Inspecting the Troops

My Mom loves her flowers and each spring begins calculating what flowers she will get and what annuals to intermingle with her perenials to fill in all the blank spots along her fence row. My mom's yard is beautiful and enjoyable to sit and admire the hard work she puts into it.

Her hanging baskets are also a part of her plan in "landscaping" her 2 porches. We always buy a basket for her and so does my sister. She will usually pick up a couple additional baskets to hang with the ones we buy and my brothers will have baskets sent. Mom has room for 3 baskets to hang from her front porch. The color of the flowers are very important to her and she especially likes the cascading red geraniums. It is also VERY important that all the baskets hanging on her front porch be planted in the same color basket.

Mom will also create baskets from last year's gifts. She will buy impatients and "tunies" (uh, thats petunias) and mix them up in various colors to hang on her back porch. This porch is really a roofed patio. She has room here for at least 3 or 4 more baskets.

She has a window box planter under her kitchen window. This is always filled with petunias. They multiply and are quickly blooming and filling up the basket. She will just pick our a colorful mix.

Since she is no longer able to do all the work required to take care of her flowers she does not plant as many as she used to. She relies on Jamelah to help her get flowers planted. We always make a "Mother's Day" project of buying the hanging baskets and extra flowers to plant and spend time with Mom filling the extra baskets and Jamelah plants her window box.

Mom also has a circular flower bed in her front yard. This is a bare spot that was left by a tree which became a problem and had to be cut down. There are perentials that come up every year. A few tulips, daffodils, crocus and purple grape hiacinths. She also adds a few other flowers into the mix to fill in the spots when these spring flowers stop blooming.

With the early warmth you could tell Mom was already eager to begin planting. As we drove by the place wher ewe often bought our plants she noted that they were getting ready to stock their outdoor space with all the nursery plants that would be coming in. It will be fun. Spring is here. Its time to plant flowers.