Finally! Plants!

I finally got to make my trip to the garden center yesterday. I'd been wanting to get my plants since early May, but it seemed like every time I had the time and opportunity, the weather turned foul - cold and rainy.

I got impatiens, violas, petunias, calibrachoa (one of my favorite annuals now, for hanging baskets - they just mass and spill over the side and look really cool), and a trailing vine I liked for the 'window boxes' I plan to put on the fence. I also picked up some perennials: a hosta, a Japanese painted fern, and a lily I really liked just because it was pretty.

The first cleared bed, the one with the azaleas, had filled itself up with grass and weeds, making for a pretty labor-intensive hour or so clearing that before I could plant anything.


I put the violas in that bed, with a few impatiens.


It certainly looks like nothing right now, especially in this picture, but I have hope for it. If I take good care of those plants, in about a month they should completely fill that space, just masses of blooming flowers. That's the plan anyway.

I planted impatiens along the driveway at my old house one year, and they were this size when I planted them, but by mid-summer they had grown to about 2' tall and were spilling out into the driveway, just massive waves of flowers all along the drive. I think that was the year I had installed a soaker hose in that bed, so they got watered thoroughly and frequently. Other years, when I tried just watering with the hose, they didn't do nearly as well.

This bed will have a soaker hose and part of my rainwater collection system eventually, but until it does, I'll just have to make sure I keep them well watered, and fed - I'm fertilizing this year, too, with a Miracle-Gro all purpose fertilizer. And I know this soil's excellent. When we moved here, there was what was basically a big well-aged compost heap in the back yard. I don't think the family had meant it to be one, but they had apparently been piling all the leaves from the yard in the back corner for several years, and they'd all decomposed into this rich, black soil that was amazing. Last year when I first cleared out this bed, I hauled several wheelbarrows of it's old depleted soil out to the compost heap and dumped it, and replaced it with good soil from the compost heap. (I couldn't just add the good stuff to the existing because the soil level was already higher than the surrounding concrete sidewalk, and I needed to lower the soil level a little bit).

So between the excellent soil, the good location, and lots of water and appropriate fertilizer, these should do really well.

The rest of the impatiens are for along the fence-line, but I can't plant those till I get the fence done and put up.

I bought some snapdragons just because I think they're pretty, but I haven't figured out where to plant them yet.

So that's what I got done Saturday. I'm still painting on the fence (dying to get that done, but it's time consuming), and I still have to clear the other area of garden out here, under the spare room window - then I can plant the fern, hosta, and anything else I pick up for that area this year. Oh - I ordered some plants, too, I almost forgot.

Spring Hill Nursery was having a big sale, so I got some yellow daylilies, an astilbe, and some blazing star - because they were all really cheap. Blazing star is an Ohio native, so that goes well with my 'wildlife habitat' plan - they recommend you plant native plants as much as possible. I haven't had terribly good luck ordering plants, though I don't blame the nursery, but myself. I think they require a little more effort in the beginning, as they usually arrive dormant. I remember I got a fern from them one year that looked basically like a dead stick. I planted it, and persisted in watering it, even though it felt stupid to be watering a dead stick ... but the following year I did, in fact, have a fern (albeit a small one).

I'm kind of impatient, at least until I already have some things established so I feel like I have some kind of garden in existence. That's why I bought a fern and hosta yesterday from the garden center instead of ordering from Spring Hill, though it was more expensive - wanted something already out and and growing to inspire me. Later I may not mind ordering some plants (especially ones I can't find locally), but I wanted to have something going on this year.

So, lots going on. And speaking of that, time to get back to work - it's a beautiful, beautiful day (sunny and high 80s today!). I have fence to paint, hanging baskets to plant, another flower bed to clear, and oh - some mundane chores as well (grocery shopping, blah).