Planted

What a beautiful morning we had today! It was perfect for finishing the planting of my deck garden. I had planted most of my pots a few days ago, but needed just a few more things.

Anne Marie and I had another shopping trip at various greenhouses a couple of days ago, and I bought what I needed to finish the project.

And now I have 38 pots of various types and sizes, all planted and ready to grow ever more beautiful as summer progresses.

I mostly have petunias, plus one geranium (its gorgeous blooms caught my eye and I couldn't leave without it), two tomatoes, and two plants with little white blooms that grow into vines that hopefully will drape over the sides of the two big corner pots that I put tomatoes in.

I use petunias because I have found that they are hardier that many of the types of flowers I have used in other years. Petunias can withstand a light frost, and even an early snowfall. They come in so many varieties of colors and blossom patterns that I find I don't really miss having the other kinds of flowers I formerly planted.

After I finished the planting, I swept the deck--which it sorely needed. I removed quite a pile of debris blown in over the winter, leaves blown down from the cottonwood tree in last night's storm, sticky pod shells dropped by the tree, and potting soil. I always try to be neat and tidy while planting, but always end up with soil sprinkled all around the area.

The deck is now a pleasant place to spend time, and that is just what I did when I finished. I sat down with any icy Coke and a book on my Kindle, and relaxed for awhile.

My next outdoor project is to clean and refurbish my deck "people." The sun and weather fade a lot of the colors, so I will repaint the parts that need it and give them a new clear, protective coat. That should keep them looking good for at least a couple of years.

My flowers are just babies now, but with some warm weather they will soon explode with growth and surround my deck with blossoms and beauty.

I Have Flowers!

I have flowers on the deck again. After a long, long winter of deadness and barrenness outside my deck windows/doors, I could hardly wait to get new flowers in those pots. I knew better than to plant too early--it is Wyoming.

Finally, I felt safe in buying my petunias. Then, with positive weather forecasts and a lunch on the deck planned for Memorial Day, I started planting like crazy.

I can only plant when it is not too hot and I'm not in direct sun. A medication I took a few years ago with disastrous results has left me with a sun allergy. With my pale skin (oh, yes, I envy the "brown" family members, since I got our dad's fair skin rather than our mom's darker, easy-to-tan variety) I've always burned easily. Now I have weird break outs of allergy bumps if I get too much direct sun on my hide. And too much is really very little.

That means I plant in the morning while the deck (west side of the house) is shady, or in the evening after the sun is nearly down. This year I've been doing it in the morning. I got about 3/4 done before the Memorial Day lunch and finished planting the rest of the flowers I had day before yesterday. I lacked just a few flowers to complete the job (it would seem a shame to leave any pots empty!). So, yesterday Anne Marie and I stopped at the Buffalo Gardens temporary greenhouse and I bought enough to finish the job. I haven't got those last few in the planters yet.

Even though they are still babies, it pleases my eye and my soul to see flowers on the deck again. Thirty pots/planters may seem a bit excessive to some, but I love the floral surround.

And yesterday the weather was perfect for a quiet morning with a book and a cup of coffee on the deck.

(I could take a photo, but it would just look like last year's and the year before's. . . .)

Petunias Are Tough

Most years I can count on my flowers staying beautiful until the end of October.

This year we had our first big snowstorm the last week of September. The flowers survived it. A week later we had an even bigger snowstorm, one that has been written about in several blogs--and it was definitely a newsworthy event.

The zinnias did not make it this time.

The weight of over fourteen inches of heavy, wet snow mashed the plants, damaging their beauty, but those tough petunias are still keeping on! With the colder nights we are now having that won't last much longer, but the durability of these plants that look so fragile amazes me.



In full summer bloom.

Last Friday

Today

On Sunday, after the thaw was well underway, I took some photos of my deck "people" emerging from the snow.

The guardian angel--still on the job.

The little girl with the watering can--I think she can put it away for the winter!

A Salute to the Season

A few days ago I took my morning coffee out to the deck for the first time this year. It was actually a little too chilly to be really comfortable. The deck was a terrible mess, as it hasn't had its spring cleaning yet and I had been planting petunias in my deck pots (always a messy enterprise).

I didn't sit out long. Just enough time to drink (rather quickly) my coffee.

But. . .the leaves had popped out on the trees, the sky was blue, the sun was shining, the lilacs were blooming, and the birds were singing courtship songs. Life was bursting out all over. Having coffee on the deck was my way of recognizing and savoring the season's arrival in our patch of Wyoming.

Now I'd better get off the computer, go finish dressing, and get out there to plant some more petunias!

Posies

Yesterday my daughter took me flower shopping to buy plants to fill my deck pots with summer flowers. This was part of my Mothers' Day gift--she had also given me a lovely bouquet of cut flowers. I do love flowers!

I have a lot of clean up to do to get the deck in shape from the winter's dirt, dust, and bird contributions. I need to shop for a few pots to replace some old pots that are cracking. I need to dig out the top few inches of soil from the pots and put in some fresh soil. Then I'll be ready to plant. In the meantime, it gives me a thrill of satisfaction just to look out to the deck and see the little petunias waiting for their new home.

So, I'd better get busy. They need out of those tiny containers!

Fall Cleanup

Today I went out to the deck, armed with a big, black plastic yard bag, ready to start cleaning out my many flower pots.

Frosty morning--10-5-12. After a few days like this, I was sure everything was dead.

The recent days of sub-freezing nights, with some snow, had done damage to my potted plants, but, amazingly, not all had been killed. The tomato, geraniums and marigolds were dead. But petunias are more hardy. They were nipped here and there, but most stilled lived, as did the fluffy, white, draping plant I've forgotten the name of.

10-11-12

The flowers that remain are rather scraggly, the deck is messy with falling leaves and debris from the flowers, but it pleases me to see this bit of color still living outside my windows.

Wishing to keep some of summer's green for as long as possible, I cleaned out the dead and heavily damaged pots. I pruned back the living pots to remove scraggly stuff and frost-bitten parts. I completely filled the big trash bag. But I saved enough that I don't have to look out at winter-barren pots just yet.

There will be more fall cleanup to come, but I am happy with today's project.

Flower Temptation

I succumbed to temptation. Yes, I did. I had promised myself I would not buy any plants for my deck flower pots for at least another week. . .but, yesterday my daughter and I went to Wal-Mart.

And, of course, they had flowers. So I HAD to look at them. And, naturally, then I needed to save some of them from the neglect that the chain stores always inflict on their bedding plants. (That is a big pet peeve of mine, so I'd better not get started on that rant!)

Really, I just wanted those beautiful, intense red petunias! Winter is so dreary that I had built up quite a hunger for flowers. Yes, lilacs, and trees, and early flowers are blooming around town--but I wanted my own flowers.

We are having an early, unusually warm spring for this part of the country, but it can't be counted as safe to plant tender flowers yet. One night of frost would do them in.

My Grandmother Mackey, with her husband and children, homesteaded in Wyoming in 1917. They came from North Carolina, so it was a completely different climate than what they were used to. Grandma was a good gardener, and she was able to grow big gardens even on the Wyoming prairie. She used to say that you could plant anything after the 15th of May. However, their homestead was 60 miles south of where I live. It doesn't seem like much, but going south 60 miles does make a difference. My experience has been that it is safer to wait until the end of May to put out the tender young bedding plants.

This year may be different, one of those extra mild years that we occasionally get.

It feels like time to be planting! But I will wait a little longer before I actually plant my petunias. I'll put them out on the deck during the day to be hardening off, but I'll bring them inside at night.

But, I really, really want to go out in search of more beautiful flower plants!