What 60¢ gets you

Today it was time to make my annual trek to Freddies for geranium starts – 60¢ each!    These will take a couple of months to start blooming but they’ll grow to about 2’ tall and bloom until the first freeze in October or November. There are 60 plants on that cart!

I see you doing the math in your head.

Look closely and you’ll see some ivy geraniums for my two hanging baskets.  If you’ve priced those gorgeous hanging baskets in nursery centers every spring, you know how expensive they are.  These little ‘seedlings’ will fill out a hand-planted hanging pot beautifully!  I’ll probably add in a few contrasting plants but these will make up the bulk of the planter.  The pots will look pitiful for quite a while but it will be worth the wait!

I get so excited about scoring a deal on plants!

There are lots of great tutorials on the web with hanging planter tips.  I wish I’d studied one last year before I planted mine.

I splurged last year and bought two of these plastic hanging pots but I didn’t take the time to watch the video on how to actually fill them.  I am completely embarrassed to tell you that I stuffed the plants in from the outside, roots first.  It never even occurred to me to set the plants inside and gently pull the green part through the holes.  I had dirt everywhere, broken root balls and a few plants broken off at the base.  Yeah, it was pretty pitiful.  So please pretend you too would have crammed your plants in from the outside and consider this a helpful garden hint!

I’m thinking of inserting a pvc pipe (with holes drilled in it) down the center of the dirt to try to distribute water to the bottom of the pot.  Mine is actually about twice as deep as the one pictured above and last year I had to flood the pots to get water to the roots at the bottom.  I think I’ll do some research on this before I take a stab in the dark again, though, just in case someone has thought of a better way!

*Believe me when I tell you that I hesitate to write posts like this.  I ask myself – Who really cares, Becky, about your purchases at Fr*d M*yer or your gardening gaffs?  But while I’m working on the post that changes your life, you can go read Teresa’s blog for some truly inspiring garden photos and ideas. 

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