A trip to the nursery was in order. I took stock of the things that needed to be purchased - three pink azaleas, four-deck boxes worth of annuals, two shovels (one specific for gardening, one for digging up the three dead azaleas) and two hanging plants. Yes, people - aside from the shovels, this is the inventory of dead plants and flowers surrounding my house. We had such a drought last summer that all the flowers in the deck boxes were beyond dead - and to me, hanging plants were something you get every year but apparently, if you take care of them in the right manner, they CAN grow back every year...and the azaleas? Well, that's not my fault. When we moved in, the previous owners had five new azalea plants put into the front yard. I watered those suckers throughout the summer and only two managed to make it to spring - the other three were beyond help - my mother thinks it's because they didn't plant them deep enough into the ground.
So off to Betty's Azalea Ranch I went. The only reason why I went to this place was because they were the ones that did all the landscaping and gardening for the previous owners and I was originally going to just replace the three azalea plants that died -
so it seemed only natural that I went to the place that planted them in the first place. While driving there, I passed a ton of other nurseries but I knew I needed to go to Betty's. When I got there, it was so daunting - it wasn't huge but there was so much going on - hand painted arrows pointing in every direction if you wanted statues, azaleas, annuals, trees, etc. I had one of those moments where I knew I needed a cart but the only carts that were available didn't look like the flat bed ones everyone else was using...so I went for the green double-decker cart that looked like something out of a John Deere catalog. I knew there would be a lot of purchases filling it. Going through this nursery and pushing this cart around was more of a workout than I originally anticipated.
My first stop: azaleas. Each section was marked off by bloom color. I headed straight for the pinks. Little did I know, nor was I prepared for, what was about to greet me. Not only were there so many different types of pink azaleas, but the specific breed of azalea I needed was called Autumn Twist and all of the azaleas in the pink section started with the word, 'Autumn.' There was Autumn Princess, Autumn Monarch, Autumn Twist, Autumn Carnation, Autumn Carnival, Autumn etc.....craziness! I finally found Autumn Twist and was all set to put three on my double decker cart but thought about something...this is my chance to put my stamp into my front yard. Since moving into the house, we have made little to no changes to what the previous owners had done (cause they did such a great job) - so I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to branch out and pick my own. So I went with two Autumn Monarchs and one Autumn Princess.
Next stop: hanging plants. It had been a hot couple of days before I hit 'the ranch' and I'm sure the people at Betty's did a great job taking care of their inventory but even hanging plants can look tired and weary in the hot sun. So not all of the hanging plants were looking their best. Because I had already went with the pink family for the azaleas, I decided to branch away from the red and pink that the previous owners had and go with purples. I found these two baskets of (what I'm hoping are) geraniums - in a light purple and a darker purple. They were beautiful. I had to have them....with a $20/basket price tag, I didn't care. I came into this nursery trip half prepared - I did no price comparison work because this is all new to me and it just had to be done.Next stop: annuals and perennials. This section was basically made up of flats and this section was the most fun for me because it transported me back to my elementary school days when they would have 'flower sales' and we could go in and buy little pots of geraniums or pansies or whatever else looked pretty.
Of course, when you're in 3rd grade, you don't know what the difference between annuals and perennials are. You're only out to have the box with the most or the prettiest flowers in them. Do I remember what I did with those flowers when I got home? No. All I know is that I really enjoyed 'flower sale' day and that's how I felt when I was walking through all the beds of flowers. I did have one concern and I actually thought it was an amateur question, on my part, since I seemed to be surrounded by older, more experienced gardening ladies. I pulled aside one of the 'ranchers' and I told her my situation, "I have four deck boxes that I have to fill but I need flowers that won't get eaten by deer and squirrel." She repeated with a laugh, "Flowers that won't get eaten by deer and squirrel...ha." I felt myself turning red, damning her for her booming voice...why did she have to repeat what I just said? She was very helpful in that 'the ranch' already had a whole "newsletter" about it - so it's not such a dumb question on my part. As she was going to get my copy of the "newsletter," THREE other ladies in the area asked for copies as well. I picked out four varieties of deer-repellent flowers for two of my deck boxes in burgundies and purples. And even though pansies were not on the list as deer-repellent, all the different colored pansies were yelling for me to come snatch them up - so I did. I bought a whole flat for my two remaining deck boxes...while I was planting, it became evident that it was going to be a tight squeeze but I managed to get them all in!
Final stop: two, stained-glass butterflies to stake my claim into MY garden. The previous owners had a thing for flamingos. They were *nice enough* to leave two, pink, plastic, flamingos in the side garden for us. I probably should have brought the flamingos in during the winter but I didn't and *unfortunately* they did not make it to the spring. One "died" and since I believe that one flamingo shouldn't go on without the other, they both got pulled from the ground and they are now awaiting their trip to the dump.So it turns out that the double-decker cart was just the thing that I needed. Sure it was awkwardly large and sure I got a great arm workout just by trying to maneuver this thing, with all my plants and flowers adding to the awkwardness. But all of that was forgotten when I finally got home (had to make a pit-stop at Home Depot for the shovels) and planted the new azaleas and hung my plants and prepared my deck boxes. It was all beautiful and I was really proud of myself!
I am now jonesing to get to another nursery to find some cute garden decorations - I know gnomes probably wouldn't survive the deer and other animals that roam around but I would like to see what's out there. This is a whole new area for me to explore. Who knows, maybe I will become Ms. Green Thumbs! (Take that, Mother!) For now, I have six months to figure out what I'm supposed to do with this garden by the time the first frost comes around!
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