Friday, May 1, 2009

Spring Cleaning Update

Flowers....Flowers........I am soooo ready for flowers everywhere!! I thought I would show and give you some tips you might want to think about this weekend.......like, thinking outside the box on different ways you can showcase or display your lovely blooms. I have 2 matching pair of the above little 'plant' stand. This is one side of an old dresser someone cut up, I think they had plans to make nightstands out of them. I bought both side pieces for 5.00 each ..brought home and clean and painted. Now all I need are some new knobs for the drawers. Mr. Brown Dirt cut out a circle using a hanging basket pot for a template...and it fits right down perfectly. I usually have HOT PINK WAVE PETUNIA plants in these for a cascading effect, but they are not ready yet.
Whoo Whee....cleaning this place out was a dusty dirty job. I discovered that Mr. Brown Dirt had used it to 'store' some of his manly 'farm' stuff in there over the winter......WELL, I quickly remedied that!!! You can see all of my pots ready and waiting to be filled to over flowing with beautiful plants and flowers. This little greenhouse we always kept at the house for growing and over flow for the greenhouse business we have downtown. I could just spend HOURS in here!! This is where I have been having my morning coffee!!

We need to remember our little feathered friends too! You gals need to get your bird baths all washed and cleaned out. After all, they will want to take a 'dip' while they are vacationing at your house.

Get your brooms out and sweep up all their little houses and places of 'refuge'...maybe add a fresh coat of paint.

This is one of my ALL time favorite planters. This old pedestal sink is great to just set a pot down in or I have actually filled with potting soil and just planted right into it. Hhhhm I see a quilt design in this photo! Speaking of POTTING SOIL.....it really pays off to purchase the better potting soils. CHEAP potting soil has nothing in it!! You will be happier in the long run with a better soil. We always sold FERTILOME brand and swear by it!! Miracle Grow is ok too!


SCAEVOLA or 'Fan Flower' gets its name from the shape of its flowers. They just flower out one side shaped like a fan. This AUSTRALIAN native is VERY HARDY to drought and heat. They make beautiful hanging baskets. I have just planted these and can't wait until this little basket over flows with greenery and blooms. TIP....DO NOT fertilize your freshly planted little plants for a couple of weeks. The roots are young and tender and the fertilizer will BURN these roots and harm or possible KILL your lovely flowers. So wait, give your plants time to get accustom to their new pots and surroundings.


Of course geraniums are also an excellent choice for hardiness, especially THE RED color. Pinks and Lavender colored geraniums ARE NOT as hardy, but work really well in the shade. White geraniums fall in behind the red for hardiness. Mr. Brown Dirt loves the red, but my favorites are the pinks and lavenders.

April is the best time to PRUNE your ROSES, or as soon as you know there will be no more frosts or freezes. I'm pretty ruthless when I'm pruning. See how I pruned in the above picture....most people don't want to but the more you prune the better. For ROSES try to prune really well in the middle of the bush...allows more sunlight in and around the roses and helps cut down on mold and disease. The same works when you prune your FRUIT trees. Now is the time to FEED your roses with a SYSTEMIC powder that you sprinkle around in the dirt at the base of your bush. This food goes down and gets into the root of your bush and prevents those 'nasty' little BUGS that attack your cute little rose buds before they can even bloom. FEED your roses about every 3 months. It's best to water your roses in the early part of the day and best NOT TO GET water or spray the whole bush with water. This helps keep the bush dry and help prevent those little round dark 'rust' spots you see forming on the leaves.

And last.....Iris from my Grandmothers flower garden. When she died I dug up several varieties and brought home to plant in my yard. She loved these soooo much.........."Look Munner.....aren't they beautiful?"

I hope some of my ideas and tips will be helpful. Mr. Brown Dirt and I have been involved with flowers and plants for years including professional greenhouses open to the public. If you have a plant problem or question just email....maybe I can help!
Posted by Picasa

33 comments:

  1. ahh. This post just sparkles with everything that I love. Your Gamma's Iris'.. so special.

    Very clever pots. And I would do a flip for your greenhouse.
    Ok.. I'll write down all my questions.. :-D

    ReplyDelete
  2. And all this time I thought you were "just" a quilter! Your green house is fabulous. I once mentioned getting a green house and DH quickly reminded me that we LIVE in a greenhouse her ein central Florida. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful Post!!! I love your greenhouse.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the tip on pruning roses, I rent and there is a rose bush that needs some cutting but I didn't do it. Today I will go home from work and get it done!
    Thanks agian
    Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for all of the good tips. I just wing it with my gardening and pots hoping for the best. I guess it wouldn't hurt to read up on some of it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well didn't I just learn something about you and from you! You're a wealth of garden info. Love the fan flowers. We did have one years ago. Roses...too much trouble in the midwest but oh what glorious roses we had in CA. And my husband pruned the heck out of them and we had the prettiest roses in town.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Like a previous poster, I did not know that you were into plants! Wow! Now, I do love that sink planter. I have seen old metal bed frames used in flower bed too!! Great!

    k

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a wonderful garden, I love the flash birdhouse and the pedestal sink planter is a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ooooo...I love all your flowers, but those in the sink, just too wonderful! Spring is the best, especially this year after such an awful winter.

