Plantings and More Plantings

We've spent an obscene amount of money at local greenhouses lately and have been very busy planting. To begin with, I got 3 dozen impatiens put in the front bed. I decided against reviving my old herb garden and, instead, will have a few potted herbs around my shiny new outdoor altar. So far, I've got two pots of sage, one eucalyptus, my 3-year-old San Pedro cactus and a few wave petunias and princess feathers around my altar. On the back porch there are two pots of basil, another eucalyptus, regular petunias and wave petunias and a brilliant purple ornamental globe amaranth. I also put together one washtub of marigolds and another of gold, confetti and lavender lantanas. Along the fence we've got four window boxes of wave petunias. I also put in a good start of spearmint along the fence well away from anything else so it can spread and grow to its little greedy hearts content. I put in a dozen or so dianthus in the bed way out to the left of the house. We've also got some scarlet begonias in three plastic hanging bags which I think looks tacky but everyone else outvoted me. Still to pot up is another big flat of wave petunias.

We also brought out our plants that overwintered under the grow lights in the back bedroom. The two Christmas cacti and the ten or so other cacti are in place and looking well. All three of the big sprengeri's need to be transplanted into bigger pots as does the schefflera, the peace lily, the tree philodendrum and the Norfolk Island pine. Unfortunately, all of the aforementioned plants are already huge and larger pots would run into many hundreds of dollars so I'm not sure what we're gonna do with them. We have a bunch of big old metal washtubs that we usually keep outside for flowers but I'm afraid we'll have to use some of them for the larger plants. Even so, they're not really big enough to accomodate these big plants, so I'm stymied.

Still to procure are another dozen or so impatiens to finish the front bed, two or three flats of begonias for our regularly begonia-filled washtubs, lavender, thyme, rosemary, dill and I'd like an aloe since kittens killed all of mine a couple of years ago. There was a nice, big aloe at one of the greenhouses we visited but they wanted $8 for it and I just couldn't go that high. If we had the money we've also got a dozen or so washtubs and hundreds of pots in all shapes and sizes. But as far as flowers and herbs go we've gotten almost everything we want.

As for the vegetables: our radishes are already done and our lettuce is gonna get eaten this week. We bought jalepenos and cayenne peppers and they're in the garden already. There are about a dozen tomato plants in the ground and a nice spot for the cucumbers to grow around as soon as they sprout. Still to plant are the okra seeds and we also hope to procure some banana peppers. We've taken advantage of the wreckage that the storm blew off the barn and now have a unique method of limiting weed growth. The big pieces of metal roofing now serve as an ugly, if useful, form of weed control. They completely block sunlight from reaching the ground between the rows. So, the storm may have scared the holy hell out of us and ripped up the barn and our roof but it's also helping us grow some veggies. It might not be an even trade but it's something, ain't it?

That's the gardening news from these hills, how are the green growing things doing in your neck of the woods?