One of our prospective clients went shopping today for planter’s to place in front of her house, near her two white portico columns. Not too large, but a very good size. 14” x14”x 14”. For a first year pick, we think they are a good start; a fair price, sturdy, adequately equipped with built in drainage and made of a resin material which is not too heavy for moving them around. Ceramic planters these days are heavy, costly and they often crack near the base, if our winter is really cold. Plus, as a new gardener she wants to go at it carefully, so as to make sure her skill as a gardener and her commitment to execute a nice little garden, will stick. We think it will. She has owned her home fifteen years and this is her first attempt to learn, create and plant.
We visited to provide our 30-minute FREE gardening consultation. She has actually been reading our blog and finally decided to give us a call for her rightful 30-minute gardening consultation. While we were together today, we covered pruning bushes, weed removal from the patio, bed cleanup and dead leaf removal, deep edging of her flower beds and size requirements for planted items, soil and mulch requirements and removing invasive repetitive weeds from her beds. When we left she had a couple of our tools to aid her with weed removal and the proper edging of her beds. She seemed to appreciate the concept and our tutorial.
She sent us a photo of the planter above, and checked in to get our “recipe” for extensive weed removal from her fairly small patio…. which she hopes to tackle this week prior to her company arriving for Easter.
The recipe follows:
1 gallon of white vinegar
1 Cup table Salt
2 Tbsp of Dawn Detergent
Pour all in a bucket, full strength, and using your kitchen broom, swish all over the patio. Do this on a full Sunny hot day. Make sure the day following will also be hot and Sunny. The hot sun combined with this homemade weed removal concoction should dry the weeds out… and you can either sweep them away, or power wash them away with your hose and a sprinkler, with the nozzle setting on high. Our homeowner is going to “give it a go.”
We are wishing her well ….and will follow up by going by to see how things are coming along one day this week. As of this posting time, she has secured recommended products and put in two hours labor pulling weeds and edging her beds with tools we left behind for her to take use of.
Such fun…. and we are pretty sure she is feeling like she accomplished some “gardening beginnings” today.
“Contessa” says……it’s a very good thing!
P. S. With her permission we may take photos of her accomplishment and revise this post later. So check back later in the week. And in May once planting can begin we will assist her with choosing plants and planting them. This activity will be a fee-based service by us, and she understands this.