PLANTING TIME ~ FINALLY!

Every year about this time (actually sooner but our weather has been so bad) my hands start itching to get into the dirt. I've been buying little bits & pieces of plants and getting them into the dirt. I've picked a color scheme again this year for most of my hanging baskets and planters~ red, white & blue. One exception is the pot below...I couldn't resist these pretty dianthus, which are more of a deep pink and the one in the middle is varigated, pink & white. I got two Early Girl tomato plants, they are small so I planted them close together & used one tomato cage. And yes~they are planted in a former blue recycle bin. They are great for planting & easy to move around.

I got a six-pack of tulips about ready to bloom for $3.35 at Lowe's the other day. It was fun to use them to fill in where bulbs had not come up this spring.

This is a red, white & blue hanging basket. I highly recommend the plants with the white flowers. I used them for the first time last year. They are called Bacopa and it is wonderful. It just went crazy in the two baskets I used it in last year.

These two hanging baskets still look a little puny. But they'll come around. They contain red & white geraniums and the white Bacopa in the middle.

My 4 year old hydrangea is sprouting. I cut 5 or 6 branches off of Bob's big hydrangea and stuck them in the dirt here at my house. They rooted and last year I had 4 blooms on it.

This hanging basket is another diversion from my 2009 theme. White bacopa with a pink one thrown in. I see this one from my kitchen window and I thought the pink was so pretty.

This pot sits at the end of my carport and next to the storage shed. I always fill it full of Easter Bonnet Sweet Alyssum. The colors are pink, white & purple and it smells wonderful! After it gets a little bigger you can smell it as you walk by it. Sometimes if the breeze is blowing just right the fragrance comes in my kitchen window.

This pot had an old, scraggly looking Dianthus in it. So I found this pretty new white one, dumped out the old plant and dirt and replanted the pot. It sits on my porch and also smells delightful as you pass it. I always use Miracle-Gro potting soil or garden soil when I plant. It saves a lot of fertilizing later.

These are some yellow tulips I had from last year. If you've ever watched tulips, they open up like this during the day and close up tight at night.

And my good old rhubarb is coming along. I'm still hoping to have a raised bed installed in my back yard and if that happens, the rhubarb will be moved into the garden bed and out of these planters (aka recycle bins).

I hope everyone out there has the opportunity to plant at least one tomato plant or a flower this spring. It's makes you feel so good to watch something grow you've planted with your own hands......