Garden Plans: Planting Seeds

There is a corner of my garden where hollyhocks have taken root in random ways that are now calling out for more tall flowers and other flowers for the foreground and in containers. My goal is to create a cottage garden for the cottage. At this moment, I am soaking more giant hollyhock seeds to plant. 

I was painting sunflowers yesterday and got inspired to purchase sunflower seeds and teddybear sunflower seeds for more height and variety. Then ordered Delphinium seeds for more height and color. Then I remembered sweet pea flowers, so I bought seeds that promise the flowers pictured above. Sweet peas are fragrant and will contribute to the cottage feel. I may be a little late I am afraid but I can always try next year and plant in January. I do not normally choose annuals. I prefer perennials that come back every year. What I may do is plant some in containers and protect them from being blasted in the summer. I have also purchased seeds for various oriental poppies for borders and containers. 

I need to figure out how to keep them all watered during another dry season for us. I may have to shower with a bucket to capture water. This makes me wonder if we should indeed build a desalinization plant. I had been against it, but that was when we were getting rain water pretty frequently. The past couple of years has been dry. While I was writing this, I went to the Weather West blog by climatologist Daniel Swain to get more bad news. The Ridiculously Resilient Ridge is back keeping back any moisture from us in April. Just 3-4 years ago we would be in the track of all kinds of rain while other parts of the Bay Area might not get precipitation. This is how I got the idea I could have a cottage garden. I need to figure out something. Maybe I will need to get a drip system going, but also I will need to plan for recycling water. 

I might very well need to focus my intentions and ask the next full moons to give us reprieve from this drought. Yes, I know that is probably an impossible ask to have climate change shift somewhere else to blast the RRR away so we can have late rain in May and June, but it doesn't hurt to try. 

1. Place a Bucket in the Shower. ...
2. Reuse Water From Old Drinking Bottles. ...
3. Use a Rain Barrel to Save Runoff From Your Roof. ...
4. Water the Plants With Pasta Water. ...
5. Reuse the Water You Washed Your Veggies With. ...
6. Install a Grey Water Collection System

It is times like these, I wish I was a weather witch or that I was a weather witch. I will be praying for us to get stuck in an el nino pattern or a pattern that supports a cottage garden.