The Last Garden Update

As The Great Garden Experiment of 2024 draws to an end, it is only fitting to document its success on ye old blog.

While the primary purpose of the garden this year was to raise enough flowers to supplement the flowers for the wedding, a happy little side effect of the experiment was that it also provided a fantastic pollen buffet for the local bee population. I really loved working in the garden while they buzzed about and, unlike some people, I was never afraid of being stung. My bees are quite gentle and non-aggressive.

When I planted sunflowers, I also unintentionally created a seed buffet for the local birds. They also got used to having me in the garden and paid me no mind as they snacked on the seeds. Several times, I had to pull seeds from my hair, as the birds weren't exactly tidy as they pecked them from the flower heads, tossing them from above.

I mentioned the hummingbirds in a previous post; they are also more than happy to share space with me in the garden.

So, while the garden didn't provide food for Hugh and me this summer, it definitely fed the wildlife.

Later this weekend, I plan to start pulling the spent plants from the beds. The cosmos have gotten especially raggedy and the majority of the blooms are spent. I gathered seeds from the dried flowerheads and am planning to save them until next year, when I will plant them in the flowerbeds under the trees in our front yard.

They were very pretty while they lasted, though.

The snapdragons are still blooming, but I have also harvested seed pods from the spent heads for next year.

I won't be saving seeds from the cornflowers or larkspur; instead, I will pull the plants from the soil and take them to the flowerbeds in the front yard, where I will leave them to transplant themselves, naturally. I'm fairly certain they will thrive in those beds next year.

I definitely won't be saving sunflower seeds for planting. Depending on what is left on the heads when I cut them down, I may make a batch of roasted seeds for the Man-Cub to enjoy.

The dahlias are still putting on a show, but I really want to turn the garden over, so I'll go ahead and cut the blooms. I'm going to attempt to save the tubers over the winter and will see if they are good to plant next year, although, I'm not certain where I would plant them, as they require a lot of space and my flowerbeds will already be a bit crowded.

The zinnias are the only thing that I plan to leave for a while; they are blooming like crazy and I definitely want to harvest their seeds for next year.

All in all, the Great Garden Experiment of 2024 was a huge success. Obviously, next year, I will return to the usual program of vegetables, but, I can say that I'm really happy I took a year off from that. 

On a similar topic, I did another flower-related experiment this year. I followed the advice of a woman on social media and I aggressively cut back my petunias mid-summer. The result was a continuous blooming that looks as good today as it did back in early July. This is such a fantastic thing as, usually by this time of the summer, I have thrown the petunias out because they've turned leggy and gross-looking.

Highly, highly recommend .