Wow – Veggies don’t do that!

Behind this humble facade is something incredibly wonderful. You’d never even begin to imagine it.

Ok I am starting to see the merits of flower gardening. Although I am now wracked with guilt as the flower seedlings have come closer in the green family circle and are now considered precious green babies.  Which is a long way from the recent relationship of distant relatives, twice removed, from the wrong side of the tracks. And treated as such.

The Zinnias can’t hold it in any longer

We can thank a small innocuous pink flower that by day is nothing special at all and even can be described as a bit scraggly.  But that could be down to the fact it is still in its seedling pot and would probably be magnificent if it was let free in fertile ground.  However I am going to buy the nicest patio pot (and not a bucket with holes poked in it either) for these flowers as they are too good for the garden and may even be considered wasted there.  These need to be close by so I can love them every day, or more accurately every evening.

In their defense veggies make lovely flowers and these sage flowers are pretty and attract the bees but they smell a little savoury and remind me of chicken!

If you haven’t grown Night Scented Stock before then you should.  They are incredible.  During the day they just sit there doing nothing, looking a little boring, but as the sun sets over the horizon this wonderful, intoxicating perfume begins to appear, getting stronger as the night goes on.  It seems to be more powerful than jasmine. Now that is a strong flower that immediately takes me back to my grandmother’s garden, but we aren’t supposed to grow it these days as it has a noxious weed label.

and while these bolted greens are quite pretty, they are a complete disappointment because I didn’t get to eat anything in a stir fry!

So if that is what a humble flower can do, what are the rest going to be like?  I need to get a wriggle on.  That flower garden is getting weedier by the day and the poor pot bound floral babies are getting anxious and are beginning to flower where they are due to the stress of it all.  I may need to start again with some of them.  The sunflowers are beginning to bud up at knee height, this isn’t a good look from a plant with ‘skyscraper’ on the label!  I am letting them down so terribly, those newcomers to my garden.  I should be ashamed.

Strawberries have the best flowers because you can see the baby berries!

But it isn’t all my fault.  I blame it fairly and squarely on this awful spring.  We had a dreadful storm on Saturday which snapped my bolting celery – well it was coming out anyway.  It could have been much worse, some areas had power cuts.  Today wasn’t much better – another bloomin’ storm.  I am so over this spring.  Summer is in two weeks so it can pack up its bags and make way for a more gracious season that should give me what I want.  I am so tired of being cold and wet.

These tomato flowers are cool because they hold the hopes of summer in their little yellow heads.

Come again soon – I’ve got weeding to do!

Sarah the Gardener  : o )