From A to Zinnia

Normally we only grow stuff that you can eat in or around our garden.  This year I learned that it can be nice to grow some flowers to beautify the garden.  I selected zinnias because with my first attempt at growing flowers, I figured I would try something easy.  Zinnias are about the easiest.  The flowers are multicolored and they bloom all season long.  They seem to be drought-proof and can also make it during times of monsoon rains.

Back in early spring, I planted them in the holes of some cinder blocks that I use to line a drainage ditch just north of the garden.  The cinder blocks stop erosion.  The holes in the blocks always bothered me, though.  I kept thinking someone would step in them and break their ankle, so I filled them with potting soil and planted an assortment of zinnia seeds in them.  I used some open-pollinated, heirloom seeds so I could save the seeds, if I wanted to and plant more next year.

Nine months after planting them, the zinnias are still blooming.  For the past couple of months, as the flowers fade, I've been snipping off the heads and allowing them to completely dry.

Here is a closeup of the dried zinnia flower head with the petals pulled off.

If you pull on the dried flower, you pull out zinnia seeds!

Here's what's left when you've pulled off all the seeds.  This can be discarded.

We were able to harvest a BUNCH of zinnia seeds!  A couple of handfuls, for sure.

I put all the zinnia seeds in a container for storage.

In about 2 1/2 months, I'll pull the seeds out, work up some more ground in front of the garden, and re-plant.  I'll never plant flowers in the garden and take up ground that could be used for planting vegetables for flowers, but I'll admit, the multi-colored zinnias we planted in front of the garden was a good thing.