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You know how it goes… you walk into Home Depot intending on grabbing another gallon of paint so you can finish up the living room windows… and then suddenly a bunch of 99-cent snapdragons jump into your cart.
Here’s how it went down: well, actually, there’s not much more to it than that. The plants were less than a buck each and purple, and the pot said that they were “full sun” plants, which is exactly what my garden needs. There is no shade directly in front of the house, so anything I plant here has to thrive in the Georgia heat (oh, and has to also put up with a notorious plant killer like me). Petunias (also a full sun plant per the garden stick thing – I’m really terrible at garden knowledge so I rely on these to tell me how not to kill them) were also 99 cents, so they hopped in the cart too. I had nothing to do with it; I just turned around and they were hanging out with the snapdragon containers all, “Can we come too?” and I didn’t have the heart to tell them they weren’t invited.
I was stopping into the store on my way home from work, and I knew I wouldn’t have much time to get them in the ground before the sun set (about thirty minutes to get home, let the dog out, and plant 17 individual plants in the garden). The weather was finally going to start warming up, so I figured I might be able to squeeze in a sprint in the remaining daylight and benefit from a (finally) springlike garden. And if not, I’d have an interesting surprise the next morning when I headed out and could finally see if I spaced them correctly.
As you might have seen on Instagram, I didn’t exactly make it by sunset. I was three plants shy from getting everything into the dirt before I had to turn the porch light on and finish up. I was sloppy, but then again, we’re talking digging in the dirt, so I wasn’t all that concerned with things looking pristine. I threw down some free pine straw that just happened to be lying around (since, oh, the minute it fell from the pine tree) to keep the plants protected overnight, and by the next morning, I had color:
Quick & dirty (literally) is fine with me for now. This weekend, I’ll get a chance to uncover them and replace the pine straw with proper mulch. but not bad for squeezing in the first spring project of the year, don’t you think?
Gardener here. The white ones are not impatiens. They are petunias which will do great in the hot dry sun. As I was reading and you said impatiens my first thought was ack! Those are going to fry in full sun. When I saw the picture all was better! Both great choices for full hot sun.
I little tip-if you let the snap dragons go to seed at the end of summer they should come back for you. I live in zone 5 and planted some over 15 years ago and to this day some still come back, very spotty, but they come back. Unfortunately not so for the petunias.
See? I’m terrible at this stuff. I saw “full sun” and that they were white and just went with it. Thanks for the correction – fixing the post. Thanks!
If your pine trees are doing really well then you probably have at least slightly acidic soil. Luckily, petunias and snapdragons both do well in mildly acidic conditions. You could also try primroses (which are perennials), but they would need shade in your summers. I can’t wait to see pictures of your new garden!