Last year we spent a lot of time fixing the farm up so that it would be in the best condition possible for the animals. That meant mowing weeds to allow grasses to re-emerge, picking up TONS of rocks from the pasture and getting irrigation lines installed.  Of course, this farm isn't just for the animals, it's for us to enjoy as well.  To get access to our house, we had to build a 3,000' driveway. The first 1,000' or so is a long straightway with part sun and part shade. One of the first things I did last fall was to prep the soil and sow native southeastern wild flowers along the side of the drive.  This area had overgrown in weeds before, and since I didn't kill the weeds  (no use of chemicals on this farm), I just tilled it heavily in the fall, hand broadcast the seeds and hoped for the best.

In early spring, we started seeing vegetative growth but, of course, didn't know if we were looking at weeds, grass or flowers.  Some of the grass made itself known, but the rest looked like a mess of weeds.  Many of them had little pods on them that kind of resembled strawberries.  In fact, tons of them had this. Since we had lots of gensym weeds last year, we feared the worst.  But
A sea of poppies then it happened. In early April, a flower popped up.  Just one. A cold spell caused it to retreat, but a week later we saw another. Then another. Liz figured out that these were poppies, and what had previously looked like weeds now looked like a savings bond about to mature.  Poppy pods everywhere about to explode.

As the picture shows, they have exploded now, and it looks like they're going to be vibrant for a long time. There are FAR more unopened pods ready to pop than there are flowers.   In addition to poppies, we can look forward to black-eyed susans, coreopsis, cone flowers, lupines, cosmos, asters, spiderwort, sage, phlox and so on.  Many of the flowers take a couple of years to fully establish, so we'll wait and see what the final result is. 

In addition to that mix, I also bought 4 pounds of sunflower seeds.  Believe me, that's a lot of seeds...enough to plant 2 acres in sunflowers.  I'm mixing them all over the farm in secret spots, since Liz loves sunflowers.  But last weekend I played Santa, as I tossed out sunflower seeds by hand as I slowly drove my tractor down the drive.  Hopefully enough of them will take to provide a great show later this summer. I also planted some near the peach trees, as sunflowers help to keep the oriental fruit moth away from the peach and fruit trees.  We'll see. 

There are many benefits to having all these wildflowers.  They're beautiful to look at.  We'll add bees soon, and the bees will be busy indeed with all the clover, fruit trees and flowers, and we'll reap the rewards in fresh, local honey that (I hope) is of help to Liz and others with their allergies.  But mostly, I love getting fresh flowers for Liz, and I knew there wouldn't be as many available out here in the country, so I grew my own.  Here's my first little bouquet I made for her.  I just leave it in front of the coffee pot or something and hopefully it's a great way for her to start her day. I know it makes me happy to pick them for her.