Sunflower Hill

I am so happy to look out every morning now and see a hill complete with Sunflowers and Gladiolus. All the beautiful colors just brighten my day!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a slideshow? Hope you enjoy!

Hill Garden

I love gardening. And I love all of the plants in my gardens. But there is just something amazing about growing a plant from seeds. There is an exhilaration that you can only get from getting dirty, digging a small hole and then dropping the seeds in. And with your care, watering the dirt, watching the sprouts, watering and more watering and then just all of sudden it seems you have a plant and then you have flowers. It really is amazing to look at it and just know that it's totally your fault that this little "being" has grown up and graced your presence with it's beauty.

The hilltop garden has offered us just this kind of wonderment. I still remember planting the seeds for all the different sunflowers, and four o'clocks, and the corms for the about 80 gladiolas. and doing just what I described above. and now it's right at the stage where I am enjoying some of the fruits of the labor.

And even better is when you receive a complete surprise! This was the very hill where we scattered wildflower seeds last year. Sadly nothing seemed to take off, but this year a few rogue zinnias have sprung up amongst the sunflowers.

Four o'clocks

Marigolds

Zinnias

Hilltop garden

To the north side of the pool there is a small hill. The hill is not tall, but is more of a berm about 30 feet long. Last year we threw wildflower seeds along the hill, and got two cosmos. Nothing else. We also tried gladiolas, but only one took and it didn't even bloom!

So this year there was a new plan!

It took us two weekends to finish the weeding, but we pulled everything out of the hill. Then it took us another two weeks to get all of the compost dirt to amend the sandy hill. And then we were ready. We covered the top of the hill with Mammoth sunflower seeds and then used a red variety mix and a lemonade variety mix of seeds to surround the Mammoth. Below that on the grade of the hill, we staggered about 80 gladiola corms. And then finished with four o'clock seeds and marigolds. We used our broken concrete pieces from around the yard to create a border.

We have been very diligent in watering. After only a week, the first sunflower seeds sprouted. A day or two behind them, the gladiolas sprung up and so did the four o'clocks. It's been about 4 weeks now and everything is coming along nicely! I can't wait to see the blooms across the hill!!!

Long shot of the garden.

Sunflowers