A View of the Cutting Garden

One of the things I wanted in my country home was to have a cutting garden. Do you remember in Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth and Jane were out in the garden cutting fresh flowers for arrangements? I'm sure they had many sweet sisterly moments as they harvested beautiful blossoms while talking about the things close sisters talk about.
My boys cultivated my garden for me. They are not the visionaries that I am so it was hard for them to get very excited about this project, but they labored on it for me. They used a pick ax and shovel to remove the old hard clay and cart it off. Then they brought nice fresh, loose soil to replace the old. Sayre cares for his rabbits so well, and they produce wonderful fertilizer that do wonders for this soil.

My garden must have zinnias! This was the very first flower I ever grew ~ back as a young 11 or 12 year-old behind my parents house in the country that they had just bought!
Zinnias are prone to mildew, so it's best to water them in the morning-preferably keeping their leaves dry. It's been a dry summer so I had very little problem until recently.

This variety is called "State Fair" zinnia. It grew to about four feet high, with huge stalks to hold up all the blooms!

I love these colors! They remind me of Ashley! Bright, young and cheerful!

I also grew cosmos,bachelor's buttons, flax, nasturtiums, and phlox. It was wonderful growing everything from seed!

This is Cosmos. I had no idea what it was supposed to look like. After planting it, it grew, and grew, and grew, and ~ well it just kept growing ~ UP! It finally reached well over four feet tall without any sign of blooms! Then one day, while I was not looking, a little white blossom opened up and seemed to say "Surprise!" It all started blooming and is gorgeous!

Thank You, Lord for giving me eyes to see the lovely things You have grown just for me!