Thank you Miller and Your Plant Farm

Now that the weather is officially amazing, I’ve been spending more time outside.  The downside is that I haven’t gotten much painting done.  But I was able to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a loooong time—plant some flowers in front of my house.

For the longest time, we had huge bushes in front of our house that looked like these ones.

I was never crazy about them, but didn’t have the confidence to do anything about it.  Then one day Eric went outside to “trim” the bushes.  I was happy because they were looking scraggly, but a little while later  I looked out and saw nothing but two ugly stumps where the bushes had been!  I haven’t let him trim anything since!  So for the last year, our front yard has looked like this:

I knew it had to change, but felt kind of afraid to do anything about it.  I kept remembering all of the plants that I’ve taken care of in the past and how they died.  Then on Friday night, an opportunity to act presented itself.  I was talking to my friend Danielle who works at Miller Plant Farm.  She mentioned that they were having an event the next day, and a portion of sales made would go to help breast cancer victims.  This way, if my plants didn’t make it, it wouldn’t be a total waste of money!

So Saturday morning, Minion and I set off for the plant farm and picked up twelve plants, three bags of mulch, and a bag of potting soil for $88.  We spent a few hours digging, planting and mulching, and ended up with this:

Notice how the stumps are still there?  I actually like them in with all of my flowers.  They add a neat sculptural element that is preferable to lawn gnomes.

Now for a closer look at some of the plants  I bought.

Two Butterfly Plants

Two kinds of Phlox. Lavender and Magenta.

Double Impatiens

Breathless Blush Euphorbia

New Guinea Impatiens

I also bought three round dwarf evergreen bushes and pale yellow daisies.

The garden itself is still getting started.  Some of the plants will stay fairly small, but others will grow to be about 24″ tall.  I didn’t want any more huge monstrosities blocking the light from my house.   As for whether or not I can keep them alive, I think I’ll be OK.  When I was picking out the plants, I looked at the tags to see which ones were easy to take care of.  I also kept all of the tags from the flowers, so that I can see how to care for them.

If you are like me (knowing very little about plants) and want to know how the process of planting everything went here’s the scoop:

1) Keeping all of the plants in their pots, I laid them out on the ground.  By looking at their tags, I placed the plants that like more shade in places that get more shade, and the plants that like sun…well, you get it.

2) Next minion and I marked the dirt where the plants would be, and dug holes for the plants.  We put a bit of potting soil in the hole for some extra nutrients before placing the plant, and filling in the hole.

3) Once all of the plants were planted, we spread a thin(ish) layer of mulch over the flower bed.

4) Take care of them!  The plants will tell you if they’ve had too much water or not enough by their appearance.

After this experience, I’m ready to redo my entire lawn!  Minion and I had soooo much fun, and it was such a good feeling to finish something in an afternoon.