Brought to you by: @Kraytive
Flowers.
He’s going to kill me for saying this, but my husband Tanner is the reason we have a flower planter. He wouldn't admit it, but he loves them! I can’t tell you how many times we’d be out running errands at a store and he would discreetly sneak a bag of flower bulbs into our cart. Now that the flowers are in full bloom, watching him is like watching a kid in a candy store. I love seeing his eyes light up when he sees all of the different colors and varieties. It's the best!
I see you, Tan. I see you.
We planted the bulbs in early spring and by mid-summer, the growth of this planter was explosive! Also, one of the benefits that I realized in hindsight of planting these bubs (besides just being so dang beautiful!) was the amount of bees they would draw in to pollinate my other plants. I’ve never seen so many different kinds of them! Fluffy bumble-bees, little honeybees, you name it! They keep to themselves and don’t bother us at all when I’m working out there, and they sure seem like happy little guys. I truly believe that the amount of bees in the garden this year were one of the big reasons why my veggies and fruits have been so successful!
Next year, the plan is to take the bulbs out of the planters and re-plant them around the planters and throughout the yard to give them more space to grow, and add more color to the rest of our landscaping!
I initially only wanted this planter to have flowers, but ultimately I couldn’t help myself and planted potatoes, romaine lettuce, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and tomatoes in there too.
Here is the layout of the 'flower' garden box:
Here are the plants I started from seed indoors in March:
I planted most of garden box directly into the soil:
I planted about 30-40 tomato plants, thinking that only a few would survive. To my surprise, they ALL survived so now I have a ridiculous amount of tomato plants that I have had to sneak into almost every garden box. I snuck two Garden Delight tomato plants into the back of this planter, and I’ve got quite a few growing! They should be starting to fully ripen in the next few weeks.
We have seen these beautiful flowers in a lot of bouquets down at Pike Place Market, and decided to get a mix of different colors. They signify remembrance and are the tallest flowers in our garden beds. The blooms don’t last terribly long, but they sure are pretty.
This flower produces bright purple flowers that attract a lot of bees and butterflies to the garden! They don’t take up a lot of space and are extremely hardy and low-maintenance.
These dahlias are my FAVORITE flower in the garden, and I didn’t realize how much I would fall in love with them. Each plant produces a lot of flowers, and I’m hoping to add many more colors to our collection next year! They are so gorgeous and make a wonderful addition to the garden.
I planted a much later, second round of broccoli (my first round was in my first planter) and planted two broccoli plants and two brussels sprout plants spaced much further apart than in the first planter. The first broccoli plant is already producing a head of broccoli, although I’m not seeing a lot of action with the brussels sprouts yet. I’ll keep trying!
I just recently planted this chamomile a few weeks ago, and today I spied the first cute little blooming flower! I can’t wait to dry the flowers out and make some tea after they mature! I love me some chamomile tea, and the chance to make my own is almost here.
Sooo… Planting potatoes was very much unplanned. Our family has a slight obsession with making potatoes for breakfast, and we had a Costco bag of mini-potatoes sitting on our counter inside. I saw some starting to sprout, so I took a couple of them, halved them, and planted them. Can you imagine how excited I was when the first little leaves started poking out of the ground?! I’ve dug up a few potatoes already, and I’m ready to plant more! The little purple flowers just fell off of the plants so they are ready to harvest, but I’m going to wait until the weekend to dig them all out.
I planted marigolds next to the romaine and tomatoes to keep some pests away, and they are just about ready to be harvested for seed and nearing the end of their blooming period for this season. To harvest the seed, I’ll cut the flowers off after the petals wilt and I will dry out the remainder of the flower to get to the seeds.
Out of all of the edible leaves that exist, romaine has always been my favorite. Come on… Caesar salads? YES! Give me all of the leaves!!! I love the deep green color and how thick the leaves are, and there haven’t been many pests nibbling on these plants either. I like to pick off a couple leaves at a time and chop them into a nice salad for lunch. Right now, it is too hot out so the plant is flowering and about to go to seed, which I’ll collect to plant next year!
If you are considering adding flowers to your garden, don’t hesitate! Do it! I am still in awe of the colors and beauty this garden box has brought to our planters, and I will be planting many more flowers next year. Soon it will be time to cut back the flowers back to their bulbs in order to prep them for next year, and the cycle will begin again.
Are you a flower lover? What are your favorite flowers to plant in the garden, and why? I’d love to hear your ideas to get some more inspiration for next year!
Have a kraytive day!
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