My Zinnia garden bed experiment is booming. The seeds are all sprouting, I’ve planted flowers on either end for variety, and also about 50 “low” Zinnia seeds around the original ones.

We should have wall-to-wall Zinnias in a few weeks.

My goal is to grow enough Zinnias to bring inside the farmhouse all summer. Zinnias are Maria’s favorite flower and also the name of our sweet dog.

All week, it has rained at night, and the sun has been strong in the daytime, perfect for our gardens and for my first garden bed,. It’s also the first garden that I’ve put together by myself.

I’ve learned not to jump the planting date, my first two efforts at planting early inside the house and in a portable greenhouse were disastrous. But we’re on track.

This is a garden bed I can reach easily, weed and prune, and water faithfully. I’m thinking of getting another one next Spring. We have eight gardens, and I’ve helped with all of them, but this one is mine and I find I have a place for gardening in my soul.

I’m getting it.