“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust. ”

— Gertrude Jekyll

Never has a quote fit me better than this year. Gardening has really been a struggle for me—from losing all of my dahlias to dahlia mosaic virus and burrowers, to pests like Japanese beetle, an extremely wet spring/summer and unseasonably high temperatures—my garden is a mess. And I about gave up a few weeks ago, and said to heck with it. But then nature has a way of reminding you why you love this, and it came in the form of wildflowers.

We have a small ditch and “hillside” that does not belong to us—it is part of the city land but they don’t maintain it and frankly was unsightly. So my husband and I decided to sow native prairie wildflowers and grasses. The area is filled in but nothing was blooming, then this week while I was walking by, I started noticing pops of color here and there. Then what I call my “wildflower-looking” flowers also started blooming. Before I knew it, my hope for our little garden came back and I am not as jaded was I was before. So I am sharing my favorites so far.