Spring at Last!

Thanks to the secure 10 day forecast with lows in steady in the mid 40's and the approaching last frost date for my area fast approaching, spring is finally here! I have been so productive out in the garden this week. I'm pooped out, but its the most beautiful kind of exhaustion. Mother nature is dumping 3 days of rain on us, so I worked part sundown tonight getting a fraction of the getting seeds, putting a few annuals in the ground, and planting a few perrenials I have collected this spring. I'm anxious for the rain, so I have time to collect myself. I'm pulling out my garden journal and crossing things off the to-do list, drawing a few more ideas up, and making plant labels in the house

I also pruned my clematis. I have never done this before. I was just too nervous, as the vines are so fragile and I tend to break them. I sucked it up, and spent 2 hours out there delicately seperating the new & established growth from dead growth. I wound up with a pile of sticks and a nice clean trellises full of several healthy clematis vines. I am so proud of myself, and excited to see these puppies bloom this year. Pics of this to come later...

For now, here's some more pretties outside:

Containers

I found this massive basket of New Guinea impatiens at Walmart for $5! I can get a NG impatien to live in the house all winter with proper care, so I hope this basket gets more than one year of use...

Here's the back porch right now. I have been working on these containers every day. I have some base plants in each one, mostly plants I can overwinter indoors. I added seedings to bare spots a month or two ago, and now I'm assessing if there is a need to plug in any annuals...

I found these decorative glass balls at Gordman's on clearance months ago, and I've been sticking them all over the place. You can see one in the pot with the cutting of Queen of the Night, and the other in the Hoya I also took from a cutting in my grandma's garden.

I had started my lettuce seedlings in this container outside on the bag porch a month ago. I transplanted the lettuce seedling to the vegetable bed this week, and I put some annuals in the container. I found the blue nemesia at kmart for $1.49, the 4 pack of profusion zinnia for $1.79 at my local nursery, the calibrochia was $3, and the potato vines were $1.99 each at Walmart. The purple plant whose name slips my mind right now was $4 at the local nursery. I plugged in some canna bulbs (smaller ones) in the back of the pot, and a 4 pack of light blue petunias I found at Farm and Fleet for $1.49... and ta-da... all done. I have to say, F & F has the best prices this year, and Home Depot had the worst!

I am the least patient gardner there is, but I don't have funds flying out my wallet to buy the biggest and best plants. My front door containers are always a challenge for me. I have to find plants that do well in deep shade, add the colors I want, and also don't cost too much. This year I wanted a redish theme. I decided to get one special annual for each containers, this fuschia 'autumnale,' and then add a 4 pack of impatiens, one lime coleus from a Walmart 4 pack, and one New Guinea impatien plants costing around $2 a piece. I invested in these hanging baskets 3 years ago or so, and I still have not replaced the lining... it just hasn't needed to be replaced. I even re-use the soil, adding composted manure to the existing dirt from the previous year. Ta-Da!

That's all for now!