Garden Progress: Monday Evening Spruce Up

The Easter Bunny (Thanks In-Laws!) brought me a knock-out rose bush for Easter along with some basil, oregano and mint.  So Monday evening after work I swung into Lowe's for some potting soil and a few other perennials to plant on the backside of our house, which looked a little sad:

You can see there are little patches of weeds popping up, the winter spinach was overgrown in one of the containers and there were pieces of what used to be a little garden divider (Ralph had his way with that).  Since the air conditioning unit is back here I couldn't choose anything too big as we need access to it in case something happens, so I couldn't go with big hedges or anything like that, but I did want some low maintenance plants with pops of color back there.  At Lowe's I looked for plants that would get no taller than 3 feet, could handle the full daytime sun this area gets and ones that I thought just looked pretty.  Luckily all of this information is on the tag that is stuck in the dirt with the plant:

 The picture on these tags show you what the plant/flower will look like and the back contains all the important information: how much sun is required, how much water is needed, how big the hole needs to be to plant it in and how big the plant will get at maturity.

Once I got back there I pulled all the weeds and set out the pots where I thought I would like them to be to give me an idea where to dig the holes.

 Once I had my plan, putting the tallest plants in the back (closer to the ac unit) and shorter ones in front I dug the holes, stuck the plants in them, filled up the holes with potting soil and covered everything with a nice layer of pinestraw to keep the weeds away.  I also pulled the old overgrown stuff out of the pots, added fresh soil and laid out the herbs and planted those.  The one on the right has oregano, parsley, rosemary and mint while the one on the left has a single tomato plant surrounded by basil.

Spruce up complete - only about 2 hours of work

oregano, parsley, rosemary and mint

 tomato in the center surrounded by 4 little basils (the cage is to support the tomatoes that will hopefully grow)

Last step: water, water, water - I let the sprinkler go on these for about 20 minutes

The point is this - anyone can grow anything.  The instructions are right on the container of the plant, besides that just cover with some sort of straw or mulch and make sure (especially the first night) that the plants have lots and lots of water.  Hope you are enjoying the spring as much as I am!
Sincerely Loving Food & the Garden!
Lainey