jillivictorio@gmail.com /

Earlier in the summer season, my dahlias made their appearance. Of the 5 tubers I planted in the spring, I was able to harvest about half a dozen bouquets. I’ll definitely be planting more next year! I hope you’ve seen some of the beautiful blooms on my Instagram page @jillivictorio.

I remember the excitement of planting and growing my first dahlias in Issaquah, WA. It all started with only three tubers I ordered from Floret Flower in 2017. As soon as the first Breakout Dahlias bloomed, I was hooked. I’m so happy I’ve been able to grow a few here in North Texas, as the flowers I tend to love most (peonies) are not suitable for hotter climates and mostly thrive in the NW. Dahlias however, thrive here, so I’ll be growing more for sure. My dream is to plant hundreds of dahlia tubers on acreage for my own mini flower farm to enjoy fresh bouquets at home, and to share with neighborhoods, family, and friends.

Here’s a look back on my flower cutting garden’s progress this summer. This year, I’ve stuck to dahlias and zinnias. Next year, I hope to plant more floral varieties.

Dahlias in June

Dahlias in July

 

 

At late summer,  Zinnias have taken over my flower garden beds.  I’ve been growing zinnias for a few years now, but this year has been my favorite batch of blooms. I sowed only one pack of zinnia seeds, and we’ve been graced with a ton of these beautiful blooms all summer long, even after they are cut! Zinnias are the flowers that keep on giving. They are truly one of the easiest flowers to grow!

Zinnias in June

Zinnias in July

Zinnias in August

I’ve cut down these zinnas almost weekly to encourage more flowers to bloom, and to my surprise, they’ve doubled the amount of blooms! I’ll definitely be purchasing this variety of seeds again for next year. I order a lot of my seeds from Eden Bros and have had fantastic results every time. This was my first time ordering Pumila Zinnia seeds from Eden Bros. According to the description, the more you cut, the more they bloom!  If you want easy to grow, bountiful blooming flowers all summer long, I highly recommend Pulimia Zinnia seeds!

What flowers have bloomed in your garden? I would love to hear from you.

jillivictorio@gmail.com /

I get eager as March approaches as I can feel spring just around the corner.  I love the renewal and rebirth of nature. As a family, this is our first spring season in Texas and we are seeing signs of spring earlier than we are used to from springtime in the Pacific NW.   I’ve always dreamed of having lots of yard space to grow a garden for flowers, trees, vegetables and herbs, and yard space for the kids to play.  Now that we have the yard space at our Texas home, it was time to make it all happen.  We spent the past couple of weekends starting a new gardening project that involved installing raised garden beds, selecting seeds and fruit trees, and getting the seeds and starts in the soil.  I would eventually love to have a greenhouse, but I’ll save that goal for a later time and focus on starting small with raised beds and a few fruit trees.  We planned and plotted the northern portion of our property that receives full sun to place our garden.

Our gardening project consisted of three phases over two weekends:

  1. Phase One: Inspiration, planning and and plotting
  2. Phase Two: Select trees, seeds and space, and install raised beds
  3. Phase Three: Add soil, sow the seeds, plant the starts

Phase 1: The Inspiration

We recently returned from our first trip to Waco and the Magnolia Silos and what a better time to visit and get a burst of inspiration as we were in the beginning stages of our gardening project.  The gardens outside of the Seed and Supply store truly inspired me to get my garden dream going and #gardengoals accomplished.

Not to mention, reading up on my Magnolia Journal with a cup of coffee led to me plot out where this garden would go and what would go in it.  I’m still not sure how all this will turn out, but I will give it a try and enjoy the process and hopefully be rewarded with a beautiful harvest.

Early morning reading and inspiration to start a garden (January 2018)

 

 

 

First rough sketch of where the raised beds and trees will go (February 2018)

 

Phase 2: Tree and Seed Selection

We got our fruit trees from Guerin Nursery in Granbury. This is a great local nursery that carries many native plants and varieties of annuals and perennials, with the largest selection of fruit and flowering trees. We knew we wanted apple trees and peach trees for their spring blossoms and of course for their fruit! We were thrilled to find Honeycrisp Apples (our favorite) and Fuji Apples.  We let the boys each pick out their own trees. For seeds, Eden Brothers offers one of the largest seed and flower bulb assortment available in the United States from heirloom, rare and hard to find flower seeds, vegetable seeds and herb seeds.

