While planning my spring and summer garden I want to prioritize beauty. I am planting flowers as far as the eye can see. The good news is that flowers have planted themselves in the case of these zinnias and bella de noche plants.
The bad news is that a certain creature who also inhabits the yard might try to eat some of them.
So, what am I to do? Hide the flowers where they are out of sight of the mare and also out of my sight too? Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of a flower garden?
Well, in a way yes in a way no. I have certainly noticed that a home surrounded by flowers promotes my own mental health. But, what really got me into growing flowers was to provide pollen and nectar for the local pollinators.
I asked around -- Will the mare eat the sunflower plants before they even get a chance to bloom? Is it worth taking the risk? Or is it best to plant the sunflowers in the fenced off garden where their safety is secured but their beauty not so visible?
The obvious answer is to do a little bit of both, or rather, do it all! This morning I planted a few of the sunflowers in a flower bed in the front yard, transplanted others into bigger pots, and also directly sowed some seeds into the garden.
These particular sunflowers were handed down to me from a friend who once had a thriving flower farm. I feel like it is my responsibility to keep the tradition of growing them going. And thus, cannot risk them all being eaten however much I would love to chance to see those happy sunflowers from my front patio.