Thursday, March 18, 2010

Gardener?

A couple of days ago, I had the idea come to me that I wanted to learn how to grow flowers. I love flowers and they bring so much color and beauty to the earth; so I decided I wanted to learn how to grow and cultivate flowers so when we move into our house later this year, I'll be able to plant a flower garden in the backyard and maybe even some in the front to add some color and life to our yards.

I had no idea where to start. I have no experience with flowers to know what flowers grow at what time of the year, which ones need constant sun vs. shade, which ones grow well in pots in the house vs. in the ground outside, etc. So...I called my grandma.

My grandparents in Chicago have different types of flowers and ferns, etc. growing all around their house outside. They have the sun needing ones on the south side of the house, the part shade flowers on the east and west sides, etc. I knew she'd be able to help me, and always enjoys when I call to ask her how to do different grandmother-ish things.

She advised me to get some geraniums, petunias and a few marigolds to put in a pot out on the porch. It sounded like a good plan to me, so I went to the garden center at Target. I didn't realize how big those 3 plants would be, and realized my grandma was thinking of a medium-large sized pot to go outside. I was wanting more something to grow inside in a small pot to prevent any of the random animals & people that roam around my house outside from eating/knocking it over, etc. So I looked around for a good 30 minutes, reading the cards inside the plants, looking at the different sizes of pots, and deciding what would be best for me.

Here's what I came home with...



I saw the African Daisies, and fell in love. Daisies are my favorite flower, but I wasn't sure if I could grow Gerbera Daisies inside... So, these white African Daisies were perfect!

Then I saw these cute pink primroses that were $1.29, so I thought why not? I wanted to have a couple different kinds to get some good experience, but didn't want to spend a ton just in case I ended up killing them.

The primroses are supposed to be in partial shade, and therefore sit on my kitchen table next to a western window. The daisies are supposed to be in full sun, but are a hardy type of flower, which means they will grow even in less than perfect conditions. They sit on our new kitchen table in front of the other western window.

When I bought them on Tuesday, they each had 3 blossoms on them. Now, as you can see, the primroses have about 5 open, and a couple more that will probably be open by tomorrow. The daisies have 5 or 6 open today and a couple that look like they might be open by tomorrow.

I'm very excited about my new found love for growing flowers, and am excited to move into a place where I can actually make a garden for them. Also, in this exploration of growing things, I decided I'd like to try to grow vegetables in a garden as well. That I won't attempt to start until I have somewhere that I can plant things in the ground, but I think it would be a good hobby and a great way to save money on vegetables!

Do any of you have flower or vegetable gardens? If so, what do you grow in them and can you give me any advice?

3 comments:

Tiffany said...

we have a vegetable garden! It is so much fun to grow things. UA actually has some good info online about what to plant at what time in this climate. I'll have to track it down. We used raised plant beds with a mixture of regular soil and miracle grow. We also have stuff in pots. Any questions, just let me know!

Sessions Family said...

They look beautiful, if I could ever get Jon interested in gardening our back yard would look more serene instead of a bunch of weeds. I don't know if you remember our house on Acaia, but we had all those flowers in the front yard, and my dad was so proud of his little garden in the back. :)

The Garner Family said...

We LOVE our gardens - we have both flower and vegetable.

The best times to plant most vegetables in AZ are February and September (that's when we do it at least and it works out well) that way they're grown and stronger before it gets too hot/cold.

Try growing zinnias for flowers!! They are SO hearty and grow in all sorts of pretty colors and last almost the whole Arizona summer!