Garden Inspiration: Flower Garden Design For A Small Patio

This is a great example to show that a beautiful flower garden can happen even in small townhome patios.

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us a photo of your garden, patio, balcony, or porch?  If so, please click here to contact us for photo submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your photo, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

When One Plant Dies, Another Is Brought Home Alive

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

Growing flowers from seeds isn't as easy as I thought.  Many gardening websites and blogs just make it sound so easy; as if all I have to do is to just toss the seeds in my patio, pat them down in the soil and flowers will just grow.  It is under this fantasy that I planted Mexican sunflowers from seeds.  The seeds germinated well and they had a strong start in sprouting. Then for reasons I still don't know (probably due to my lack of gardening skills),  most of my Mexican sunflowers seedlings just died off.  As of now,  I have two Mexican sunflowers seedlings left that are barely alive.  I have no high hope for these two because they look so frail.   

It's kind of heart breaking to see the death of  something that I had been tenderly nurturing.  I can't imagine how  parents who lost their children to illness, murders, accidents, disasters cope, when I feel so sad just over the loss of one dozen plus of my seedlings.  To fill such void in my heart and to help myself recover from my loss, I just had to go to Trader Joe's to bring a pot of big bloom home.  I have no idea how to care for Godetia, I had never heard of these flowers before but I brought the plant home anyway because the bloom is cheap for its size at $5.99.

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us your experience in gardening?  If so, please click here to contact us for article submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your article, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

Potted Marigolds Don't Do Well Under The Full Southern California Sun?

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

Over the weekend, I planted my first French Marigold into the ground next to my African Marigold. When I purchased the potted single-flower French Mariglold plant at $1.00 from the grocery store, I was intending to keep the plant in its pot because I like the idea of easily moving the plant to anywhere around the home when I feel like it.  After a couple weeks sitting in the pot in the patio under the cool nice spring weather, the plant seemed to do well and actually produced 2 more flowers. I even deadheaded the oldest original flower, as demonstrated in the gardening video; in an attempt to encourage more bloom.

All went pretty good until a few days ago, the weather sort of changed to become hotter with a stronger sun. I went into a panic when I saw my potted marigolds go  limp. (See photo below.)  I was scared that the supposedly easy-to-grow, and heat-resistant marigolds would die on me.  The fact that my thumb could be so black that I couldn't even handle the supposedly hardy marigolds was just too humiliating to even think about.

I still can't believe that the full sun (morning or noon or any hour)  here in Southern California actually can  wilt a potted French Marigold plant in just a couple hours, despite the regular watering.  (No wonder humans actually get skin cancer from just hanging out by the beach.)  After seeing that the African Marigolds in the ground seem to do a little better under the sun, I planted the French Marigolds into the ground too.   It became perky again after the strong sun subsided. (See the first photo on the very top.)  I don't know why every gardening video is saying that Marigolds love full sun, because my potted one doesn't seem to like it that much.  I wonder if the full-sun advice only applies to Marigolds that are planted into the ground?

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us your experience in gardening?  If so, please click here to contact us for article submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your article, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

My First African Marigold

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

I'm never a patient person, and growing flowers from seeds takes too much patience.  While waiting for my Mexican sunflowers to sprout from seeds, I became restless and wanted to see some flowers in my ugly weedy patio.  I had wished that the dandelions would take over the patio and crowd out those grassy flowerless ugly weeds. But it just isn't happening. There were only a few dainty dandelions and they didn't seem to be spreading. They flowered, they died and then nothing.  I have no idea why many people hate dandelions so much and often take extreme measures to use chemical to kill them.   I will never want any chemical in my patio, even though it's only my rental.  I had made a pact with my landlord to not send his gardeners to my place. I rather have a patio filled with weeds than having a barren toxic and chemical soaked patio right outside my living room.   Besides, I kind of like the dandelion's dainty and delicate yellow flowers.  I would love to see them blooming all over the patio.

After watching the video on how Marigolds are the easiest plants to grow for spring, summer and fall, I picked up one wilting African Marigold plant that had only one yellow pom-pom flower for $1.00 when I was shopping for grocery.  I guess it was $1.00 because it wasn't looking too good and the grocery store just wanted to get rid of it.

I brought it home and I just put it in the the same hole where I dug out the dead dandelion plant. That was over a week ago. I have been watering it every other day (without using fertilizer). Now  I am seeing a couple new flowers starting to bloom....  Not bad for $1.00.

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us your experience in gardening?  If so, please click here to contact us for article submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your article, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

My Mexican Sunflower Seeds Are Sprouting

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

I don't know why I am starting plants from seeds.  I am a busy professional who spends most of my everyday working in a downtown skyscraper. This is why I love Kalanchoe because it is a plant that can survive on my desktop in my downtown office, without me making a fuss over plant care.

A few weeks ago, I started hating the several square feet of patio at my rental apartment because it's filled with unsightly weeds.  I'm surprised that the weeds can actually survive in such a little space in semi-arid Los Angeles without people watering them.  Then I suddenly had a fantasy about those ugly weeds being replaced by bushy and showy flowers.  The more I fantasized about it, the stronger my desire is to get that easy growing and fast spreading bushy flowers to take over the weedy patio.  After lots of internet surfing for that type of flowers, I stumbled upon Mexican sunflowers.  I couldn't find the seeds from Home Depot, so I bought them online.  I bought 500 mg seeds (about 50 seeds) for about $4.38 (shipping included). 

On March 28, I planted the seeds in a seed starting tray filled with moistened potting mix and I have been watering daily ever since. (The soil has to be moist but not flooded with water so the seeds don't get drown and rot.)  The sprouts started showing up a few days ago, and as of today, there are more than a dozen seeds that had sprouted.  Whether these Mexican sunflowers will spread like weed in my patio has yet to be seen, but I'm very happy with these seeds so far.

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us your experience in gardening?  If so, please click here to contact us for article submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your article, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

The Beauty of Marigolds

Review: Air Wick Summer Delight Scented Oil Air Fresherner

Review submitted by: Barbara Weiner

Not only do I want my bathroom to look decent with flowers.  I also want my  bathroom to smell of sweet flowers.  But whatever little aroma my little pot of Heather Flowers are emitting, it's just not noticeable in my bathroom. I therefore plugged in Air Wick Summer Delight Scented Oil to energize my bathroom with a more powerful fragrance.  I give this scented oil 4 stars out of 5 for its wonderfully crafted formula that layered the pleasant fragrance of white flowers, with the scents of sweet melon and vanilla.  These scents just go very well together.  It makes my bathroom smell really nice.  I love it. A pack of 3 bottles is only $6.48 from Walmart. 

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share your review of a certain household product with us? If so, please click here to contact us for review submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your review, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

Glorious Ground Covering Flowers For Spring & Summer: Gazania