About Annuals
Well this week's project is to get the annuals planted. (Last week's was to finish the guest room).
To help me with this, I attended a workshop on annuals at the Botanical Gardens, and I thought I'd post a few things I learned. Here's to a colorful and low maintenance flower garden!
When planting annuals, don't be afraid! Use color! They are going to die anyways at the end of the season, and you can always do something new next year. You can buy annuals anywhere, nurseries, home depot, grocery store....
Use organic compost. For containers, mix 1/3 organic compost with 2/3 potting mix. Add your fertilizer (planttone) at half-strength and mix well. Then plant. If you have deep containers, you only need the top 12 inches to be soil. You can fill the bottom with gravel, packing peanuts, water bottles, etc. Just put a layer of landscape fabric on top of your material so the water can get through but not the dirt.
In the ground, also mix in compost and fertilizer (at half-strength).
Feed every two weeks with a liquid fertilizer (at half-strength) until the end of June. At this time, put your time release fertilizer capsules on top. Then your plants will be self-feeding. You have to wait until June because the soil temp. needs to be 70 degrees.
Annuals are sprinters--all the feeding will encourage them to do all were made to do!
When using containers and buying plants, think "Thriller" the tall plant in the middle, "Filler" to fill out the middle, and "Spiller" --the plants that hang over the container and hide them. I have plastic containers so I need spillers, but if I had nice ceramic ones I would not use a spiller so much.
While I love my geraniums and impatiens, I am hoping to branch out a little this year. I will also plant more in the ground so that when I am away this summer, I won't have to worry about my containers getting watered. The sprinklers will water the flower beds.
I will post some before and after shots.
posted by Kathryn @ 3:15 PM
2 Comments:
I can't wait! I'm getting ready to plant a few flowers and herbs in container gardens on my porch.
Oh how completely cool that you took that class! Next year I will have more energy for gardening. I truly enjoy it, but this was the year of simplifying.
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