April Showers Brought May Flowers…
May 04, 2012 // Posted in: Backyard, Beach, Gardening // By: Emily // 4 responses… and also, lots of beach glass.
Can you believe I’ve been gathering a full cup of beach glass each time I walk on shores of Lake Ontario? This was just one trip. Two pockets. Half an hour.
Things are back to feeling springtime-ish again, it’s finally nice enough to enjoy the garden and the beach. I dismissed every old wives tale and most rational landscapers when I prepared the flowery, overflowing potted plants on my deck prior to May 1st. In nothing short of rebellion, it snowed the very next day, so I carried all of the plants, even the gigantic planter (now weighing at least half as much as me thanks to 1.5 cubic feet of wet potting soil) inside and allowed them to begin their planted life soaking sunlight through the window.
As May 1st came and went, the weather improved on cue, and all of those planters moved back into the deck. They’re thrilled. The strawberry tentacles reached outward another 10″ in 48 hours in an extreme celebratory feat.
Adding to the floral fun, I dropped the some yellow pansies into the tangerine hanging baskets that I painted last year, lined with some 14″ Coco liners that I picked up on the cheap at JoAnn’s with 50% off coupons (bringing them to just $2.99/each).
The baskets themselves are shaped more so like an abstract flower than other baskets I’ve seen and owned, and to add a little flair to the standard liners, I trimmed the edges with ordinary scissors to appear scalloped, each coco petal aligned with the orange metal petal.
They’ll still need to be hung from one of the pergolas, but I’ll get around to that soon.
The Bellis needed a new home too, anything really, it just needed to spread its roots. It fit nicely within a planter that I’ve had for years, but had forgotten about, a clean-lined IKEA find that looks nice against the deck and the other planters. Hopefully Bellis will grow into it a little bit before it stops blossoming.
I’ve also been seizing the short-lived opportunity to, uh, prune flowering branches in the neighborhood. Not from other homeowner lots or anything, just, publically accessible and within arm’s reach on dog walks. Worth it just to have some fresh blossoms over the kitchen sink for a few weeks.
Planting anything this weekend?
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Emily @ Our Waldo Bungie
6 years ago -Oh I feel so silly that I never thought to spray paint a hanging pot! I might be doing that in the near future!
This spring we decided to plant lettuce and herbs in our deck planters for easy access in the summer – it was the best decision ever! Now whenever we want a salad, we just got pick off a handful of outer leaves of the lettuce and it keeps on growing! :)
Emily
6 years ago -I love lettuce in the garden. I haven’t done it since I lived in an apartment, doing it as a money-saving tactic, but then I accidentally ate it all down and it never regrew. A bummer moment for one salad. :)
Marylou
6 years ago -I agree that spraying those baskets a color was a great idea…I just bought some orange ( new color this year) petunias in baskets…also got some single plants & put them in pots I made up…the orange looks great with my wasabi front doors
Emily
6 years ago -The baskets themselves were actually handpainted. Spraying would have been a nice alternative, but it was before we had the paint sprayer and I was intent on using the inexpensive orange paint that I picked up from Sherwin-Williams. I love the color of them though. There are a few dings on them now, but anything rough could easily enough be touched up still. It was a great way to bring the baskets back to life.