FLOWERS 2017
In between our hectic May/June schedule of dance recitals, softball and t-ball games I somehow managed to find time to plant some flowers! I was planning on doing this post when everything was looking full and beautiful....but my poor snap dragons are already dying, so maybe there's no time like the present!
First off, the front porch! I found these pots at home sense back in March when there was still snow on the ground and knew if I didn't take them home that day, they wouldn't be there next time! They are the perfect size and my neighbour even went out of her way to ring the doorbell and ask where I found them. I wanted to do something big and over the top, so what's more over the top than a Majesty Palm?? I picked up the tree at Rona for $12.00 (my husband says $12.00 too much - ha!) while I was there I picked up the other tropical plants for the smaller pot. I found the remaining small filler plants at Wal-Mart.
Last year we didn't use our back patio very often, I couldn't get the furniture quite right and it just wasn't an inviting space. In early May I decided to do a little rearranging again, I found a better layout for furniture and added a couple of planters. On the May long weekend, we went to Chapters and lucked out finding some adorable string lights on sale! I am loving the patio now, I just need to find a new solution to hanging my string lights (it's majorly windy where we live, so I have zip ties holding them in place like every 12", ha!) I'm also on the lookout for a fabulous outdoor rug - on sale.
For the 2 planters on the deck I went on a mad hunt for Lavender Patio Trees. I searched everywhere, I had seen them at Rona and Lowe's earlier but didn't buy them (lesson learned!!). So just when I was ready to give up I saw an Instagram post by a locally owned greenhouse, all the way across the city posting that they just received a shipment of Lavender Patio Trees!
I bought 2 trees and picked out Lobelia for filler. My husband found some different flowers that he wanted instead so I kept Lobelia for the one planter an picked up Dianthus for the other. (Side note - the butterflies are loving the Dianthus!) And yes those are white ribbons holding the tree to the stake. Like I mentioned before, we get some crazy winds and those poor little trees were blowing right over :(
In addition to planting flowers at our house, we planted flowers at our rental house. While we were living in that house my husband built 3 long planters that hang on the sides of the front porch. I went with a red and white theme to celebrate Canada's 150th Birthday! In the past I have planted ornamental grasses (they thrived but my husband thought it was too boring), petunias (they were amazing until a crazy hail storm) and then last year an assortment of new plants (it turned out a little lacklustre). Keeping all of that in mind I decided to try a couple new plants and stick with the old stand bys.
In the front I planted 2 red geraniums, 4 white petunias, 4 red snap dragons and 4 fibre optic grasses. I used Pinterest as inspiration and saw a picture that was red white and blue for 4th of July decor, they had fibre optic grass and it was so neat! Since we do have tenants I didn't want to be there daily watering, I left them a watering can and stopped back on the weekend to use some miracle grow while my husband was cutting the grass. My poor snap dragons were taken over by spiders :( I'm hoping the rest of the plants can stay alive!
The two side planters are the same and I planted 4 red snap dragons, 2 white petunias and 1 red geranium. I'm hoping the spiders don't make their way over to the other planters!
