I'm sorry I forgot to say what's in the mixes. In the first picture for FALL: This mix is comprised of winter rye, field peas, ryegrass, crimson clover and hairy vetch. Vigorous late summer growth provides winter erosion control. The peas, clover and ryegrass will winter kill to provide organic matter and soil cover. The hairy vetch and winter rye will regrow in the spring to provide nutrients for crops to utilize. For the Spring Mix , in the second picture: Use as a green manure to enrich the garden with both nitrogen and organic matter. The mix contains 60% field peas, 25% oats, and 15% hairy vetch. Designed for spring sowing, but it may be sown anytime early spring through late summer. Our backyard is part of the Rocky Mountain , literally! And so to tame patches of it, since it is not level, our son weed-whacked the rag weeds and other unwanted last fall, and since my Fall mix didn't arrive until too late(didn't want it all eaten by the wild pheasants and other wild residents-might have to pellet the seeds with fine clay powder because of that), I will sow the Spring mix very early on patches maybe 10x20's on the South facing incline for additonal gardening places and let the mix do the weeding out and the fertilizing and the softening of the dirt, and the composting, to get them ready for vegetables and flowers for the year after. I am planning to always have a patch of the mixes growing for seeds, and to rotate them from one patch to the other, and intersperse their plantings with my regulars when ever possible. Bon, bref, I've been long winded,as usual. Chris

Good Morning Annette, I just love these pictures! I think you did a terrific job naming them. Seems correct to me. I love the Oxeye Daisies. Daisies are among my favorite flowers. They were in my 1st bridle bouquet a l-o-n-g time ago. :) The Prairie Oxeyes are short little daisies and have tiny blooms, but lovely in their own right. I saw them in the Carolina mountains when we drove the scenic route one time. They were taller like yours. They just light up the forests with their friendly faces. Lupines are Mother's favorite flower, as you know. They grew all over the arid foothills of the Santa Margarita Mts above our home in South Calif. There were Indian paintbrush, Shooting Stars, Mission Bells, yellow Johnny-Jump-Ups, Calif. Poppies, Red Sage (red native to So. Cal and N. Mexico) and Red Monkey Flowers, to name a few. The Yellow Monkey Flowers grew in the canyon with the tall ferns and Miner's Lettuce and Johnny-Jump-ups. The Shooting Stars grew at the base of the hills just at the edge of the Live Oaks near the canyon floor. I cannot recall all the flower's names. We kids called the Red Monkey flower Monkey's Blood flowers - we had all sorts of pet names names for the wildflowers. The Shooting Stars where we lived looked like a pretty lilac flower with a Bumblebee getting nectar, so I called them Bumblebee flowers. Your pictures brings back fond memories of my childhood home. Mother will enjoy looking at your photos. Mother's entire family were wildlife and wildflower enthusiasts, as well as Rock Hounds. We would ALL go for treks up on the hills every spring. Grannie and her elder sisters and their families and all of us would hike up the hills taking only a little sandwich and a canteen of water. The older ladies all carried walking sticks or canes, and God help anyone who "accidentally" picked one of those pretty flowers. You would get a sharp thump for breaking "The Family Rules". I don't know how those old English ladies managed those steep and rocky trails (They looked like they could be sisters of Queen Elizabeth, especially my grannie). They would not allow anyone to help them either. "I can do it myself, thank you very much!", with a dour face that meant business. The incline was very steep, having to climb on hands and feet part of the way to get up to the trail. Grannie usually wore jeans, but her sisters usually wore light cotton dresses. They all wore big straw hats, tied securely under their chins. Cotton gardening gloves were also part of their hiking ensemble. You had to be on the lookout for rattlers, especially around the granite boulders where they liked to hide during the heat of the day. The trail was made by rabbits and other wild creatures, but used by the family, especially us kids...my Grand Aunt lived on top of the mountain and a few cousins and we lived in the canyon, so that was how we went up to visit her. It took 3/4 of an hour to climb to the top. (It would take me a day to do it now!) It was a narrow little trail, that sometimes zigzagged a lot, but we never stepped off of it or took a shortcut. That was against the The Family Rules. ---------------------------- I got sidetracked....sorry. The Common Camas is sure a beautiful flower! My goodness! Not so common looking though is it? The Death Camas - I remember those! Oh, and those Columbines! What a beautiful orangey color! They are their best in the wild, aren't they? Look how tall and lush. That little wild rose looks much like the one in my meadow, except it is pink. These here are thornless - has a few tiny prickles, but not anything that hurts to touch or grab you when you walk by them. Sweet little rose in every way. I so enjoyed your trek out into the wilds. Do you ever go out to pick the wild blackberries in July-August? Those in the piney forests taste so good to me. Of course, you do have to watch out for the bears who also happen to like them. But we never had any trouble with them. Those are the biggest, juiciest, most delectable blackberries. Just wondering if they grow there. Surely they do. Thanks Annette. ~Annie

I hadn't thought to put them in containers outside. That sounds like a very good idea, I think I will try that. Lycopus, it could be that it was due to the drainage issue. Our soil is for the most part clay, but dry. I'm going to try it in containers over the winter and see how that goes. Thank you for the response.

With the watering you're doing, you should get some California poppies pretty soon. They look like carrots, only the leaves are lighter green. In fact I guess they are related to carrots. They should flower this year, but they will only be annual for you. But then again they often reseed. Many wildflowers like a gravel mulch, and will grow and reseed better with it. For me, California poppies, Gaillardia, Mexican hat, and Prairie winecups (Callirihoe or something like that) all reseed almost to the point of being pests. Another good source for seeds down there is Plants of the Southwest.