A tisket, a tastic, a flower making basket

In my head I always think of the play dough commercial in the 80's for the flower basket toy. I found it on youtube here at 1:02 if you want to hear it. My sister had that toy and like everything of hers, I was jeal-ous.

Now as an adult I've found clay flowers just don't compare to the real ones. I always felt planting flowers was a waste of money because I figured it I was paying to water a plant, I should be able to eat part of it.

This year I changed my mind.

I'd go to the nursery for veggies and I just couldn't help myself. Then I'd go to Home Depot and not be able to help myself. I also got a bunch of AZ friendly flower seeds from Madre Dos for Christmas and couldn't help myself.

But look how pretty they are (were)! Worth every penny!

After the frost hit I thought they all died so I bought more. Nope, most perked back up!

Anyone know the name of these? I forgot and they ended up being my favorite

This is a blue hybicus plant from a couple years ago. The frost wiped it out and I kept meaning to hack off the 3/4 of it that looked dead. I just kept putting it off and my laziness was rewarded when it magically turned verdant and blossomed more than it ever had. Go figure.

My new favorite thing is to let plants go to seed, just to see what they look like. Sometimes I manage to harvest the seeds too. This is cilantro gone crazy.

 Canna lilies are the prettiest flower ever to love the heat and full sun. And they are indestructible, as proven my my dog destroying them last year.

And while I took those good photos over a month ago, I had a bunch of random flowers I didn't even plant pop up. This guy looks a lot like a weed when it is small. I'm pretty sure I've been pulling them by mistake for months. Note the fuzzy stem that usually is a sign a plant is trying to hurt me.

I have no idea what this flower is either and I found it hiding in the back of the planter.

This one I'm pretty sure is blanket flower that I did plant seeds for but this is the only one that came up. Or that wasn't weeded...

I don't remember the name of this flower, but I planted them last year and found this little guy grew all on his own this season.

This gladiola looks just like my mom's garden. I didn't plant it but it is in the side of the planter that housed transplants from my mom's yard two years ago. All of the plants I took from my parents' house have been pulled out but I wonder if a seed came along with them and just found the right  condition two years later. Or perhaps a bird pooped it recently.

This is what kale looks like gone to seed, in case you wondered. There is a cute little yellow flower near the top. J likes to tear leaves off and eat them. Strange child.

This is some volunteer lettuce I had. No lettuce seeds grew where I planted them, but apparently the gravel with sprinkler overspray was the perfect spot. I let it go to seed and it has such interesting fluff.

These red ones are probably my favorite little ones. I'm pretty sure they are the red flax seeds from Madre Dos.

I love how nature just takes over despite whatever I intend for it to do.