Monday, April 20, 2009

To Ensure Happy Pansies

I stumbled upon a gardening site, You Grow, Girl, and found a wonderful idea for keeping containers from drying out. This is a problem in my yard: all-full-sun, all-the-time. Container gardening is such a commitment, it's almost like being on dialysis. The window box and hanging baskets must sometimes be watered twice a day, and if by chance I do any traveling in the summer, I have to trust a neighbor to water once or even twice a day. Some plants just can't tolerate even one day without watering, and cool-weather flowers like pansies do not like to fry in the sun.

I sometimes throw a few ice cubes on the soil; it provides short-term relief, but this idea was much better: irrigating with plastic liter bottles. And once the plants grow a bit, it will be completely invisible!

Monday Funnies: another brilliant "Separated at Birth."
Donatella Versace is my fave.

2 comments:

tim's wife said...

Now, how do you keep the bunnies away from the pansies? Livvy and me
did some planting a few Sundays ago. I normally don't put pansies in the front yard as I have the same problem as you. FULL sun. Or as I call it, we're in gardening
zone Chernobyl. 2 days later, the flowers were all eaten off. Wascally Wabbits!!!

La Cootina said...

Bunnies, squirrels and chipmunks wreak havoc in the Villa's gardens. If I put pansies in the ground, or in pots on the ground, gobble gobble! This time I'm going to try them up out of reach, in the window box.

I may have them for a month or so before they wilt in the heat & I'll have to switch them out with petunias or other "Chernobyl-hardy" annuals.