Stretching My Green Thumb

I've already stretched my green thumb abilities by putting in a rose bed and a hydrangea.  I admit to being in love with gardening, veggie and floral, but my actual gardening abilities are sometimes not even close to that level of love.  This week, I'm stretching my abilities again.

While visiting our old garden on the Georgia coast, Sweet Hubby found that our crinum lilies had seed pods.  After doing a little research, I discovered that, conceivably, these beautiful plants could be grown from seed.  He harvested the pods for planting in our perennial bed at the mailbox.  My neighbor inspired me to plant perennials around the mailbox and driveway end.  Her beds are beautiful, starting in early spring.  While I was researching the lily pods, I realized my calla lilies were doing the same thing.  I trimmed off the seeds pods on the callas to put in the front bed with the crinums.

Crinum lily seed pods from our former garden.

Calla lily seed pods from our BOGO plants.

Currently, the front mailbox bed has a 2 perennials and 3 annuals in it.  A plethora of iris was planted lo many years ago and has happily increased in number.  One of our other-side-of-the-neighborhood neighbors stopped to tell me about the iris' and how gorgeous they were in the spring until a landscape company decimated them on a yard tractor.  On our way home from the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, a neighbor was cleaning out her front bed of purple hearts.  She helped me load up the trunk of van.  The purple hearts are the back border of the bed and are perennials in our zone.  Girl Wonder #1 was ecstatic to have purple flowers in the yard.


The iris' dug out and ready for transplanting.  I don't know the exact number off hand (I forgot to count I was so excited to keep pulling up more and more) but it's half a 5 gallon bucketful.

The mailbox/end of driveway bed.  It all runs together into one big bed.

There is more grass to remove and soil to amend in the next few days before I plant the new transplants into the bed.  Thanks to #groundchat on Twitter, I learned a more desirable (for me) soil build-up is to lay newspapers on the existing soil and add compost and manure over it.  Then transplant the tubers and seed pods.  I admit to going at this backward since the purple hearts are already in the ground but they will easily transplant in the spring so I can redo their section of the bed.  The lone sunflower that we were able to grow from seed is now taller than the mailbox.  I am hoping it seeds where it is since it is a delightful ray of sunshine next to the mailbox.