My dear friend invited herself over to watch me sow some flower seeds.   I had been somewhat bragging how much money I had saved in planting my own pansies and snapdragons this last fall/winter so she was intrigued when I told her I was going to sew more this early spring.  She brought a bottle of wine with her which I thought was an excellent idea.  Who does not enjoy a glass of wine in a garden?

It turns out my neighbor happened to see me that morning and brought over some seeds for a type of collard green.  He had tried to plant them without success, so I said, "Sure, I will give it a go in my green house".  So we sewed 3 flats of seeds.....one for snapdragons, one for pansies and one flat collards.

The wine was wonderful, adding to the time well spent with a girlfriend and a neighbor who watched, then participated and learned.  We labeled them and hoped for the best, as we all do when we plant seeds. 

They came up with a varying degree of success.    All 3 flats produced seedlings and I transplanted them when they were old enough to take my windy garden.  The pansies were a new type I had just received from a catalog claiming to be more heat tolerant and having unusual but big blooms.  Ah, why not I said. 

My snapdragons were lost in an unexpected heat wave for 4 days, and my lack of diligence in keeping them moist destroyed the entire flat.  My pansies came up stronger than I ever saw before.  I planted them in a nice shady spot so they could survive the late spring.  My son promised to water them regularly.  The collard greens never came up, cementing my neighbors claim that they must not be able to be grown here.  He later admitted he had snuck those seeds across the border from North Carolina, so I had then had to discuss the problem with that, but I digress......

So I leave for a 2 week vacation and come home to this......Look at my pansies! 

No, these are not pansies.  These are collard greens and now my neighbor is so harvesting from my flower garden. They are everywhere, in my hanging baskets, lining my pots and beds... Lesson learned, drinking wine while labeling plants is not a good idea unless you are prepared for the surprise.