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Romantic Chair Planter


July 15 update: My chair planter is doing well despite some pretty intense summer heat. The geraniums haven’t filled out yet. It’s probably time for a feeding and a haircut.

Ta da!




June 7 update (8:43 p.m.)

Ok, I found the “CocoPeat”, in the garage, in a bag from Home Depot. Guess it wasn’t hard to find after all…or, rather, it’s only hard to find after you buy it and bring it home. And if you’re me. I just finished planting the chair and will photograph it tomorrow. I’m pleased with the way it turned out. The only change I might have made, in retrospect, is to use one geranium with some white in the flower color. No biggie, though. I’m sure I’ll replant the whole thing a few more times before retiring the chair.

Plant material:

— ‘Abunda Giant White’ Bacopa
— ‘Galleria Bright Violet’ trailing geranium
— ‘Picasso’ ivy geranium
— ‘Lemon Licorice’ Helichrysum petiolare
— Celosia (unk. cultivar)
— ‘Devon Cottage Rosie Cheeks’ Dianthus (on the ground)

Chair basket:

— green chicken wire
— weed fabric (as a liner)
— potting soil
— coconut fiber or “cocopeat”
— vinyl-covered wire ties for attaching the chicken wire basket to the chair

Tools:

— wire cutters
— scissors

I’m eager to plant… just having trouble finding coir liner. I thought I had some in the garage, but where is it? Did I use it all? Where did I buy the stuff? Argh.

I may have to go buy more, but it’s a bit of a pain to find nurseries and hardware stores selling bagged loose coir. Easier to find are those pre-formed liners, but they’re kind of cumbersome to work with and look a bit stiff.

The mini carnations will probably be planted at the base of the chair, but I hope to be able to include celosia in the chair seat. Without it, the seat plants look sweet and romantic, but celosia adds that necessary hint of passion.



New green pot from Bushnell’s


This gorgeous warm green pot was on sale at Bushnell’s. The plants are from Bushnell’s and Capital (Sunrise). As is my way, I bought a little bit of this and a little bit of that and didn’t even decide what was going in the pot until I got home.

The problem was, everything I held up to the pot at the nursery looked good. That’s the blessing… and curse… of a green pot.

— Ornamental millet (Pennisetum glaucum)
— purple Angelonia
— Heuchera ‘Key Lime Pie’
— red celosia

I like the way the red celosia plays off the crimson blotch on the volunteer orange nasturtium.

First zucchini of the season

I’m thinking… sliced and sauteed in a little olive oil with salt and cracked pepper.

The variety is a bush type called ‘Gold Rush’, by the way. These zukes are in a half-barrel, which might account for their earliness. I’ve also had a major veggie garden epiphany recently– if you want bees in your vegetable garden, plant lavender! My lavender plants are like one giant beehive right now and yes, I do happen to have blooming lavender right next to my squash plants.