Filling the veranda with lush green, flowering plants is a springtime tradition for me, arriving a bit later this year due to the cold temperatures overnight up to last week. I never got around to starting seeds in the basement either, so I am starting behind this year. When the overnight temperatures warmed up to the 50s, it was time to begin. Settle in for a long and picture heavy post! My Sweet Babboo brought my potting bench up to the sidewalk, and I began planting pots. I had several little daughter spider ferns that I rooted over the winter. I put those in the center of the hanging basket pots so I could use fewer petunias to fill up the pots.

I planted four hanging baskets and hung them up.

In the Carolina room, my geranium had become quite leggy.

I cut it back ruthlessly. As I snipped off the sections, I cross cut the bottoms and dipped them in rooting powder.

Then, they are placed in a jar of water. Hopefully they will root and I’ll have more plants for placing in the many pots I have. I cut four long boughs off the plant. The jar will go to the veranda on a table and I’ll keep an eye on them.

The plant is much smaller now, and I hope it will produce more leaves and branches from the nodes left. I gave it a bit of fertilizer.

Also in the Carolina room, this pot with ivy and begonia needed substantial clean up of dead leaves and seed pods.

It took quite a while to remove the detritus, saving the seeds. When I was done, it looked pretty good. The ivy theme rack it is on will be moved to the veranda, letting the ivy fronds trail down the sides.

I have several pots that do not have drainage holes, but I love them. This rectangular one is a favorite. My trick for creating drainage is to cut the bottoms off of the starter containers the plants come in and put those in the bottom of the pot.

I cover them with coffee filters to keep the dirt out, then plant on top of them.

I know which ones these are, and they get a measured amount of water each week to keep the plants healthy and not soak the roots. This pot holds the lobelia. I love its feathery foliage and delicate flowers. Plus, it blooms almost all summer long.

I had forgotten to get a bag of potting soil when I was at the garden center buying the plants I showed last week. So, another stop while I was out on Thursday was made. Of course, while I was there, I had to check the bargain rack for unloved plants that had the potential to come back to life. I got these for half price. The dark leaf plants are New Guinea Impatiens, and I liked the color of the leaves along with the variegated flower. They actually looked to be in pretty good shape. The one on the right is a verbena.

I use this same trick to take up space in larger pots to make them less heavy.

The verbena went into this one, giving it plenty of room to grow.

The dark leaf New Guinea Impatiens went into this even larger pot, again with a filler in the bottom to reduce the weight. This ceramic pot is heavy! The color nicely complements the plant.

A scraggly begonia was removed from this pot. The pot was cleaned up, and a white petunia now resides there.

Pink impatiens were planted in the clay pots in the base of the little mosaic top tables. I do this to give some weight to the bottom as they tip over so easily without it. I have two with round tops.

The one with the square top got white impatiens.

The little tables are placed between the rockers to set a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea.

I added another table between the chairs at the back, and placed two more little plants there. The little wheelbarrow adds an interesting touch.

While I was puttering at the potting bench, a female cardinal alighted in the tree above me, and regaled me with her song for several minutes. I only had my small camera with me, so I couldn’t get a close up of her.

Pink calibrachoa filled a light color pot.

I read about this on a nature blog, and decided to make one. It is a butterfly puddler. I did not know that butterflies need minerals to survive, particularly salt. Begin with finding a shallow tray, filling the bottom with sand. Add some rocks for the butterflies to land on, then sprinkle with salt. Others used larger rocks, but I used what I had. Add water. None of the blogs say where to place the puddler, but I assume that shade would be better than in the hot afternoon sun. So I put mine on the veranda for now. I’ll keep an eye on it to see if the butterflies find it.

For now, it is on top of the little cart next to the hellebore. I plan to put the hellebore into the front flower bed in a few days when I can get to doing that. Underneath on the cart is my Thanksgiving cactus, placed outside for some sun and heat.

Next to the sliding glass door, the birdcage is filled with begonias. Bleeding hearts are in the tiered pot stand. There is an open slot that I’ll fill later with another pot.

A neighbor gave me a large packet of monster marigold seeds. I used the now empty starter pots to plant some of them. If they grow nicely, I’ll put them in the front flower bed. You may ask, why not sow them directly in the bed? The answer is that I cannot tell what is a weed and what is a plant to keep right now. So, until I can clean out the flowerbed of weeds, I don’t want to put anything else in there. This way, I’ll be sure what grows there belongs there. I have a second one that will get a bunch of the harvested begonia seeds, along with some yellow super belle seeds saved from last year.

This corner of the veranda is full sun all day. It’s the best spot for the verbena and the marigolds. The very large pot in the corner has torenia seeds. They grew beautifully there last year, and I hope for a nice show this year too.

The veranda is beginning to look full, but I still have lots of empty pots to fill.

It’s looking pretty good now. It was delightful to sit outside these past couple of days in the cool mornings and warm afternoons with gentle breezes. I watch the birds and enjoy avian choir.

In the brick planter box, I put a couple of tomato plants and some basil. I left the wild clover with its pretty yellow flowers even though most would consider it a weed.

The flowers close up at night, and open again in the afternoon. The bees like them, so they get to stay.

Next will be to plant more seeds in the starter pots, and find some smaller shrubs for the front flowerbed. I’m thinking some Russian sage would look good and have a compact size to fit the area. I need to prune back the hydrangea, too. I’d still like to add a forsythia to the island for their gorgeous gold flowers in the spring. Always more to do! What is happening in your garden?

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