I think I’ve had enough with posting photos of autumn colors this year, so, if you don’t mind, I’ll make this post about autumn in my meadow. The weather may feel like autumn but the meadow does not look autumn.

Three years ago, when I decided to remove the grass and put patio bricks in this general area, I decided to reserve a small piece of dirt for a pollinator haven. I call it “dirt” because the soil was horrible – next to no life and hard as rock.

In early spring of the following year, I sprinkled two packets of seeds – a water-wise mix and a made-in-the-shade mix. Before long, seeds germinated and turned this piece of dirt into greenery with little tiny flowers, resembling one of those meadows I’ve seen in movies where a boy and a girl meet and fall in love.

With the lack of rain this year, it’s been hard keeping this meadow alive. In July, I ripped out most of the blooms because it was crispy and occupying space. The ones that I didn’t pull out felt like it was physically here but its spirit was somewhere else. I didn’t sow any new seeds after, I thought I’d wait until next spring to sow a round of new seeds.

Finally, rain came at the end of September and for two weeks, it rained every few days, fulfilling “almost one-third of the average annual rain totals,” the weatherman’s words, not mine. It not only brought life back to the garden but new lives popped up as well with seedlings popping up here and there, making me play “where are you?” whenever I stepped into the garden to find something new had popped up overnight. Some even were seeds I sowed months before and it’s just now germinating. Fortunately, it wasn’t hard for me to figure out what popped up.

The alyssums and calendulas have already begun to fill the meadow near the end of September but with each rainstorm, the space seemed to be getting fuller, filling all the gaps from all the plants I pulled out. To be honest, I’m surprised by the calendulas. I’ve often been told they bloom in warm weather but I feel like I am getting bigger blooms now in the cooler weather.

I hope you’ve enjoy this look at my meadow and before you ask, yes, I thought about lying on it but one, I don’t want to get soil on my clothes and two, I feel bad about squishing the flowers.

For SundayStills