Day 22 – Gardening

Today LeeAnn and I worked in the Garden together. Over the weekend we had purchased several plants and I wanted her to help me plant them.

LeeAnn has been especially enamored of flowers this year and we have let her pick out quite a few plants, but my father is our home gardener, so we haven’t yet planted any together. Today we planted a pair of Easter lilies, a basil plant, some pink petunias and an azalea bush. My little girly girl even overcame her dislike of being dirty and helped me with every step.

Gardening is a great activity for our little ones. Not only does it get them outside, but they see and learn so much about plant life. Even if you live in an apartment you can set up a small container garden with your child.

With the introduction of the brown mamorated stink bug from Asia has pretty much ended my vegetable garden this year; however some plants do seem impervious to this nefarious pest. My sage, rosemary and marigold plants have all been left alone. These plants can even protect your vegetable plants if planted together. It seems the stink bugs avoid these plants.

How to Make a Container Garden

Supplies:

A large pot or half barrel

Potting Soil

Plants of different varieties. (For most containers it is important to choose small, short plants. The tag usually has such information. You also need to consider sunlight availability when choosing plants.)

Watering can

Trowel

Instructions:

-          Put a layer of potting soil in the bottom 2/3 of the pot. This gives you enough soil to dig shallow spots in when setting up the plants for placement.

-          Plan out how you each plant placed. Keep in mind height and width of each plant when considering layout.

-          Remove each plant from its container. Make sure you loosen the root ball to allow the roots to spread into the surrounding soil. If the root ball is severely matted, you may need to cut some of the roots away to loosen them.

-          Use the remaining potting soil to fill in the spaces around the plants.

-          Water them until saturated, make sure to keep them moist until the roots take hold and then water as needed.