The last and final time I grew dahlia was in 2018. I was unemployed, sad, anxious, and itching to have something to do to get my mind off of the dread of how the night would play out when my mom got home. It was mostly her looking for a fight from someone who didn’t want to fight.

That was the last time I grew dahlia because the dahlia never came back in 2019. It rotted away in the soil. I didn’t know it would not survive my winter and that it was crucial for me to dig it and store it in the basement. My mom would never allow me to store plants in the basement. Oh well, the blooms were beautiful while it lasted.

I visited the local botanical garden over the weekend. It’s been about 3 months since my last visit and how things have changed. It’s a shame I didn’t take any photos of its edible garden last time but in my defense, this spot was empty the last time I was here.

During this visit, there was so much to see. I’m always fascinated about the kind of things I can grow in my climate and the botanical garden was certainly an inspiration. Like I didn’t know okra grew here, I’ve always thought it can only grow in southern climates, but there it was, okra plant in the edible garden.

I was surprised when I saw the giant sunflowers. My sunflowers this year have been devastated by the wind and yet, there they stood in the botanical garden behind the ready-to-harvest corn and flowering amaranth, heads lowered and loaded with seeds.

Inspired by SundayStills