Tired

Do these pansies and violas look tired to you? Like many gardeners, including Susan down in Texas, I know these flowers won’t last too much longer as the days grow hotter, but it seems a shame to pull them out now. They still look good.

But I have new plants to plant here, and this is one of the last of the ‘containers’ that I need to plant up. So I think tomorrow, they are coming out.

I’ll send good thoughts to the other pansies and violas in nearby pots to let them know they can stay as long as they look decent. I don’t want them to get scared seeing what happens to the ones in the window box. They are in their own special pots that I use only for them, so there isn’t a new flat of other plants waiting to crowd them out. Never mind that the summer colors on the porch are pinks and whites, for the most part, and these don’t fit in. Like I said, they can stay as long as they look good. (What? Plants don’t have feelings??)

And while I’m replanting the windowbox, I think I’ll refresh that moss lining. It’s starting to look a bit shabby.

I hope I have enough green moss to also line this planter. I still need to put something in this. Any ideas? It’s on the porch, which faces south, but is somewhat shaded due to the nearby crabapple tree.

And then once I plant it up, plus three more hanging baskets, which also need to be lined with moss, I think I’m done with containers for this year, at least until fall, or unless I see another plant I have to have.

And I’m tired, but it’s the good kind of tired that comes from physical labor, not that kind of tired that comes from over-thinking during the day.

I might be more tired than usual because I mix my own potting soil, which means dumping 40 pound bags of top soil into the wheelbarrow and hand mixing in peat, perlite, and vermiculite. Over and over again.

Around lunchtime I realized I was going to run out of top soil, so I went to the local Meijer to get some more. I always ask if someone can load it for me, because I have to unload it, and they always say they will call someone to come back and help. But no one ever shows up. I’m to the point that I ask for them to send someone to help, then I drive around and load it myself while I’m waiting. Oh, well, they are no worse than Lowes, who also said they’d send someone to help load but didn’t.

I wasn’t sure how much more top soil I would need, so I got 20 bags. But when I finished up this evening I realized that “my eyes were bigger than my containers”. Now I have extra top soil, maybe 10 bags extra. No matter, I’ll use it eventually.

And all afternoon as I wheeled back wheelbarrow loads of top soil to the back yard, I made sure to walk on the side of the house where the ‘Miss Kim’ lilacs are blooming. Yes, they smell wonderful.
And that was Friday of my gardening vacation week. But don’t say that my vacation is over. I’ve still got Saturday and Sunday to enjoy.