Nursery with the boys to pick out fruit trees that will be planted in the garden (February)

 

Seeds I selected, thanks to Joanna Gaines’ inspiration from her Garden Shed episode on Fixer Upper: Hyacinth Beans, Sweet Peas, Zinnia, and Wild Flower seeds

Vegetable and herb seeds for John’s salsa garden

 

3L x 6W ft cedar wood raised beds installed by John with Baron’s help :). (March)

 

Adding a water seal on the exterior to protect the wood from the outdoor elements

Lining the interior of the beds with landscape fabric to prevent weeds from growing into the soil and plants

 

Phase 3: Add potting soil, sow seeds and plant starts

I wanted to involve the kids as much as possible in the process of planning and creating our new garden.  They had fun choosing the fruit trees at the local nursery that would be planted in the ground, along with what types of fruit and vegetables they wanted to grow.  Jonah chose strawberries and Baron chose carrots!  The boys will have their own dedicated garden bed that they will tend to, while John and I will share three garden beds dedicated to growing ingredients for his salsa garden and my very own cut flower garden.

Jonah’s strawberry starts

Jonah and Baron sowing their first seeds in their garden bed

Jonah’s sweet pea seeds

Baron’s hyacinth bean seed

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we wait for the grass and trees to turn green and bloom again, and let Mother Nature take its course.  I can’t wait to see how everyone’s gardens will grow: my cut flower garden, John’s salsa garden, and the boys’ fruit and vegetable garden. My hope is that gardening with our kids teaches them to appreciate nature, the virtue of patience, and to celebrate wonder. The past weekend with my little gardeners, we planted the seeds of hope—which is what a seed is and what a garden is—a promise of what will come.

 

jillivictorio@gmail.com /

This year, I finally attended Seattle’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show. It ran February 17th-21st where I attended one day and learned a lot to take back home and implement in my own yard and garden spaces. It was also my first festival event with my 4-month-old baby in tow. I figured the gardening crowd wouldn’t be too wild and crazy for a baby 🙂

Baby Baron's first gardening seminar :)

 

As with most festival-type events, I like to be prepared and research my topics of interest before a show so I don’t wander aimlessly among the crowds. I was really excited to attend a couple of seminars and view the show gardens for some landscaping inspiration. We are currently in the middle of a small backyard landscaping project at home, so the timing of attending the NW Flower and Garden show was perfect. My plan was to attend Ciscoe Morris’s seminar, get some landscaping ideas incorporating hardscapes, small columnar privacy and flowering trees, and finding some special plants to bring home.

Ciscoe Morris’ seminar titled, ‘Be A Garden Thief: Steal Ideas From Other Gardens’ was informative, engaging, practical, and most importantly, attainable. Some takeaways and trends I learned from his 45 minutes that I will use for my own gardening goals:

  • Start small, near an entryway, add scents. There’s nothing more welcoming that coming home to a lovely scent outside your front door.
  • Planting fruit trees in espaliered forms – trained to grow flat, such as against a fence or wall. I went out and purchased a Honeycrisp Apple espalier tree at Squak Mt. Nursery the very next day!
  • Add camellias to attract hummingbirds
  • It is more common more than ever to create and grow your own vegetable garden. Even a small 8×16 vegetable garden can work, and can be made by using a variety of materials such as paver stones and faux stone walls, or raised beds.
  • Hummingbirds love tomato cages.

After Ciscoe’s seminar, I went back to the skybridge to admire the patio landscaping displays which really wowed in all the natural light. I wish the entire flower and garden show were displayed in natural light. The show gardens in the convention area felt a bit strange to navigate and view in the dark with the staged lighting.

Back to the skybridge, I loved the form and function of this landscaping to create an intimate and zen-like patio.

skybridge patio

Another favorite skybridge display by Third Spring. I’m obsessed with the turquoise hanging planters from Pot Inc. Love everything about this little patio set up: the use of a pergola, the hanging string lights, the planters in various forms and sizes, and the added textiles to soften up the space.

unnamed

 

My favorite indoor garden display was ‘From Sea To Shining Sea – Coupeville, WA.

The garden was inspired by the charming coastal town of Coupville on Whidbey Island created by Fancy Plants Gardens, designed by James Sprague CPH.

The take-home idea for my own garden: Enticing paver walkway, new sod, and hardy low maintenance plantings. How fun would it be to host a bocce ball bash in the backyard? unnamed-1

 

Lastly, you can’t leave a flower and garden show without picking up some sort of planting for your yard/garden. I passed by a Dutch vendor in the marketplace selling “Japanese Wonderflowers.” The vendor pitched me and sold me at 50 flowers to one bulb that last from May – September. One bulb costs $5.00, or $20 for 5 bulbs. Not bad for the hope of 250 bulbs come spring. More to come on these said “Japanese Wonderflowers”.

unnamed

It was a day well spent and I’m am glad I prepared before we made the trip. The trick is to know what you are looking for, find it strategically, and pace yourself.

Happy Gardening!

Jilli