Patchwork Flower Farm

My friends are my estate.~ Emily Dickinson

My friends are my garden.~ Mrs. Patchwork

🦋🌸🌿🌸🦋

Thank you, my flower friend, for being part of my patchwork flower garden.

Last Friday night, Nicole and Brad visited my patchwork flower garden. Their first visit was back in 2020 when my garden was just a couple of zinnia beds and the concept of a bonafide business was only a dream.

During the past 6 years Nicole visited my garden a couple more times… once with her mom and dad, and the other time with her mom and 2 sons.

I look forward to seeing sweet Nicole (and her family) every time she visits my garden.

🌿🦋🌿 This is McKenna & Gavin’s fourth year in a row to visit Patchwork Flower Farm. This year when they came they wanted to squat among the flowers and become my garden gnomes.

Gavin had some serious squatting to do… he’s 6 foot 2. McKenna had not quite as much… she’s 5 foot 2.

I love every inch of them, no matter the number of their feet and inches. They are two of my favorite garden gnomes.

Here's the story of the "patchwork garden" bicycle: One summer day six years ago Mr Patchwork was out riding our Ozark hills on his lightspeed titanium bicycle. He was about 7 miles from our farm when he saw a blue 1960s American Schwinn (with a free sign) in somebody's front yard. When he arrived back home from his ride, he told me about it and we quickly hopped in our pickup truck. We made a beeline through the hills to get it before somebody else snatched it up. I knew it would be gone, but we still went through the motions.

Lo and behold, when we came up over the hill… there it was. Yay!

This might be hard to believe, but the bicycle we were so excited at one point to drag home with us, sat neglected in our backyard for six year. Grass had grown up and around it and through the spokes. It was out in the rain and the snow and whatever. What was wrong with us??

This past week we came to our senses. Mr. Patchwork rolled her into our garage. He cleaned her up and tightened some screws. I pawed through my pile of baskets and found the perfect one. I purchased some bicycle basket buckles and here she is looking good among the wild flowers in my patchwork garden.

🌸💕🌸 Here’s a little piece of art I created from a flower I picked from my garden.

🌿🌸💕🌸🌿 Makenzie is picking flowers in my patchwork flower garden just before sunset. When the summer days are hot… picking flowers when the day is almost over is the perfect time.

🌸💕🌸 It was a joy to meet another flower farmer from Missouri. Her farm is near Rolla.

Jordan was in Springfield for a couple of days attending a convention in conjunction with her “winter” job of teaching business classes. Her “summer” job is growing flowers and meeting people… especially if they love flowers like she loves flowers. Bonus points if they love the color pink like she loves pink. 💕

🦋🌸🦋 Last year Erin and her daughter Iyla picked a bucket of flowers from my patchwork flower garden. This year Laikyn (Iyla’s friend) came with them. Today as they were leaving, Iyla said, “This is so much fun. I want to come back next summer (and every summer) and pick a bucket of flowers.”

The welcome mat is always out to pick your annual bucket of summer flowers at Patchwork Flower Farm.

🌿🌸🌿 hello there

I love this zinnia, but I love its story even more…

One day it just showed up in my garden and started to bloom. I didn’t plant it and there are no seeds for it out there in the world. Believe me… I study seed catalogs.

My hypothesis is that last summer one of my white Zinnia angustifolia plants cross pollinated with one of my pink Zinnia elegans plants (thank you pollinators) and then self-seeded. I will spare you all the nerdy details of my hypothesis. 🤪

It’s my story and I’m sticking with it.