Spring Planting...any gardeners out there? Suggestions needed!

Spring Planting...any gardeners out there? Suggestions needed!

Topic Author: Malorie Maddox

Posted: 10:07 AM Apr 4, 2008

Replies Posted: 6 comments

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Spring Planting...any gardeners out there? Suggestions needed!

Spring...getting closer. How nice it will be to look outside and see something other than brown grass.

My neighbor down the street has a beautiful garden. Gorgeous rose bushes, flowers...I can't wait to see her garden in full bloom.

As for my own yard and garden, we are beginning the landscaping process. But before I get there, I have several huge urns for our front porch and flowers baskets to hang on our deck railing. Being a first time homeowner...any suggestions on what good flowers are to plant inside of these? Does it matter which potting soil you buy?

The sound of spring also brings the sound of lawnmowers. Here's a reminder about yard waste.

Yard waste will be collected at the same time as our trash starting Monday, April 7th. Be sure to put it in trash cans marked with Y-W on both sides, or in yard waste paper bags.

Posted by: L W Location: CoBl
Hi. There are lots of annual flowers to choose from. The urns will require plants that get some heigt at maturity. the hanging baskets should have flowers spilling over the sides.I try to stick to more common flowers found at the garden center: marygolds; inpatiens; petunia; salvia; vinca. I get my hanging baskets ready for Memorial Day so that they do double duty at home after bringing them back from the cemetary. Try not to go crazy buying too many plants at one time. Some people stuff too many young plants into containers in an effort to make them look like the greenhouse baskets already made up. Please give your young plants some room to grow. Remember, those greenhouse baskets are about three months old. Good Luck!

Posted by: Malorie Location: Omaha
Thanks for the suggestions! My mom says good potting soil makes all the difference, as you all are suggesting. I will give these suggestions a try, and hopefully be able to post some pics in a few weeks. Malorie

Posted by: michelle Location: omaha
Miracle grow potting soil is the only way to go. Begonias are the best plants. If you stuff the pots they will get very full like the ones you can buy prepotted at Mulhall's. Wave petunias will cascade and look really nice about mid-June. However little bugs like to get at them so be sure to spray them. Just water, water them and they will be gorgeous. I plant about 60 pots every year and the trick with all of them is to really stuff the pots to get thick, full color. Good luck!

Posted by: Laura Location: Omaha
Another tip (I ran out of characters) are if you have LARGE pots, don't waste all that potting soil in them. I plant my little pots and window boxes first, and I save the empty plastic containers those flowers were in, crumple them up and put them in the bottoms of my larger urns, THEN add the potting soil. This saves you money, especially if you are using a more expensive potting mix like the Miracle Gro (and trust me, the results from that versus the cheap store-brands is amazing). Not sure how big your "urns" are but anything over 4 inches deep I use the crumpled potting containers in and have never had a problem. It also helps reduce the WEIGHT of the planted pot itself.

Posted by: Laura Location: NW Omaha
I am a firm believer in the MiracleGro potting soil. I have used both the regular and the Smart-Water varieties and I actually prefer the NON-smart Water kind. For annuals, I too love impatiens for shade. I have used a variety of different annuals in full sun, including petunias, marigolds, red salvia, geraniums and verbena. Just be sure to continue pinching off spent blooms so they continue to give you flowers. Also, petunias can get quite "leggy" in pots; I usually give mine a buzz-haircut around 4th of July and they keep right on going into fall. You have to water annuals religiously, too, depending on how much rain we get and where the pots are. This year I am going to try and do red-white striped petunias with red and white geraniums (we have a "theme" every year and even my husband gets excited to find out what it is in the spring. ALSO don't go nuts and go buy the flowers now...good weekend to do it is the weekend after Mother's Day, or they could die if it gets too cold again.

Posted by: Sheila Location: Omaha
I like the Miracle Gro or the Schultz potting soil. It is light weight and has plant food in it already. What to put into containers? Depends on if you they will get full sun or some shade. For shade, I am a big fan of impatiens and wave petunias (which cascade over the edges) planted together. They like a little morning sunshine and afternoon shade. You can put a spike (which is a plant) in the middle to add some height to the urn or use some potato vines for more cascading affect. Full sun you are a little more limited for annuals. Some begonias will do well in sun--just check the labels when you buy the flowers. I found Verbena did well in full sun too but you do have to water every day with containers during the hottest days. Good luck! I am the "crazy flower lady" on my block. I have 15 window planters on all the windows on my 100 year old house, so I go through a lot of flats of annuals. Post a picture sometime of your planters! Happy Planting!