Plants in the Planter

We’re finally getting warm weather in Boston, which means it’s time to get back to work on our multi-year outdoor improvement plan. As you may remember, last summer we put together a ~5 year plan with the help of an awesome friend who’s a landscape architect:

We didn’t get to everything I had hoped in our first year of work, but we did make a fair amount of progress, including:

• We had a small deck built on top of our tiny brick patio
• I stained our new deck
• We painted our dilapidated shed
• We added metal edging to our lawn to define our future planting beds
• I built trellises on the shed
• I built screening for the house foundation and AC unit
• I built a large planter for the deck
• We planted a hydrangea hedge along the fence and in front of the shed
• We had a dogwood tree planted next to the shed and then did a ton of mulching

So now we’re tackling some more improvements. With putting in a new basement floor this winter we don’t want to invest quite so as much money this summer as last, though — so I’m trying to start small by focusing on upkeep of what planted last summer and tying up some loose ends.

To start with, I wanted to plant some morning glories to grow up the trellis on the right side of the shed. On the left side we planted a climbing hydrangea, but we couldn’t plant one on the other side because there are too many tree roots to dig anything too deep.

Morning glories can grow very quickly in a single season from seeds, which means they’re much easier to plant where I can’t dig a big hole.

I grabbed a few varieties of morning glory seeds from our local garden center (Mahoney’s, if you live in the Boston area). According to the internet, the seeds sprout best if you soak them overnight before planting, so I did just that.

To plant them, I just followed the directions on the back — planting little groupings of seeds about 6 inches apart and 1/2″ deep. I also planted some hyacinth vine seeds that Sam’s mom sent us (which we also soaked overnight, but I didn’t photograph).

Another loose end was the giant planter I built last summer to hide the crawl space doors next to the deck:

We didn’t actually plant anything in it (or even put any soil in it), though, so it was just sitting empty. To fill it this spring, I had to buy a lot of potting soil. I did first fill the bottom of the planter with some upside down plastic flower pots (left over from previous plants) to take up some space — I read about this as a trick people use with large planters to avoid having to buy quite so much soil and not make the planter even heavier than it needs to be.

In terms of actual plants, first I planted a row of morning glory seeds across the back — my hope is to grow them up the trellis so that it actually looks like it serves a purpose rather than just hiding the crawl space. Then I told Sam that the rest of the planter was his to do what he wanted with — and he decided to plant some herbs and veggies (from seedlings). We picked those up at Mahoney’s too. And now our planter actually serves a plant-related purpose!

Also yes I’m worried about how long the pickets that I used for the screening will last — it’s been one winter and they’ve definitely seen better days. But that’s a problem for a future Sage to deal with…. For now I’m just enjoying the plants!