Garden Clean Up – End of the Season

I can’t believe another gardening season has come and gone! This season was a wild one filled with crazy weather right from the start. I lost some of my beloved dahlia tubers to rot, fried tiny seedlings that were transplanted and picked an extremely poor spot to plant sunflowers. While there were many discouraging things that occurred, I was able to learn a lot and still blessed with beauty and rewarded with sell-able blooms!

It is so crazy to think where we started!

Annuals

These flowers were so much fun to grow! I learned a lot in terms of how to start from seed, transplanting rules, what varieties make the best cut flowers and which one do not!

I will not be growing yellow cosmos and will only grow double cosmos – the single fall apart in my bouquets.

My dahlias took a huge hit this year. I lost half to tuber rot and realize these need to be planted in raised beds so the soil can drain better. I will be investing in more decorative and ball varieties next season as these are the best for bouquets!

My sunflowers didn’t go as planned. I had a whole bed designated in the backyard only to find it wasn’t getting ample sun until noon. Sunnies need more than that! I was able to salvage that bed and get ~60 out of 300 sunnies and then I did a secondary planting in a better location when those failed with my remaining seeds which gave me about another 60-70! Excited to plant wayyyyy more sunnies next season as they were gorgeous for bouquets and a big seller!

Perennials

This year I added some more hydrangea and a couple perennials that make great cut flowers like yarrow, sedum, Veronica and nine bark.

Every year I add a new variety to this huge perennial bed and I can’t wait to see what gets added next season!

Bouquets

Bouquet making was so much fun and I found myself getting better as the season went on!

It was also helpful having better ingredients to work with!

What’s Happening Next?!

I went through and cleaned out the beds and composted the old/dead plants. I cleaned out two of the raised beds specifically to be used for tulip planting.