Spring Planting
Spring always feels good when you
can get your fingernails dirty.
With additional rain this weekend that is now measuring more than 4 inches over the last week, planting can no longer wait. I so rely on the perennials to fill in areas in the gardens, but nothing beats annuals for color that continues all season.
In time past Johnny Hill’s Standard Gas Station on Highways 212 and 4 in Hector always had garden art items for sale. I had seen planters when Dennis and I were traveling through Pella, Iowa, in residential yards that really struck my fancy. They gave lot of color in a concentrated. Lo and behold Johnny carried the planters.
When we decided to have a patio poured, the base of the Johnny Hill planter was worked into the original pour. We started out with Geraniums and as time went on if you did not pluck each and every spent bloom they would stop blooming. Actually, sometimes they took a break from blooming whenever they felt like it. At $3.99 to $4.99 per Geranium — and we needed thirteen pots for the planter — Dennis and I started looking for different plants. We took a chance on wax begonias that had the red leaves. 
“No, no, they don’t like full sun.” Ha! They loved the full sun and we have stuck with them each year thereafter. They are reasonably priced. For approximately $2.00 a pot we have a full season of blooms. They may start out as plants that barely come to the top of the pot, but as time goes on it becomes a tower of beauty. My choice of potting soil is the Miracle Grow that has the moisture granules mixed in with the potting soil.
The temps have been really cool for this time in the planting year, but today I had to get the pots started so they would be able to rest a bit before being plunked into the stand. By the time I was done with the 13 pots the temps had dropped even lower and I could see my breath. The pots will definitely stay in the garage for several days as the night temps are just not worth taking the chance of setting the plants back to the degree that it would take a long time for them to recover. It felt great to get the work area cleaned up and warm the hands. Now it is “hurry up and wait” for the plants to get some warm sun on them so they can grow and fill in the pots with blooms. Oh yes, I am happy, happy, happy.