May Flowers: Gardening Made Easy

With Mother's Day Weekend behind us, I wanted to  show everyone a simple project that I did over Mother's Day weekend. Not only does this weekend mark a time to shower all those wonderful Moms out there with love, it marks the perfect time to clean up your gardens and start planting!

Planting flowers doesn't have to be difficult and you don't need a "green thumb" to be successful!

First you need a plan. Before you head off to your local nursery, be sure to jot down a few things first:

-What type of garden do you want?!? Veggies? Herbs? Flowers? All the above?

-How much space do you plan to cover? If you don't want any dirt showing, you will need some type of ground cover, such as ivy, hosta, or mint (a great excuse to make mojitos :P)

-How disciplined you plan to be in regards to maintaining your garden

Nursery List:

-Peat Moss

-Potting Soil

-Potting Mix

-Plant Selection 

(I went with hydrangea, impatiens, ivy and a random selection 

of misc. plants to create a decorative pot)

-Mini shovel

-Gardening gloves

The workers at the nursery, or even Menards or Home Depot, are extremely helpful, so ask questions. Take note of how much sunlight and water the plant needs and consider that when planning out your garden.

Below is how I planted my impatiens. I placed them staggered by color in a semi shady area below our cherry blossom tree. Impatiens will spread out and get bigger, so it's okay to leave space.

Keep all flowers and potting soils near by for easy reach

I per-dig some holes to get the layout started, but you don't have to stick with this exact format because you will be moving dirt around, so those holes could disappear

Place a scoop of the potting soil, potting mix, and moss into the hole. This will help give your plant the nutrients it needs to survive, stay large and colorful.

Place individual plant into the hole and would the dirt around so that the roots are completely covered

After some time and a little elbow grease, you are all set!!! Don't forget to water every day!

Miracle Grow makes individual bottles of plant feed, that screws right into your gardening hose. This mixes the feed with water. I suggest you do this once a week to ensure your plants get enough attention and will be enjoyable all summer long!

Now,  pull out your green thumb and get dirty!!!

Happy Hobbying,

The Self-Proclaimed, Modern Day Renaissance Woman