    ReplyDelete
  10. How very lovely - the irises are gorgeous. I like the little plant stands.

    I had no idea about the greenhouses - what fun.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This was such a good interesting, happy post and I learned a few things too! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love your flowers, your post and your planter idea's.
    Thanks for the offer of help if needed.. I'll keep that in mind..
    It looked sunny there.. can you send some sun our way?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm so jealous. I sooooo want a green house!

    ReplyDelete
  14. You have gotten me into the mood of gardening this weekend. I do have a birdhouse and always provide seed for the birds.
    Lovely pics!
    Micki

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love geraniums and never knew that the reds are hardier that the rest of them. I had loads of variegated leafed ones for 3 seasons, but they ddidn't survive the frosts last winter so have got to start again.

    I love Irises too.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Loved this post! So informative and fun! I'm not one to do too much gardening but this post made me want to wander down to the nursery!

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a wonderful gardening post and lovely garden.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love your plant stand! It is so cute. We live in TX too and sometimes the geraniums don't do real well because of the heat. I keep them in the shade. The squirrels also get in my pots and pull them out. I need to get going on some and replace my pansies with geraniums or impatiens.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Lovely! I'm the opposite of you, gardening wise. I planted a veg garden once when we first got our house and couldn't figure out where the vegetables were. Turns out I planted the garden in full shade. Yeah. I'm that bad. I only have room for two hobbies: baking and quilting! Good on ya!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi Belinda, your green thumb is really showing up. Love the sink planter.
    Thanks for sharing,
    Bonnie

    ReplyDelete
  21. Love your different planters. You have been very busy.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Great post...love your planter collection and that bird bath...gives me ideas on things to do with the reamainer of the mosaics from my table (if I finish that table...rain day has me playing on the computer instead!)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Informative and helpful. You're a busy gal. The planters are lovely. I'd love a little hot house. My irises are not up yet but I'm just beginning to have lilacs burst open. I REALLY need to prune my rose bushes. Bad!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Great post! I love my time spent in the garden.

    ReplyDelete
  25. thanks belinda! great info...i spent all weekend with my hands in the dirt...lilacs and spirea in full bloom..the scent was magical!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Wow, look at you...a litteral "jack of all trades" gal. Your greenhouse is something I would have died for a few years ago. Alas those days are gone.
    I love all the neat ideas for your pots and plantings. Since I'll be gone all summer, or most of it, the Lord only knows what surprises I'm in for in the garden when I get home.
    I have on the other hand been promised a new sewing room. Or at the least a re-vamped sewing room. I so look forward to that. Mine has become a vortex into which all and sundry disapear once it enters the door and I won't find it for weeks on end. Can't think why?...?...?
    Don't poop yourself out working too hard out in that heat, or you won't have any energy left to sew...lol
    Have a great summer Belinda and I'll catch you in the fall or maybe sooner if I can tear myself away from the sun and fun.

    ~~Fran...:c)

    ReplyDelete
  27. I like the idea and will keep that idea for the summer. We are getting in to winter here. Lovely garden, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The sink planter is wondrful. I wish my thumb were as green as yours.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Your flowers are just wonderful and loved seeing your creativity in their display. My parents always had a greenhouse to putter around in and my dad grew some of the most gorgeous plants you can imagine. I miss that so much.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Hia Belinda, thanks for all your tips. I loved playing in my polytunnel too. It was a good place to overwinter the less hardy things I had brought with me from Oxfordshire to Wales. I grew a lot of cottage things too.

    Love the irises- so frilly and exuberant!

    ReplyDelete
  31. I love this post, especially the plant stand and the beautiful birdbath. I think pink geraniums are my favorite too, but I have red ones out in the front yard where they get harsh sun.

    My roses are blooming out here, and the yard smells lovely. It's so fun to see your flowers.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Gardening, vintage fabric, quilting, antiques - A kindred spirit!

    Enjoyed your post immensely! Thank
    you for the ideas & tips. I hope you
    will add more with photos from time
    to time.
    I just might take you up on e-mailing
    you a plant problem.

    Happy Mother's Day!

    Linn

    ReplyDelete
  33. Great post...thanks for the tips! I just planted my veggie garden this weekend :)

    ReplyDelete

**THANK YOU BUT, PLEASE DO NOT TAG * OR * AWARD * ME **