the wonderful, most amazing, littlest wildflower patch

I love flowers, just not the store-bought kinds. Zach knows this well. He used to work in a wonderfully quaint little flower shop when we were first dating, but he never brought me any flowers. He understands I prefer my flowers alive, thriving, and amidst the dirt. The store-bought flowers always tend to look a little sad. You bring them home, they sit in a vase and wait to die. Wildflowers, on the other hand, are always carefree and happy looking.

So this year when we started prepping for our garden, we decided we would grow some flowers too. Sure, growing food is much more rewarding. But flowers make good food for the spirit. And the right kinds attract bees (excellent pollinators) and other predatory insects (pest control). We have pansies, violets, petunias, begonias, impatiens, borage, marigolds, snapdragons and several other different varieties of flowers in our patio garden. But it is in my nature to be a little over zealous when it comes to gardening and I decided that we needed a wildflower patch too. We clearly do not have the space for a wildflower field, so I did what I could and cleared a tiny plot outside the house, right next to the spot I park the car. As soon as the weather allowed, I sowed some seeds. Zach will tell you I scattered thousands of seeds. I think he is probably right. 3000 seeds in a 3 sq. ft space. Goody.

Before we left for New England we only had a handful of tiny flowers. Just imagine my surprise and delight when we came home to an insanely colorful display of cheerful flowers! I've tried my best to identify all the different ones growing, but there are still a few that I don't recognize ...

virginia stock

baby blue eyes

toadflax/ baby snapdragons. we also have yellow, light pink, and white ones.

alyssum

daisy

globe candytufts, in a variety of colors

shirley poppy

day lilies. i didn't plant these; they were already in the ground.

chinese forget-me-not

white (above) and blue bachelor's button

siberian wallflower

If you love wildflowers and want some of your own, most of the flowers I have identified are from Botanical Interests' Made in the Shade mix. A large packet covers over 600 sq. ft. so unless you are seriously spatially impaired (like me!), one packet goes a long way! The other flowers came from random batches of seeds I picked up from places.