Monday, May 12, 2014

Planting Flowers→Pretty Patio

Every spring I re-discover that shopping for plants brings me so much joy!  I love being outside in nice weather and I try to choose a perfect spring day that is cool, but balmy.  Then, it brings out my creativity to "design" a container - I try to choose a variety of colors, textures and heights, when choosing plants for each container.

This year, I chose a perfect balmy evening and went plant shopping with my mom.  I was energized as I placed plants in my cart and envisioned how each container would look!  I also discovered something new - hummingbird moths.  I couldn't figure out if it was a bird or an insect, so I took this video!  Then I posted it on Facebook and got my answer!


(Disclaimer - I'm not a gardening expert - I am just telling you what I normally do.)  For container gardening, I fill the bottom with something other than soil.  I do this to promote drainage, make the pot a bit lighter and to not use so much expensive potting soil.  Things I've used are river rocks and crushed, empty soda cans. 

Then I fill with a good potting soil mix, up to about an inch from the top of the container.  Then I start planting!  There is an easy to follow design rule (which I don't love saying, but I know it helps) - for each container have a "thriller, filler and spiller".  The thriller is the tall focal point plant.  The filler plants are the medium size plants and the spiller, is obviously, one that will trail over the side of the container.

 
This is me planting - lots of dirt under my nails.
 
 
This pot has lavender geraniums and pink, purple and white petunias.  I always get a lot of petunias, they flourish well in heat and I think they smell good.
 
 
The round pot has elephant ears (thriller) in the center, petunias and begonias (filler) surrounding, bright green potato vine (spiller)(which will spread and trail like crazy) and then I picked out a "chocolate mint" plant - which smells AMAZING and I was very excited about.
 
The two long containers have purple heart in the center (thriller), vinca plants (filler) and vinca vine(spiller).
 
One other thing to remember is to leave room for them to grow!
 
Happy Spring and Happy Mother's Day!


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