Day 3. I like this. We’re .008% of the way there (check my math, I believe 2024 is a Leap Year).

For today, a current pic of a coneflower that appears to be in the process of being devoured by a surrounding Baptisia (False Indigo).

This has been an interesting development from spring to summer. Here is that same pic, months earlier (and yes I’m breaking my one photo per day rule but I need it to prove my point so for the love of God, don’t hold this against me):

A beautifully blooming Baptisia but little did I know that there was a coneflower slowly emerging from within it. Once the Baptisia stopped blooming, I made the difficult decision to cut it to the ground as it began to flop. But I was rewarded with the benefit of exposing the coneflower in its wake. The photo below is again, the same section of garden, post Baptisia removal.

So what’s my point? I loved how this whole thing played out.

The Baptisia looked beautiful until it didn’t.

The coneflower was then there, happy to take the lead role.

As time progressed, the Baptisia returned and created the cool mash-up you saw in the original pic.

I couldn’t have created or planned this any better. And that’s what I love so much about gardening: the surprises. We plan, plan, plan and so often it fails, fails, fails. The harder we try, the worse off we are. This is a lesson in sitting back and enjoying the process. Enjoying that we don’t always have control.

Enjoying the magic.