Lots of plants came home with me over the past week, and this past weekend some of them did get planted. I brought home a flat of torenias, 12 purple and 3 yellow. The purple ones go into the hanging pots for the hummingbirds to enjoy. I did see a hummingbird this week at one of the azaleas in the back. Of course by the time I got the camera it was gone. I began planting with putting coffee filters in the bottom of the pots to keep the soil in while allowing excess water out.
DH was happier bringing the potting bench up to the front, rather than schlepping the pots down and back up. Behind the bench, in the flowerbed, I added a leftover piece of lattice from the back yard to add some interest to the bed. It is held to the wall by two clay pots that will have geraniums eventually. I am planning a vine of some type for it.
Planting started with the hanging pots.
Each hanging basket gets three purple torenias. There are four hanging pots in all. In the background, you can see the trees just coming into green. The next mountain is still visible, but it will be obscured soon.
The yellow torenias were placed in the rectangular planter.
The pink geranium does look good with the lobelia, so they were planted in the large clay pot together.
They were placed on the corner of the veranda to get full sun. The yellow lantana got a green ceramic planter.
The larger green ceramic pot got the yellow candy cane superbelles.
I just love these flowers, with the yellow and white stripes.
This is my latest thrift store find, a cute little ceramic planter with a picket fence and flowers. The other blue lobelia goes well in it.
Out in the front bed, tomatoes and squash were planted. I plan to put a geranium in the clay pot.
Another tomato was planted in front of the gladiolas peeking out of the ground. At the top are the tulips, I deadheaded them so they will put their energy into making more blooms next year. The plants at the bottom of the pic are daylilies.
All the seedlings from my winter experiment were put into the garden. Everything got a nice layer of mulch after watering.
I don’t know if this will work, but I had a potato that sprouted. So, I cut the eyes into pieces and put them in water. They made roots, so I planted them too. We’ll see!
The last green ceramic pot now holds the white geranium.
The birds didn’t seem to mind me being out planting. The goldfinches have shed their winter drab for the bright yellow of spring.
I got very amused by the black capped chickadee. He would land and look around first, then sing a few notes.
He grabbed a seed from the feeder. DH insists on feeding them the good stuff, shelled sunflower seeds.
Then he would put the seed between his toes and beat it with his beak into small bites.
He’d look up for a moment, sing a bit, then go back to finish off that seed.
I still have a lot of pots to fill, so more planting soon. While I was planting, I thought I could hear a faint whisper of wings. I couldn’t see what it was but I have an idea, will have to see if something magical happens.
The mystery bulbs have come into flower and the mystery is solved. They are purple iris.
This was baffling to me as I already have two purple iris beds, why would I plant a third? These blooms are smaller than the other two beds, and the purple color is a bit lighter on top.
The answer came to me a couple of days ago, after I was certain they would be irises. A client at our office brought them to me last fall, and gave some other plants to the rest of the ladies. We had no idea what they were, so I put them in the brick planter. Now that I know, I can move them into the second iris bed when they are done blooming and double that bed’s size.
The azaleas are just about at their peak, will show you those soon.
Today is Earth Day. So it is a good day to plant something, start seeds outdoors, or find something to recycle, repurpose, or reuse. What is going on in your garden?
Sharing with the parties on my sidebar.
From My Carolina Home 
I loved looking at all your beautiful flower photo’s and a good tip for using the filter in the bottom of the pot 🙂
Your plants will all look wonderful when they fill in!! A great Earth Day posting ♥ I’ll be doing an Earth Day Art Post today too 🙂
Looking good Carole. Great pictures too
Good Morning Carole! Your pictures are superb! I so enjoyed the close up photos of the birds, just took my time and really took in all of the fine details and beauty of their uniqueness! As always, you know I think you are spectacular at choosing the perfect combinations of flowers to put together. From what you have shared on this post and others, that fact is just proved and written in stone quite a bit deeper! I love your Iris”, I have one giant bed, and after they bloom this Spring I will dig up quite a few of them and transplant them in a couple of other locations. I truly, once again, enjoyed reading your post and because of some appointments and life have some catch up posts to read also. Thank you for sharing and have a fantastic creative day!
I love this post and I adore reading about your gardens!!! You are way ahead of me, of course. Are gladiolas perennial in your area? We have to plant them fresh every year up here if we want them. I honestly haven’t planted them in years….not sure why!!
Tourist season has started at our house. Friends and family members come when the weather is nice. We love having people here. Frankly, I’d rather be in the kitchen than in the garden. So far I’ve just whacked at stalky things before new growth starts. I’m patting myself on the back, since we are starting with cleaner beds than we did last year. It’s pitiful to be proud of so little!!! That’s why I enjoy your beautiful posts showing real artistry.
Your pictures make me want to get out there and get my hands dirty. Some people wish they had a larger house. I wish I had a larger yard and lots and lots of pots. Love the bird pictures. I don’t think I get the same birds here in Texas.
Such a refreshing and beautiful blog post today! Your new camera is serving you well, pictues are fantantic. Here in OR things are beginning to bloom and I’ve planted some pots for summer color. My pink dogwood is fenced now and protected from the deer eating it! Lilacs are almost done blooming…..ah, don’t we love springtime!
So much green and pretty colors. We are just starting to shed the winter drabs here. It’s so nice to see all your plants.
Spring is springing! Everyone is planting away! Looks good
Jenna
How very relaxing just to see all those beautiful flowers being planted on your blog. =) I might even be spurred to pick up some pansies or something next week after seeing this.
Loved seeing all the beautiful flowers that you have planted!! Gets me in the mood to do some planting myself but I have to wait until almost the end of May to be sure the threat of frost is over here in NEPA!! Thanks so much for stopping by!!
Hugs,
Deb
just FYI re: potatoes… I did the black plastic bag version of potato growing one year for the kids, fun, not too successful, but interesting! and Mom always would take a sweet potato and grow a vine. Done like an avocado seed, in a jar with toothpicks, and it would make a lovely vine. Never worked for me… Maybe someone else has done this? Usually hard to get store bought potatoes to grow because they’ve been treated NOT to sprout. Mine always seem to sprout best when kept in the dark for a while!
sharon
Your garden is looking great, I really love those candy cane flowers, so pretty! Thanks for sharing at What’d You Do This Weekend?!
Your veranda looks already for spring! The yellow and white flowers are just gorgeous and what wonderful bird photos! Thank you for sharing @Vintage Charm!