Last fall, surrounded by gardens prwpping for winter after 2 seasons of bounty, I gathered flower and herb seeds.

Zinnia, Cosmos, Sunflowers, and three kinds of Marigolds that had completed the veggie garden and brought us so many pollinators.

Calendula, bergamot, lemon balm, black eyed susans, and two kinds of coneflower from the Wild.

I left the majority of them in the gardens for the insects and critters.who need overwinter cover, but still had an overwhelming amount of seed mix after reasonable cleaning.

As I cleaned the seeds, I kept thinking of the friends and family who commented and got joy from the pictures of my flowers last year, and wondered who would be interested in some of their own. I reached out to some folks and found out that interest was there….and thus was born #growbeautifultogether.

I put together 23 roughly 2 oz packets of seed mix….and asked for volunteers who wanted to plant some.

This is also a science experiment of sorts. How many of the seeds will be viable? What kinds of marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, and coneflower have come out of potential crosses? What will the F1 of this sunflower look like?

I can’t wait to see the results of this social and science experiment…. hopefully we will see lots of sprouts and flowers over the next 9 months, but for today the ones getting mailed across the country and across town.went out with the mail…