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Where are my gardening gloves – time to get my hands in some dirt

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I’ve got my work cut out for me this weekend! Yesterday evening my husband and I went to a new garden center that opened up near us – it’s called Reeves Nursery.

We’d driven past the site a few times in the last couple of weeks and when I took a look at their website I discovered that they have a “no tax” Wednesday every week … so we figured we might save some money if we went shopping for our plants last night.

It turned out that they were having a 20% off sale … so we got that instead of the “no tax” as that saved us an extra 7%. They had a great selection of plants in a variety of sizes and the prices were ok … I’d be happy if the prices were the lowest I could find, but the discount and the quality of the plants made me a happy gardener.

We ended up spending more than I thought we would. You see we have several hanging planters, window planters and 7 balcony boxes (those large low rectangular planters) to fill with annuals.

I did grow some of my own annuals this year, but not nearly as many as I need.

So … what did we end up getting?

A flat of Impatiens, 2 nice double flowering Begonia, 2 small Fuchsia, 6 dwarf Dahlia’s, 6 Gerber Daisies, a few Coleus, several Lobelia and Petunia plants, dwarf white night scent Nicotina, several Marigolds in vibrant orange and yellow and I’m sure a few other plants that I can’t think of right now.

I also picked up some early Girl tomato plants, Sweet cherry 100, English cucumbers a few types of lettuce and Swiss Chard.

The only plants I couldn’t find, but ones that I usually use in my garden or planters were annual Geraniums and Cleomes. When I found the dwarf Dahlia’s I thought I’d use them instead of the Geraniums but if I can find some Geraniums this weekend I might use both.

As for the Cleomes I did find some at Reeves but they were single plants in 4 inch pots at 2.99 each … and I need about 20 of them to border the back of my garden beds so I’ll have to find cheaper ones. Oh and I did take some seeds off the plants last year so I’ll be planting some of last years seeds in the back of the garden beds this weekend too.

Earlier in the week we’d been to another garden center. I wanted to find a replacement for one of my roses – Chicago Peace – as it didn’t seem to come back this year. With the great weather we’ve had all year I’d think it would show signs of life by now, especially considering that all the rest of my roses are 3 to 7 feet high, full of leaves and rose buds … but no luck.

So … I thought I’d replace that rose with perhaps a Weigela or another type of flowering hardy shrub since I’ve now lost two roses in the same spot in the garden. I did pick out a purple Weigela that I love, but then I found yet another Chicago Peace … so I guess the Weigela will go in another place in the garden and I’ll try the rose for the third and final time in my small oval patio garden bed.

All in all I think I picked up 75 or more plants! You know what I’m going to be doing this weekend … planting, planting, planting. I’ll also be pulling out all my seeds and get some veggies and a few other annuals started by seed.

Hows the weather in your area? Are you going to be planting this weekend too?






Lovely blue

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Wordless Wednesday

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This is a photo of Johnson’s Blue Geraniums. It’s a hardy perennial geranium.

I posted about this flower recently and I said that my geraniums have been looking more purple than blue lately.

I took the photo above a in May last year. Perhaps these geraniums are bluer in the cool spring weather and darker or more purple in color later in the season? Either that or perhaps my soil composition changed last year. I guess I’ll have to do a soil test.

Visitors to the garden

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We had some unexpected guests in our garden earlier this week. I believe it was on Sunday morning or possibly Monday.

My husband and I were in the kitchen when he turned and said “Look, Look a Blue Jay!” and just outside the window in a window planter a lovely male Blue Jay was examining the remnants of the flower box. There’s still some snap dragons and annual geraniums in the box … dead of course because of the cold, but I expect the Jay was after the seed heads that were still on the plants.

We watched the Blue Jay fly around our yard for a short while before it disappeared. It visited a few different plants and then sat at the bird feeder in the center of the yard.

After the Blue Jay disappeared we were about to leave the kitchen … discussing how we’d better fill our Suet containers later that day … and then I saw a light colored bird with reddish tones to it’s feathers enter the yard and sit in the Rose of Sharon tree. I believe it was a female Cardinal.

The Cardinal was quite happy to sit in the Rose of Sharon and on the fence nearby for a little while before it too disappeared.

To the best of my knowledge Cardinals and Blue Jays don’t get along all that well … well …. I don’t think Blue Jays like many other birds in their immediate territory.

I hope they both come back though. We filled a few suet baskets and topped up the seeds in two of our bird feeders.

I know that there’s been a blue jay around for a few years. I don’t see it often, but I hear it calling out as it flies around the immediate neighborhood. I’ve also see the male cardinal around a few times over the last few years as well.

We have a number of birds that frequent our yard, but most are quite common birds. I suppose Jays and Cardinals are common enough too but we don’t see them often so they are special visitors to our garden.

I suppose I’ll take the birds visits as a compliment to my garden. It’s maturing and I’ve been careful to grow plants that a number of birds and butterflies enjoy. It seems to be paying off because each year there is more and more wildlife in my garden.

I’ll keep an eye out for my little visitors and try to get some photos.

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