Saturday, June 30, 2012

Tiny Garden Plots!

Not everyone finds gardening therapeutic. But most of us like flowers. Or pretty borders. Some of us just want to celebrate a few months of NO SNOW...

Whatever your reason, you've come to the right place!

When there's no time (or no inclination) to garden, tiny plots or spots of color RULE....



This is an old pig pot that I re-spray paint black every few years. It sits along side a bed of ivy... I love ivy because it generally stays weed-free and makes a carpet of green, even when summer gets hot and dry. It's like an OASIS of green, it's that pretty. So these baby wax begonias (see the little one in the foreground? That's the one the cat sleeps on... sigh...) will fill this pot with color in a few weeks and make a nice focal point. WITH NO WEEDING!  And the wood chip mulch is free from our town, part of their recycling brush/limbs program. Thank you, Parma!!!!

And here's a fun idea I stole from my friend Margaret Stutzman....


This is a fun old basket I found for $2 at a garage sale...

I threw some stones in the bottom for drainage and added potting soil, then Beth planted it with all this stuff. I should know what that white stuff is, but I forgot... and I got it at the Flower Days show at the Rochester Public Market, amazing prices... and so much fun! So white fluffy stuff is falling out the front, growing down over the garden wall that I made years ago... and I see marigolds, wax begonias and petite snapdragons... I don't know if I'd use them in the baskets again, they're a little delicate and we all know that delicate DOES NOT WORK around here.

Like, um... ever. Except in lace, I do love delicate lace. But I love rugged Irish lace, too.

I digress.

One more "Spot" pic.... Because little bursts of color make all the difference!


Same garden wall... it runs across the front of my house, half-way. It's the only front garden and I terraced it with the rock wall about six years ago... The rest of the front is ivy, again... I don't have to mow ivy.
So here's the fun white spiller stuff again, alone. Tumbling out of a wooden crate. Beth turned the crate on its side, filled the bottom with potting soil, planted the white thing (it was a three-inch pot, so decent sized already) and it's THRIVING... and tumbling down the rosy wall so it looks great.  And to the right is a plastic pot filled with sweet potato vine, coleus, dusty miller and... Maybe a wax begonia???  Nope, I think it's a petite snapdragon again. And that's the problem I'm having with them, they've been in for a month and no color even though I dead-headed them.

Enough for today.... We're planting Wave Petunias at Mom's house today to give her gardens bursts of color. Wave Petunias are the world's best invention. Piles of sharp color, no dead-heading, and they grow in waves across the garden. Easy care, gorgeous, brilliant. 
Love them.

This is what they do... what they look like... and they come in a host of gorgeous colors, including a really fun purple and yellow striped variety I just planted at the base of the walk in front of mums that won't blossom for 7 weeks.... So a nice burst of color to bring out the green in the mums, right?

Spot gardens are perfect for those of us with little or no time... and a love for flowers!