When I was going through the last few newspapers at the office, I found two places nearby that I hope to be able to check out over the weekend. One is a plot near Zamora next to a granary where the owner has planted two whole acres of Zinnias – and he’s opened up the acres so passersby can come in, look at the flowers, cut some if they like and take them home, and check out all of the neat bugs around. The flowers attract all sorts of pollinators (in a time of the year when there aren’t many flowers around to feed them.

According to the Davis Enterprise, “Yolo County business owner Mark Mezger has, for the past six years, devoted two acres of his property to growing zinnias for the public to enjoy.”

On my way there, I stopped once at the side of the road to get a few shots of the sunflower fields. Farmers don’t grow them to sell the flowers, of course; they grow them for their seeds. But the long expanses of yellow are pretty.

Then it was on to the zinnia plot in Zamora. I found it relatively easily – Take I5 to the County Road 99 exit at the town of Yolo, turn left, go up a couple of miles and it’s on the left side of the road with a “Free Flowers” sign in front of it. There was a large dirt turnout right next to it, so it was easy to park there. I didn’t stay very long, only about 10 or 15 minutes, but it was nice to see all of the color and all of the insects just starting to wake up in the morning light. A nice “earthy” way to start my day. I’d like to go back sometime to stay a bit longer and look for more bugs…

CLICK HERE to see an album of photos.

CLICK HERE to read an old article on the field from 2013.