Monday, April 25, 2016

The Accidental Garden




Between rainstorms today, we started replanting two pots in the front of the house. I pulled out the dead stalks and leaves, and I was happy to see a few of the geraniums from last year were coming back in both pots. You can see their flower clusters at the bottom of these two pictures...

The other day, I was at Home Depot and Lowes looking for two rosemary bushes to put in the pots for height. I guess it's too early for rosemary as neither store had any. I settled for two gardenia bushes, which have no flowers yet but lots of buds.
My two requirements for picking plants this year were that they could take full sun and need the soil kept slightly moist. 

You'd think our pots would tend to be a little dry here in Texas, but the sun gets so hot that I like to water those suckers really well every day. Sometimes twice. So I've found the plants that like their soil dry just don't survive me.
There's a lot of "should haves" involved in this story. Like, I should have waited for the rosemary to be available. I should have washed and painted the pots before I replanted them. And...I should have bought new metal rollers for under the pots!
The roller on the one above was OK, but the one below had one wheel broken off, which I discovered as soon as I moved it. I took the broken roller away and just put the pot on the walkway until I get back to the store to buy two new ones.
There wasn't enough room for the gardenia plants in the pots since more of last years plants survived than I expected. The gardenias will need a plan B, but for now they're inside the entry because it's supposed to hail hard tomorrow.

 There's still a little empty space on the left bottom of both pots that needs a little trailing "something" or other. The stub on the right side is a flowering cabbage that I cut off. It grew back last year, so I'm going to leave it and see what happens.
 Thankfully, the little family fig tree has already come back to life this year. You can see it hiding around the right corner here.
Seems this will have to be the year it gets a bigger pot or planted into the ground. Last May, I wrote about how fig tree clippings have been passed down through the generations from one fig tree that Wild Bill's grandfather had. When his cousin gave us this fig, it was just a tiny clipping rooted in water.


Thanks for dropping by!


Joining the party here:
Mrs Olson's





14 comments:

  1. One of the things I have realized as I looked at different posts that had containers is that I need to plant them fuller and I need things that trail. Thanks for the inspiration.

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  2. It's always nice to discover plants that have survived!
    Nothing usually makes it through the Midwest winters here but occasionally some little flower that I thought was an annual will pop up!
    I like your choices and it's looking good!!!
    Love that fig tree.
    I also love that you water so much! Ha!
    xoxoxo

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  3. Thanks for stopping by my blog! I totally enjoyed looking at your pretty plants and flowers. :)
    Hope you enjoy the week.
    Julie xo

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  4. I hope your gardenias bloom! That is the best smell in the whole wide world...and that's saying a lot.

    Your pots are so pretty. I love it when there's a good mix of different things put together.

    Thanks so much for joining the garden party. Be sure and visit friends if you have time. There are some amazing posts. :)

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  5. You're off to a good start. We have to have plants that do well in moist soil too, we live in a swamp. If you lived closer I'd give you a cutting of my rosemary, it winters over here, mine is about 11 years old.

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  6. What lovely blooms. Thank you so much for linking up to the Garden Party. Your garden is completely enchanting!

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  7. How lucky to have so much retuning in your pots. I think they look great! Believe it or not, I found a large Rosemary at no other place other than Walmart. Thanks for sharing with the Garden Party.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  8. I hope you have a summer-full of pleasure from your new (and old) plants! AND I hope you and they survived the storm....AND I hope to see these plants mature via future posts!

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    1. Oh Rebecca, we sure had a rip roaring thunderstorm last night. The Tornado sirens howled for at least 40 minutes straight. No damage here though, prayers for those elsewhere who were affected.

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  9. I am so impressed with the Fig Tree growing from a clipping!
    True sign of a green thumb!
    Everything looks marvelous and thriving.
    Thank you so much for joining us at the Garden Party!
    Jemma

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  10. I like following your garden diary. Things hardly ever go according to plan in a garden yet usually work out fine. I'm sure there is a lesson in there somewhere :-)
    Amalia
    xo

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  11. Oh, all your flowers are beautiful.

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  12. I just remember that I planted rosemary in the garden and I can't remember where. I need to look around to see it it's growing.

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