Early Spring Garden Update

So far this spring my husband and I have purchased dill (pictured above; image source) and cilantro (pictured below; image source) for our herb/butterfly garden and a whole host of flower plants for our window boxes (pictured below, after the cilantro). We got the herbs at Home Depot and the flowers at a locally owned garden center.

We've both spent time in the garden but not at the same time. So I'm not sure what all my husband's done, but I know it's more than I've done. He has planted some seeds and I've helped with watering them, although I'm not sure what he planted. I've mostly been weeding but today I planted yellow, orange and pink/purple zinnia seeds (although the orange ones are technically tithonias) in the giant pots our lantana trees were in last year. I had intended to save some of my red zinnia seeds from last year but apparently I saved two batches of the pink instead.

Today I also planted some black eyed susan seeds near our existing plants (to expand the impact of the clump when they bloom) and set our sweet pea seeds to soak for planting tomorrow (hopefully).

My xeric garden experiment last year was a bust. The direct planted zinnia lasted the season but the rest of the annuals' lives were all too brief. This year's only survivors from that area are some irises and a lemon balm plant. Apparently the soil was too acidic and poor in nutrients for the rest. We'll need to clear the rampant weeds before we try again but this year we're aiming to make it another butterfly garden with low maintenance plants like cosmos. It's a patch I can see from the house so I'd love for it to be bursting with color (instead of wilting and getting choked out by weeds).

So, there's lots to do and little time and energy to do it. We'll do what we can and enjoy the fruits of our not so long labors. How is your gardening going? What are your favorite plants?