Sometimes I get so busy, I forget to notice the flowers in my garden until they have come and gone. Stop and smell the roses, Katie.  So I went into my garden to photograph all the beautiliciousness that is going on right now right under my nose.

Zinnias.  Next to peonies zinnias are my favorite flowers. They are so easy to grow and come in every color in the rainbow.

Almost like a dahlia.  So pretty.

Love, love this salmon color.  I think I painted a room that color once.  But we called it Pepto-bismo pink.

I get my zinnia seeds from Wildseed Farm out of Texas.  I order them by the pound and you really get a lot of seeds in a pound.  I can have zinnias all over the yard.  How can you not smile when you see this sunshiny color in the garden?

Two of my favorite colors together, pink and white.

Hard to believe this……

Will turn into this in a day.  Sunshine from a seed.

Why don’t people believe in miracles?  They happen right under our noses every single day.  A seed in the ground grows into a beautiful flower in a matter of weeks.   That’s miraculous to me.

Cleome.  An old fashion flower that I have all over the garden.  Some I have planted.  Some that have reseeded themselves.  They are such good little plants.  David does not like them close to the pool because they like to droop over and drop their seeds right by the patio around it.  So I try to keep them a good distance from the pool, but they still creep back sometimes.

They look good beside the zinnia bed.

I want to get this imprinted on my mind so that this winter when I am looking out at a foot of snow on the ground and everything is white, brown and grey, I will know that one day there will be an abundance of colors once again. God is good. He sends Spring to us when we need it most.

I found three new plants at a grocery store this week.  This I thought was a cone flower or echinacea, but after I planted it and read the message with it I found it was a rudbeckia or black eyed Susan.

It didn’t look like any black eyed Susans I have grown before.

This is a coneflower.  A white one that I have never seen.  I have a red one, a green one, an orange one and the ordinary pink ones that I have grown for years.  I hope this one will multiply like the pink ones do.

I am going to try to grow this crepe myrtle.  I always thought they were more of a southern plant, but this one says to mulch it well in the autumn to overwinter it.  So we shall see.

I do grow vegetables in my garden.  I have dozens of tomatoes almost ready.  I can’t wait to bite into that first red, ripe tomato still warm from the sun.

More green beans than we can eat.

Pumpkin blossoms dredged in egg and flour and fried in butter.  Yum. What I couldn’t eat, the chickens loved.

We have pumpkin vines taking over the garden and into the flower beds.  There are several pumpkins growing.

I’ve seen a couple of these big ones.  I never get over the excitement of finding these in the garden.  Sometimes I have good luck with pumpkin growing and some years, not so much, but so far, this has been a good year for just about everything.  I think letting the chickens scratch in the garden over the fall and winter and leaving their, ahem, fertilizer, has really made the garden the best ever.  They will do their work again this year. Such good chickens.  I love those little girls.  I will have to show you our two new ones soon. They are still being kept in a cage right now to protect them from the bigger chooks, but in a few weeks we will clip their wings and let them out.  I let them out one day and they flew up onto the gate.  Can’t let them do that with the dogs around.

Do you like butternut squash?  I don’t know why I planted these other than I just like to grow them.  They are good cut in half, sprinkled with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and baked in the oven.

This is the pumpkin vines coming right up to the fence saying, “Let us out.”  They don’t listen to me and come right on over and spread over everything.  The good thing about that is that I have less lawn to mow.

Belle in the garden.  I have always said the backyard garden is the dog garden because I don’t get too upset when they walk through a flower bed or eat a few blossoms.  Belle likes to smell the flowers too.

Bonnie has been with us for ten years and ever since she was a pup she has been right beside me when I plant and weed in the garden.  She’s a flower child dog.

We keep a small patch of clover for the bees.  Actually, it’s so I don’t have to mow here!

I’ve given David a new project.

Years ago we bought this old soda shoppe chair at an auction and I have wanted to do something with it.  So…..David is taking it apart and I will sand it and paint it(David will sand and paint it)and David will add a new wooden seat to it and then I will add something else that you will have to wait to see when it is finished.  I can’t wait to show it to you.

Meanwhile, I am working on this, but cannot show any more because who I am making it for is nosy and reads my blog(you know who you are.)   I am really liking how this is looking and I hope I can get it done before Christmas.  I have five other quilts looking at me and saying, “Finish me!!!”  So many quilts, so little time.

Here’s to gardens, flower child dogs and the One who made them all.  Bye.