My raised bed Zinnia garden bed is rising rapidly, I have to cull about 25 sprouts today, they are coming up so fast. I started too early and too ignorantly but am learning fast.

We stopped at a nurse to buy a baby apple tree today and on the way out, I grabbed a small tray of snap dragons. I thought I’d plant them on one end of the garden bed, just to add some color. I’m impatient for color in my garden bed, even though I realize it will be full of color soon enough.

This is my first solo garden effort and I’ve survived the waves of inevitably good (wait till the end of May to plant)  unsolicited advice and bad unsolicited advice (use soil, not wood chips).

That fact that some advice is good and helpful hasn’t softened my ideas about advice. I still like making my own mistakes, as long as they don’t kill or harm anyone.

I understand that I almost always need good advice. That doesn’t make me like it.

Social media has reminded me of somebody’s great wisdom about advice: fools don’t take it and smart people don’t need it.

So best not to give it.

I’m getting excited about my garden bed.

I water it and watch it faithfully and obsessively. The sole mission of this garden is to provide Zinnia flowers – Maria’s favorite – all summer and into the fall.