ellen 
This summer, I’ve been mostly away from my garden with a long trip to the West and West Coast (post soon) and a few trips to Minnesota. Little did I know when I said I wanted a meadow this past winter that I may have gotten it. It’s not really a meadow, but I did put out some wildflower seed. The only things that seem to have taken hold, wildly, are flax, sunflowers, bachelor buttons, and a poppy.
Personally, I like a self seeding garden with the likes of:
- love in midst
- alyssum
- cone flower
- snap dragons
- cleome
- cilantro
- sunflower
- chamomile
- columbine
garden helper Che 
sunflower 
sweet alyssum with blue denim salvia 
miniature pink hollyhock, a biennial 
cone flower that is a perennial but also seeds new plants each year
Mixed in with perennials and a few annuals, they make for a very full garden. 
Lucky for me, I’m back just in time for my tomatoes, along with lots of weeding and thinning. One thing I did try earlier this season with some arugula from my sister-in-law’s garden was arugula pesto. Substituting arugula for basil. I also used pecans to try to sweeten it up some. It had a pretty bitter bite, but was tasty as a topping on pizza. Who knew? Hope you too are enjoying your mid summer garden.