Happy almost summer friends! Over Mother’s Day weekend I had a chance to start playing around with the planters and pots on our front porch. Our school greenhouse has a wonderful selection of affordable flowers. and this year I fell in love with their dark bronze leaf white begonias and interesting coleus varieties.

I purchased a few of the brozne leaf begonias to see how they would look, and i am crazy about them. I am purchasing more this week (only two dollars each and I am supporting our future farmers class!)

I also picked up some vibrant green and coral -pink begonias, and dark purple coleus to create a new combo for the planters on our porch. I grabbed some creeping jenny and sedum that I had growing elsewhere in the yard to see how a “spiller” would look, and I like the combination. I am going to pick up a few more creeping jenny plants to really spill out over the sides.  I have four identical planters along the porch ledges, and normally it costs a bit more than I like to spend to fill them all. This year I am paying less than half of what I usually spend due to the great prices at the school greenhouse.

Begonias and coleus do very well in the porch planters due to the shade. Now if I can just keep the deer out of the planters! I grew begonias in the planters last year and they were huge and lush by the end of June. I used deer netting to deter deer, but this year the netting is NOT working so far in the backyard, nor is the granule repellant.  I have already lost numerous hostas and small hydrangea!

Can you believe this is only one coleus plant filling the entire planter? I normally do a mixed planting in this gorgeous clay pot, but I really like the simplicty of the coleus this year. The colors are so interesting that I think it can stand alone. It was only $5 at the school greenhouse!

After all my choir programs are finished up in the next 2 weeks and school is out, I will have more time to spend in my happy place…the garden of course! I will share an update on the planters in mid-june. 

How is your garden coming along? I love hearing from you!

Thanks for visiting!

Amber