Nitty Gritty: Planting my goodies and then some 4.20.2010

Alert: Although it may look like my garden is growing and staying alive, I must be honest with my readers. Currently, my Marine Heliotrope is battling for her life trying to come back from my apparent neglect of watering her after having her for one day. I will keep you posted on her poor little wilted status.

I stopped by Lowes to get some soil. Soil is what I went to Lowes for. $57 later and wouldn't you know it? I still got the soil, but also increased my garden by three terracotta pots, three herbs, two different types of flowers, and a foxglove plant. Oy! I am beginning to realize that I need a chaperon to walk me into the garden center of that store- and walk me out! And furthermore- I have an entire bag of soil left over that I will be needing to return because I have no room for it anywhere and will have no use for it for a very long while!

It has been some time now that I had been noticing that my Faerie Garden was becoming crowded and was in need of perhaps a second garden to allow for some moving room of my poor cramped Garden Faeries. How else are they going to dance at night if they have no room to move around? I purchased a tall, oval shaped terracotta pot, similar in design to the first Faerie Garden, and looked for some flowers that would suit my purpose and seemed a little extra Faerie-ie. I knew the Plumosa Ferns that were already out on the porch would be perfect, but some color was definitely needed. I grabbed a red leafed Celosia and a mounding annual, Ageratum, to make up the playground for my Faeries. After putting it all together this afternoon I'm pretty excited to see how it grows.

I picked up Cilantro, Sweet Basil, and Parsley to add to my herb collection. I have felt, most recently, that everytime I pick something up for the garden that is aesthetically pleasing I would have to compliment it with a useful plant like a veggie or herb. So far it has been working. I put the herbs in a pot with the tarragon and put it on my dragonfly table. It sits pretty snuggly there. Upon setting the pot of herbs on the table one of my plaques shifted and bumped my glass tea pot off onto the ground, breaking the handle off. It was a sad moment, but I quickly gave it a new life by adding it to the English Ivy. Now some ivy tendrils will be winding through the tea pot while also winding up the divider.

I think the one purchase I was most excited about was the Foxglove. It was inexpensive and it is beautiful. I potted it quickly and set it in the corner. Perfect.

I potted a few of the left over flowers and still found that I had too many flowers and not enough pots. Oh the dilemmas we gardeners have. I will also note one last thing that is turning out to not be the greatest outcome of today- that soil I bought- yeah, I wasn't paying very close attention- but it is fertilized soil... so now the front porch surrounding my house smells like fertilizer and has become a hot spot for flies. Reading is important sometimes, I really need to remember that.
Happy (albeit smelly) gardening,

~ Birdie