Gardening Bug Has Bitten Me

Today was a bit cool with some rain sprinkles, but not nasty enough to stop my planting urge. When it's time to plant flowers, I kick into overdrive. When we had that burst of warm weather this week, the gardening bug bit me. We had the garden, that I share with my parents, tilled up and ready to plant this week. So all that was left was to buy the plants and seeds. I am not sure what I was thinking, but I took the kids WITH ME to the greenhouse! That's a crazywoman's idea! However, my kids love flowers, so they thought it was a great idea. Mt Eaton Greenhouse (one of my favorites) may never be same again! It really wasn't that bad, after I confined them to lawn chairs for a "rest" while I picked out plants. You see, they were so excited they just couldn't help running up and down the narrow greenhouse aisles excitedly admiring all the pretty flowers. After I got all my flowers, they wanted a plant of their own. So Kailyn has a pink Summer Snapdragon/Angel Flower and Javin has a purple one. I needed a nap after that trip.

So today the planting began. I don't think I have ever planted my annuals in a sweatshirt and rain before. Ahh the memories! I have purple saliva (for Javin) and pink petunias (for Kailyn) and white petunias ( for Kevin) in my front flower beds. I bought so many things at the greenhouse (there was a discount when you buy a whole flat!) that I had to go digging through the garage for my extra pots. I have scarlet mocha non-stop begonias in the back of the house. I hope Molly doesn't destroy them when she runs through the flower bed. I have got to figure out how to keep her out the there! I hope these do well this year. Some years my begonias do great and other years they haven't been too hot. I love them when they are exploding with blooms. In my pots I have a lemon grass, gerbera daisies, a trailing silvery plant and purple majesty ornamental grass. This year I added a lupine and a columbine plant to my perennial gardens. I tried a lupine one time before but it didn't survive. Hopefully this one will like the new location better. I just love those towering spikes. Okay so flowers make me just about giddy! But I love it!

Then we also planted the garden today between rain sprinkles. The kids each planted their sunflower seeds. Javin has mammoth sunflowers that will grow 12 feet tall. Kailyn has white sunflowers that will be 5 feet tall. We planted row after row of green beans. Hopefully enough for both our families and Joani to can for the year. Last year we didn't have enough, I guess. I am planning to make salsa this year, so we have tomato and pepper plants for that. We have 2 cherry tomato plants, which the kids love to eat straight from the garden. New this year is broccoli. My kids love it and I hope we can grow some nice plants ourselves. So bunnies stay away from my broccoli plants or else! If anyone has broccoli growing tips please pass them along. I did get a zucchini plant so if you find a bag of zucchini on your front porch, you will know that my plant was very productive! Javin was very helpful in planting this year. Kailyn was a bit too helpful, so she went to take a nap while we finished up. We are going to add sweet potatoes and cucumbers yet.

So there you have it - my planting frenzy day!