front porch for freezing and canning. Any complains were met by my Great-aunt Virgie’s standard retort of “they’ll taste better than snowballs this winter!” And she was not wrong! I realize now those were precious family moments in the July twilight, with no faces in phones or computer screens, and the freshest of food on the table at every meal – with the only additive being a little bacon grease in the beans….
But enough about vegetables (which I now get at the farmer’s market on Saturdays)- my passion is FLOWERS!!!!!!! I dreamed of having armfuls of flowers to arrange and give away, but never wanted to cut any from the borders – so I decided to make a cut-flower patch. Boy, did THAT ever get out of hand! My backyard gets the most sun, and doesn’t really get looked at much, so that’s where I started – and it’s been creeping out ever since!
This is what the cutting garden looks like before it really gets going. The trellis is for sweet peas, which I am trying for the THIRD year – I’ll get you, my pretties!
I started following commercial, field-grown cut flower growers on Instagram, like Lisa Mason Ziegler and Erin Benzakein of Floret Flowers, and podcasts like Let’s Grow Girls – and learning a ton. For example – there are what is known as cool-season annuals, that can be started from seed in the late summer here in Zone 6a, planted in fall, and covered in winter. Tough enough to handle a frost, they can be uncovered weeks before last frost date and have a real head-start on blooming, to fill in the gap between daffodils, iris and peonies, and warm-weather flowers. Not all of them make it through winter and our hard freezes, including a polar blast right before Christmas wiped a few out completely (I’m talking to you, statice and snapdragons), but most did (you stars, feverfew and pincushion flower). So now I’ve got more bachelor buttons than I can cut – woo hoo!
I have a seed-starting rig with 3 shelves with grow-lights on timers, and one with a heat mat for those seeds that like a little extra heat to germinate. Some like darkness, some need light to sprout. Seeds from Johnny’s give the most information on the packet of any I’ve used so far. Once 50% of the tray (all recycled packaging from meat, berries or take-out containers) has germinated, it goes under lights.
When the seedlings are several inches tall, they get put outdoors in a sheltered location to “harden off”, ideally for a week before getting planted out in the garden. They’re brought in every night (so as not to tempt the all-destroying raccoons), so they gradually “toughen up” before the stress of full-time outdoor living. I set up soaker hoses around new seedlings. Overhead sprinklers would be easier, but damage the blooms of what’s already in flower.
Once everything starts blooming, I could probably harvest every day. But, there’s still that pesky full-time job…so I cut in the evenings a couple of nights after work, and on Saturday mornings. Cutting is best done in early morning or just before dark. Then there are buckets of flowers to condition (sitting in their buckets of water in a cool, dark place – aka my laundry room) for a couple of hours or overnight before they are arranged.
Then is BLISS! If I were 20 years younger, I’d train to be a florist. But I’m not, so this is my creative outlet – the buckets of flowers are like a new set of paints and I can happily put together bouquets and arrangements for hours (although I never seem to have exactly the right sized vase…)
I also love the rest of my garden. I have a stone terrace that I fill with container plants and host dinner parties.
I also have a fish pond full of fish and frogs, which is pure joy (except for cleaning out the filter. And green string algae.)
If you don’t have your own garden, I hope you take joy in visiting public ones or those of loved ones. I’ll close with this little poem, attributed to Dorothy Francis Gurney:
The kiss of the sun for pardon, the song of the birds for mirth, one is nearer to God in a garden, than anywhere else on earth.
Our Merry Band
- Marsha from Marsha in the Middle is sharing a picture of a winter garden which she says exists only in memory and in a few photos.
- Australian blogger Sue Loncaric from Women Living Well after 50 shares information on the health benefits of spending time in the garden and how she enjoys exploring the public gardens.
- Suzy Turner, from The Grey Brunette, lives in Portugal. While she isn’t really into gardening, she does miss the garden in her former home. She and her husband are in the midst of building their dream home and planning their future garden.
- Australian blogger Debbie from Deb’s World,claims she likes gardens but isn’t much of a gardener. We’ll see how that turns out 🙂
- Michelle from Following My Muse compares gardening with quilting. “I was amazed when I realized that I plan my gardens the same way I plan my quilts.”
- Penny from Frugal Fashion Shopper loves all aspects of gardens and gardening which she has returned to in her new home.
- Gail from Is This Mutton shares her spring and summer planting and tips
- Leslie at Once Upon A Time Happily Ever After is sharing a look at her oasis in the far west Texas Chihuahuan Desert.
13 Comments
Gail
Oh wow! I would love a cutting garden, but my garden is north facing so not really suitable. I love your pics and process. So impressed you grow from seed!
