Garden Love: Flowers, tomatoes, and plants.

Flowers...colorful...full of life...love...potential...flowers!

Cheating with the picture above...this is actually a flower growing in front of my sister Fleas house, who lives across the street. It's just so beautiful I had to share. Now let's begin...

My all time favorite flowers are Gerber Daisies but I'm not brave enough to grow them yet...it's coming.  Over the years, I have had potted plants that have survived my care but having moved 10 times in a year between 2004-2005 I stopped dragging them with me.  When we were renting, Special K always persuaded me not to buy plants and flowers because he knew we would just have to move them.  Pretty sure if I had been willing to part with more of my books, he might have not stood his ground on this one.

When we finally closed on our house last year, I wanted to get busy planting new things!  I wrote about my first attempt with 2 of the planters attached to our house in this post.  It's fun to see what we were doing then and to see the little we began with. 

One of the planters did really well through the Florida winter without much care.  The crotons we planted at the end of last year didn't grow much but they weren't dieing.   The surprising thing is plants that we had tried to plant and things I threw into this planter because they were dieing in pots all of a sudden popped out of the ground in late winter!  So below is what it looked like back in early April at the start of Spring. (please ignore the wood covering that window...that was a little accident the doggies did while we were at work.  Neither of them were injured when they broke the window. It has since been replaced with some plexiglass so that they can't do that again. Can't wait until we replace that whole window!)

The picture below is what it looked like last week.  The vinca that is growing out of this planter was never planted there but I love how it looks.  Although out of place, I refuse to move it since it's doing so well.  I may transplant it eventually but for now I am enjoying all the flowers it produces.
Right behind the vinca is one of the pentas that I attempted to plant last year that had completely died but I didn't remove.  After the winter, it just popped right up and is doing great!

Then there is this tomato plant, which I forgot I had dumped there and really held no hope for it growing.  Early this year, I saw it pop up and I asked a couple people what they thought it was and most said it was a weed...until the day I ripped it out of the ground and my husband smelled it and told me it was a tomato plant.  Why I hadn't asked him before, I'm not sure.  Lesson learned.  I kicked myself several times for pulling out that tomato plant and was not expecting a new one to grow but surprisingly enough here I have a new tomato plant!  Special K put a dowel in so that we can have it vine up. It is doing very well with daily watering even with the summer heat in FL.

 So excited to see those little yellow flowers!  YAY!

The other planter never was mulched so by the end of winter it was over-run with weeds, grass and needed lots of care. Wish I had a picture of what it looked like before I did all the work.  There is also a small black snake that is living inside the left part of this planter but I've only seen twice and never with the girls with me. I usually make noise as they get close to give the snake some time to go back into it's hiding place before we get there.  When I was digging right by the opening to his home, I never once saw him.  I did talk to him about not bothering me while I garden in there.
On the Saturday before Father's Day, the girls, Special K, my sister Fleas, and I all ventured to Home Depot where we bought some mulch and plants.  I let Carmen pick some and I wasn't paying too close attention so I came home with 3 crown of thorns...those were dug up the next day and I tested out Home Depots plant return/exchange policy and came back home with some vincas.
Before I planted anything, I inspected what was there and decided I would keep several of the vincas that were doing well.  I then proceeded to rip everything else out and transplanted one of the vincas that seemed to be doing ok but wasn't where I wanted it.  It's fun to have all these fresh flower and too see all the potential beauty they will bring to this area of my home.

It makes me so happy to see colorful flowers begin to grow around our home.  When we moved in, we had lovely trees and green bushes but no color.  I have some fun ideas that I can't wait to make happen...Special K doesn't know about my idea for him to build a window box planter under our long window in the front. I don't think he doesn't read the blog so I'm safe. hehe! In the picture above, it's the far window on the other side of the front steps.  We plan to work on a flower bed between this planter and the front steps eventually.  Special K also would like small palm trees in that flower bed.  So much potential... 

Happy Gardening!

Have you done any gardening this Spring?  What has been your favorite plant to see grow in your garden?  Have you planted any fruit or veggies?