Zinnias 101

I had so much fun growing zinnias from seeds for the second year in a row.

Last year my friend Kristen from Texas sent me zinnia seeds from her garden and they grew so well for me.  I harvested seeds from those zinnias and then grew zinnias just from those seeds this year.  I was so proud to have harvested and grown them myself.

I learned a few tips along the way.

The butterflies, hummingbirds and yellow finches loved my zinnias this year.  I didn't quite have enough to cut and bring inside, but hopefully one day I'll be able to do that.

I planted 4 pots of zinnia seeds and threw in some marigolds, too.  It's been a HOT summer with not much rain so they are looking a little fried at this point in the Summer.  But I'm still proud of them.

Enjoy the colorful blooms!

Tip #1 Then let the bloom turn 100% brown.  That means the seeds are totally dried out and ready to harvest.  This bloom is about half brown and needs more time to dry.

Tip #2 Pluck out the seeds and put them in a jar for next year.  Leave the lid off for a while to make sure they are totally dry.  If you cap up the jar before they are dried out, then the seeds will mold.  I learned that lesson last year.  I sometimes will add in those little pearl pellet packages that often come with new shoes to help the seeds dry out even better.

Tip #3 Water them well especially when they are first sprouting.  Fight off the Japanese Beetles.  The kids love flicking them away from the flowers.

Next year I'm hoping to plant some rows of zinnias in our vegetable garden!

Planting from Seeds

I have really enjoyed learning how to plants flowers from seeds this year.  I harvested seeds last year, let them dry and experimented with planting them.  You can google the flowers you have and you'll probably find a video showing you how to harvest seeds!  It's been easy to learn and every flower is different.

I bought marigolds last year, learned how to harvest seeds and they have done so well!  I'm harvesting seeds to save for next year.  You basically just wait for the blooms to feel dry to the touch and pull them off the plant.

You can harvest lantana seeds, my allysum seeds proeduced teh cutest white flowers.  I did a mix of store bought plants and flower seeds in each pot to ensure they filled out nicely.  My orange marigolds in the center are thriving.

And you know I've loved growing wildflowers and zinnias so much!

We're harvesting zinnia seeds and trying hard to wait for them to dry out/lose lots of their color before pulled the petals to get the seeds.  The kid LOVE to help with this project.

I store all my flower seeds in glass jars that I leave open and let them get fully dry.  If you cap up the jars and don't let the seeds dry, they will mold.  I learned that lesson the hard way.  Keep your seed jars or containers open.

Let me know if you have any seed questions!

Butterfly Gardens

We have really enjoyed making a butterfly buffet on our patio this year.  Buttefly watching has brought us so much joy this Summer.  We keep an eye out for butterflies all day long and have noticed a few flowers that they love.  They are so easy to grow in full sun and they bloom all summer long.

1. Lantana.  We have the pink/yellow and the red/orange variety on our patio this year and they attract butterflies all day long.  It also comes in a white/pink variety and a few others.  I have planted them in the ground and in pots and they thrive in the hot summer weather as long as they are watered daily.  I tried harvesting seeds from my lantana last year and planting this year, but didn't get great results this way and ended up buying lots of new plants.

2. Zinnias.  I planted zinnia seeds for the first time this Summer in pots and they are doing so well.  I'd love to plant more next year if I can harvest and dry seeds from my flowers this year.

What attracts butterflies to your yard??

If you need us, we'll be watching butterflies for the rest of the Summer.

Praying for our country and DJT!

Fresh Blackberry Cobbler

We had an extra large wild blackberry crop this year and it was so yummy!

We probably picked 6-8lbs of blackberries and the kids tried hard to eat as many.

We noticed that the berries were much sweeter and bigger this year thanks to the composting we've been doing near the blackberry bushes and we got a lot of rain this Spring and Summer.

We picked, washed, sorted and let them air dry inside.  We used lots in smoothies, ate plenty straight from the bowl, froze some and made this cobbler.

Blackberry mixture:

Get two cups of fresh berries, cover them in sugar, juice of half a lemon and let them sit for a few hours.  Stir from time to time and it'll make the yummiest syrupy blackberry mix.

Use your favorite cobbler base.  I always use this one from my mom:

1 stick of butter melted in a greased 9x13 pan

Cobbler base:

1 1/4 c flour

1/4 t salt

3/4 c milk

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 cup sugar

Pour cobbler mixture over melted butter.  Then pour your berry mixture evenly over the top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Make a blackberry glaze while your cobbler is baking.  I used my blackberry bowl with remaining blackberry juice in it.  Added some confectioners sugar and a splash of milk.  It was such a pretty glaze.

