How Does Your Garden Grow part 3

Towards the end of summer, the flowers were all in full bloom. We were picking multiple bouquets a week for ourselves, to give away or even to sell (the kids threw together a roadside flower stand a few times, you can read about that here). It was fun to come up with different color combinations, and add unique textures... floral arranging is definitely an area that I'd like to grow in. As my garden grows bigger and bigger each year, I'm hopeful my bouquet skills will do the same.

I thought cutting my flowers would be difficult... it definitely was something I was nervous to do last year when my garden was itty bitty. Cutting, actually brought more growth to most of my flowers (dahlias, cosmos, snaps, etc.) The more I cut, the more the flowers kept on appearing. There were a few dahlias that didn't yield much, but next year, might be their year. All in all, I wish I had experimented with more seeds and different flowers... I suppose I can look forward to that next year, and plan out now, all the possibilities. I also wish I had planted more sunflowers and other flowers that bridge the gap between summer color and fall color (noted for next year). 

The littles SO enjoyed every part of the garden this year, even pulling weeds. Anytime a new colored dahlia popped and opened up, they would squeal with delight. I should have marked the dahlias in some manner, so that I could put them in color order/name order for next year... but I didn't. I was in a rush to get them in the ground, that the only ones I paid attention to, were my beloved "cafe au lait" dahlias. Watering the garden wasn't a chore, in fact most evenings, it was a time for us to enjoy the colors of the garden... there were so many beautiful colors, and everything looked so different during the golden hour light. 

We had fairly good success keeping the deer and other critters away from gobbling up the blooms. Hopefully next year, an extra shield (a fence) will be up for safekeeping. It wasn't until the end of the season, that they started coming through, looking for anything and everything to munch on. Unfortunately, the hubby's cherry trees got eaten back a bunch... it must have been at the perfect height for the deer, and who could resist cherry tree foliage?

It was a great summer and fall season in the garden. Next up, putting it "to rest"...