I am not a flower arranger. I do not do arrangements. In fact, I don’t have many flowers in my summer garden, so I rarely even think about making an arrangement.

However, as a garden columnist and blogger, I am known as A Gardener. Surely, as A Gardener I ought to be able to find a few flowers to stick in a vase without disgracing myself. Thus, when no one signed up to do the church flowers yesterday, and inspired by all the goldenrod in my field, I decided to volunteer. I think the result is as beautiful as the summer day.

To the goldenrod I added zinnias, red bee balm, purple gayfeather, a pink yarrow, pink dahlias and some fading hydrangea blossoms. My ‘vase’ is a nice heavy stoneware pitcher that is my usual vase because it is heavy and sturdy. I have cats and they are much given to sniffing, and knocking over, arrangements.

Flower arranging is not my forte, but I did plant the zinnias and the dahlias with the thought that they could go into fall arrangements. It is another way of sharing the garden.