A further observation on “garden” – people here often say “kitchen garden” when they’re referring to veg growing. But garden is pretty interchangeable as either flowers or veg, or both.
mkmiller
Thanks so much, Gail! Most of my borders are in the shade, so I feel your pain. If I didn’t grow from seed, we’d be bankrupt! And once I got my rig set up, it’s really pretty easy.
Debbie Harris
Hi MK, your garden looks great and my only question is what do you do with all the cut flowers, do you give them away, sell them, keep them for yourslef?? It certainly sounds like a lot of work and fun for you and you’re certainly dedicated in following your passion 🙂
In Australia we use ‘garden’ for flowers/trees etc and ‘vegie garden’ for vegetable gardens. We call our places front yard and back yard, I love learning how everyone does it differently! Great post for Tell Us About this month.
mkmiller
Thanks for the kind words, Deb! As far as what I DO with them all, first I have my own house filled to bursting with flowers on kitchen table, dining room, coffee table, porch and deck. Then I take great pleasure in taking them to my 91-yr-old MIL, always flowers on my desk at work, in the office breakroom, my sister’s house, brother’s house, my assistant’s desk, church and…you get the idea!
Penny
Hi Mary and – wow! You are a serious gardener and so good that you grow from seed and are so knowledgeable about plants. Love the cut flower garden and I was facinated by the origins of using the words yard and garden. As above (Gail) when growing vegetables we talk about a ‘ktichen’ garden, but we don’t use the word yard to describe our gardens as a yard would perhaps be a bare piece of concreted land possibly at the back of a house but more usually in relation to commercial premises. All fascinating and it’s so great to be learning more about different cultures and different useages of words.
And your planting and the flowers – they are truly wonderful 🙂
mkmiller
Thanks so much, Penny! Growing from seed is the only way when you have an addiction as bad as mine – and most of the flowers I want are only available as seeds anyway. Glad you enjoyed it!
Michelle
Oh MK! I want my flower garden (yeah, I’m all about the flowers too) to grow up to be like yours. Absolutely gorgeous! And you’ve got such a good set up for seedlings. My mom was a Master Gardner, and her seedling set up was much like yours. Your bouquets easily rival any professional florist. Absolutely gorgeous!
mkmiller
Thanks so much, Michelle! I’m going home early from work today to get some of those seedlings in the garden – bliss!
Connie Wright Stanley
Mary Katherine
I love this blog post, the writing, the photos all of it are wonderful. I can tell you truly love what you are doing. Perhaps it will develop to more than just a passion when you start your second chapter once the years of working full time might change. I have so so many Vases and wish I could send to you. Likely the shipping would be way more than the value. I have started buying cut flowers for friends and arranging them with I enjoy and delivering in one of the lovely vases. So over time sharing them will take care of the over abundance of vases.
Best to you always. You are a gifted story teller. Hoping more of that is also in your future.
Hugs to you and the cutest boy in the world.
mkmiller
Thanks, Connie! I snag a lot of great vases at Goodwill, so I have more to give away. I also recycle glass jars for gifting flowers, too. And they fit in the car’s cupholder! Spilled so much water in my car transporting flowers…
. Connie Wright Stanley
MK
Great idea on the glass jars. I am keeping the nice ones for storing all fresh berries. Keeps they fresh so much longer. Also I always have a bit too much tossed salad left each night and I put it in a cute glass jar to go with my boiled egg or as a snack stays fresh and so pretty.
CWS
Leslie Susan Clingan
Magnificent. Absolutely glorious. I have been out of town or would have been by earlier. So glad to tiptoe through the tulips with you…or perhaps not tulips, exactly, but all of the lovely things you do have growing. It seems those years of forced gardening and preparing veggies to eat really encouraged your love of the same in adulthood. My parents had us raking leaves and I still do not like raking leaves.
Love that you have a cut flower garden…and those bouquets on the rail are just stupendous. I should make it a point to buy myself cut flowers once a month because they are truly works of art. I can’t grow many flowers in our hot, arid climate but I can buy them!!
What a delightful space you have created for entertaining, too. We have similar solar lights strung about out pergola. I think they are just magical.
Thank you so much for this guided tour into your amazing garden.
mkmiller
So glad you enjoyed it, Leslie! (or do you go by Leslie Susan?) Buying myself flowers at the grocery on Sunday probably got me started on the whole flowers game. But do try to support local growers where you can (if there ARE any in the desert…) I’m taking off early this afternoon and going home to plant seedlings (bliss!).