Planting Flowers Part Two

Planting Flowers Part Two

 

Have you started a garden yet? With the crazy weather people are having, some people may not be able to plant until fall!  We live in the south and usually have our garden in by mid to end of March but this year that didn’t happen.  Our southern spring started out cold!  It did warm up long enough for the roses and azaleas to start to bud only to have freezing weather and there went the buds.  It was still unsettled weather in April but I was itching to get something planted.  The three empty flower pots around one of our bird feeding stations that had petunias last year was a good place to start.  I wrote a blog on April 7th about starting the wild flowers for the hummingbirds and butterflies, this is the link to read part one:  http://themarthareview.com/planting-flowers-for-the-butterflies-and-hummingbirds/  So today I’m updated part one and writing about Planting Flowers Part Two.

The weather has been rainy and cold the past 20 days but the sun comes out during the day and warms up a bit.  Within the week after planting my seeds we had little sprouts popping through the soil on Friday the 13th!

The next week warmed up great and the pots are full of the beginning of hopefully wild flowers on April 20th.  When I went strolling through the yard today, April 27th, I was amazed at how much they had grown in just another 7 days.  Once the plants get a big stronger, I will thin them out, planting the ones I remove in the garden.

As for our vegetable garden, that may not make it this year. Between hubby and I both having the flu, bronchitis and a virus starting in February, hubby having a hip replacement the end of March and now the bronchitis has reappeared, the vegetables may have to wait until next year.

But in the past, we have had vegetables one year then planted flowers the next.  So maybe this is the year to plant flowers. This was the beginning of our raised bed flower garden 5 years ago.   But it still had vegetables! I planted a row of green leaf lettuce in the front and red leaf in between the flowers.  It worked like a plan because the lettuce grew so fast and gave color to the garden while the flowers were growing larger.

Maybe there is still time to plant a few vegetables, how I love fresh squash, peppers and eggplant! Our vegetable garden last year was fantastic!  These pictures were from the middle of May and we were already eating fresh garden vegetables!

But whatever the plan, vegetables or flowers, it will work.  If flowers I sure will miss my fresh vegetables but I can keep the farmer’s market busy while going out to smell the flowers.