Tiptoe through the sandwort with me

As I told you in a recent post, I was rooting around in the dirt last weekend to prepare my sad, weed-ridden little garden for some flowers. Now, let me start by saying that I've never actually planted my own garden before. I've seen a garden before - that's gotta count for something, right? My parents have had plenty of gardens, and I have a few memories of being forced to weed said gardens as a child (child labor!!), but those days have passed. Now, I'm all grown up and have decided to venture out into the wide world of flora on my own.

With a Home Depot gift card in my pocket, I set out this afternoon with a singular goal: buy flowers that will look nice in the front flower beds (and second less important goal: stay within $50.00 since that was all the gift card had on it). Thanks to many tips from more florally-inclined friends, I learned the difference between "perennial" and "annual" plants, and had decided to get some of both. Buying bulbs was a no no because I'm impatient and want instant results. If I was going to spend hours digging in the dirt on my hands and knees, I want to see flowers right away dang it! There was no way I was going to wait a year to see flowers.


I pulled up to Home Depot, grabbed a cart and headed for the garden area. Thankfully, Home Depot understands what it's like for those of us who are flower-impaired, so they had large signs with bold print reading, "annual" and "perennial." I wanted to get at least one perennial, that way I would have something that would grow back each year (i.e. less digging in the dirt for me). I settled on one called a "sandwort," which sounds more like something from Harry Potter than a flower. It's a nice, white bushel of flowers that looks nothing like sand or warts, but who am I to judge the Flower Namers?

Next, I wanted to get a bunch of pretty annuals that I could plant in front of my yellow and green shrubs. After much searching through the jungle of annuals, I settled on two different kinds: petunias and marigolds.

I thought that the combination of all 3 flowers would make for a nice contrast in the garden with the yellow-green shrubs. So, not knowing exactly how many flowers I needed to buy, I loaded up my cart and went in search of some topsoil. After finding that (and proving how weak I am by trying to lug several 40-lb bags into my cart), I headed to the check out line.

Needless to say, I did not stick to my $50.00 budget. I tried to, but in my defense, the Home Depot card had less money on it than my husband claimed (shameless justification). After several more hours of planting and more weed removing, I'm done! Well, almost done. I also picked up a couple strawberry plants and a tomato plant, so if I loose the battle of the flowers, maybe I'll be able to keep the produce alive.