Garden Tour Thursday

IZA:  Well, it isnt so much of a "tour" today, since most of my our flowers look about the same as last time.  But there was a PROJECT I would like ta show.  TBT found all these pansies in 12-packs at Lowe's and decided he wanted a large plot of them fer "Winter-watching" and some fer pots on the deck.

So he bought 5 packs of those and brought them out yesserday ta plant them.  Which OF COURSE requires my help.  Iffen I dont get him started right, nothing will go well.

So I made sure he had his radio on (music keeps him soothed).

And I checked the flowers to make sure they smelled healthy.  They did...

This is what the spot looked like "before".  Corn grew there (badly) and weeds grew after he pulled the corn up.

But after pulling all the weeds and digging up the soil, it looked real nice. 

I'll let TBT describe the rest cuz I got bored and he took out some equipment I dont like ta be around.

TBT:  Thank you Iza, you got me started well!  OK, so I used a small electric tiller to loosen the soil about 6" deep.  Those things do really well in bare ground.  Avoid grass and vines and long roots though; those wrap around the blades and take a lot of work to remove. 

But it was nice soft fluffy soil afterwards.  I even pit down a piece of old plywood to spread my weight as I planted.

I had diagrammed a plan that had yellow and purple pansies around the outside and red ones in my middle.  I'm a bit geometric...  Because the spot was angled, I had rows of 9, 8, 7, 6, and 5.

I even made a 1"x2" board (the the picture above) a few years ago with markings on each side to show 6", 9", 12" and 16" spacings.  But look carefully at the back row; I planted 10 instead of 9 plants.  I only realized that at the 2nd row and didn't feel like re-doing them.  It threw the pattern off slightly, but I'm pretty sure the Gardening Gods won't hurl lightening at me in punishment.  It just means that there are 2 yellow pansies extra close.

The labels said to space them 8-10" apart; I spaced them 12".  Well, it is rich soil so they will grow larger, and I like to see individual plants rather than a carpet of them.  The center of the planting is red pansies.  The results were good.

There is a reason I got better grades in school in Geometry than Algebra...  Anyway, now that they are in the good soil, they should grow quickly.  I'll scratch in some slow-release organic fertilizer soon and then put folded newspaper between the plants and cover it with bark mulch to keep the weeds down.  I sure don't want to have to weed the bed in January!

Iza and I hope to show you lots of new flowers from there in a few weeks...

Now I'll return the post back to Iza...

IZA:  OK, now that we have seen all the new flowers, lets have SNACKS!  I picked them out this time.  We have some chopped Bacon, some Chickie shreds, and NIP!  TBT is going to harvest most of our stems to dry in the basement in a couple weeks (ta get us through the Winter), so we are enjoying the last of the fresh stuff while we can.

Thanks so much fer coming on the Garden Tour!