Let it cool just a bit so your glaze won't melt away.

Once it's cool, let your kids drizzle on the icing.  Fletch always loves to help me in the kitchen.

This was best served warm with vanilla ice cream.  Next time I'll make the sugar and berry mixture in the moring allowing it to get extra juicy and then make the cobbler later on in the day.

This would be so good with any summer fruit!!

Garden Favorites

Happy Friday!  I'm going to do a garden check in today.  Our garden is doing so well this year.  We learned a lot about gardening last year, spent a year composting and our soil is so much better in year two of our garden.

Same size garden this year, but everything is growing so much better!  A friend helped us till up the ground and we planted in early June.

Zucchinis are thriving!  They did not do great last year, but they are so happy this year.

Fake snakes keep the bunnies away :)

Cantaloupe is growing.

Okra is growing nicely.  We had to plant seeds becuase we couldn't find plants so they are a little behind.

Jalapenos, sweet peppers, a couple of tomatoes and another fake snake.

A friend made us this compost bin and it's been great.  I compost year round all fruits, veggies, clippings and then we added compost into the soil.  Last year we composted directly into the garden soil.  That was easy, but not so great to look at.  This compost bin has helped the wild blackberries behind it and the garden.  We will keep composting because it's such an easy way to help our garden.

I planted a lot of flower seeds in these pots.  An herb pot and two pots of large tomatoes for BLTs.  Some of the seeds are thriving and some are not.  It's a good experiment.

These flowers are my favorite!  They're all doing so well.  All full sun.

Lantana.  Astillbe that I planted from seeds.  Petunias.  The kids and I just grabbed all the flowers that caught our eye.  We didn't worry about matching or color coordinating.  I love the mix of colors.

I read that lavender helps keep mosquitos away and I love the way it smells.

Zinnias from seeds!  And a mix of some wildflowers from seeds.

We learned a lot about gardening.  We work together to pull weeds, water the garden daily and love keeping tabs on what's growing.  My favorite bunny hack is adding cat hair to the perimeter of the garden.  It keeps the bunnies away so well and it's free!  We just brush our cats regularly, save their cat hair and put it at the edges of the garden.  It's amazing.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  See you back here on Monday.

Friday Five

Happy Friday, Friends!  It's been BUSY overe here so I am doing a quick Friday 5 post today.  

Five highlights from our week and a lot of blog catch up work coming soon!

1. Florida Fun.  We just got back from the best trip to Naples, FL.  It's one of our favorite places.  The weather was rainier than usual (record breaking rain the first two days!) BUT we got to swim every day, tried some new things, hit our favorite spots and enjoyed a week of extra family time.

2. My pots of flowers are bursting with blooms!  I learned the best tip recently.  If you are leaving on a trip and having someone water plants for you (thanks, Dad!), move your full sun plants out of the full sun for the week.  I pulled all my patio pots into a line right up against our house.  They still got sun, but weren't being roasted when I wasn't home to water them daily.

I am really proud because I planted these from seeds and I can't wait for them to bloom!  Kristen, Your Zinnia seeds seem so happy here!  Along with some wildflowers.

3. Surprise centerpiece.  We hosted some friends for dinner this week and Kevin surprised me with fresh flowers for the table.  He knows the table looks nice with a small bouquet and he guessed red flowers since I tend to do red, white and blue all Summer long.  I asked him how he knew that I hadn't already bought flowers for the table.  He said that since I did grocery pick up for the meal, he knew I wouldn't order flowers for the table that way.  He was right.  And so thoughtful!  It helped pull together a perfectly pretty table.

4. It's good to be home!  Any time Leo sees something with writing on it, he says "This says Leo on it!" claiming it as his.  These binoculars had a product label on them and he was sure that it said LEO marking them his.

Our Midwest sunsets have been extra pretty this week!

5. Bucee's Banana Pudding.  We visited Bucees a couple of times on our trip to Florida and I'm here to tell you: Get the Banana Pudding for dessert after you finish a pulled pork sandwich.  They're both delicious.  And you won't find a cleaner bathroom and gas stop.  It's not the easiest or fastest stop to navigate with all the people, but it's an iconic travel must do if you're heading anywhere in the South.

Happy weekend!  I hope you have a fabulous one.  See you back here next week!