Keep it Simple Stupid

 Is anyone else battling garden fantasia?  This is the time of year when garden plans get out of hand.  I have two more companies to order seed from in order to prepare for my carefully thought out Plan.  However, I get ideas.  Now that I have decided to confine the vegetables to half of the garden, and plant pollinator friendly annuals in some of the remaining beds, I am fighting delusions of grandeur.

The Plan is to plant one bed in Zinnias, one bed in Sunflowers, and one bed in Dill and Parsley for the caterpillars.  Then I decided I would also plant one in Cosmos.  Simple.  All of those things are easy and low maintenance.  As long as I set it up properly and make sure these tall flowers are supported, I should be able to direct sow them, monitor moisture and forget about it.  Simple.

Then I start thinking that maybe I could add some special Nicotiana or Stock.  Or Calendula.  And maybe use up some leftover Snapdragon seeds.  And I keep having to tell myself - No.  No.  Nonono.  If I do that, I am going to start running into different germination requirements, and prestarting indoors.  And that will complicate my life.  And that is contrary to the goal of The Plan.  There would be a lot of variation in plant height and support requirements.  The finished look could be somewhat messy. Before you know it, simple sow and walk away resulting in tall, billowy masses of flowers will be out the window.

Floret Flowers

I did allow myself to over order on Dahlia tubers.  I had already planned to spend more time fussing over Dahlias.  I ordered a dozen new varieties of those so I can sort of cull through what I am overwintering and remove some varieties that aren't doing it for me anymore.  And I indulged in different Zinnia seeds.  In the past I have grown a lot of State Fair mix and lots and lots of short Profusion.  But honestly - the gold color that comes in State Fair mix, is one of my least favorite annual flowers ever,  And there are usually a lot of them.

State Fair Mix

This is the selection of varieties I chose for Zinnias.  They all come from Eden Brothers, and the seed packets are already here.  So I am done with zinnia ordering.  Probably. 

And rather than spend a small fortune on a dozen different Sunflower packets, which I have done before,  I chose a simple mix, also from Eden Brothers.

My main seed order always comes from Johnny's Select Seeds.  I have a $50 order sitting in my shopping cart which covers restock on veggie seeds, and the Dill and Parsley and Nasturtiums and Cosmos.  But they don't have my Seychelles pole beans in stock yet.  And I don't want to pay double shipping.  And Johnny's doesn't do backorders.  So either I have to wait until the projected date in January.  Or I could order the Seychelles from Botanical Interests and find some other thingsIdidn'tknowIneeded to fill out the order.  But- No,  Nonono.  Be patient.