Please Enjoy These Petunias

I plant petunias every year. Particularly the deep purple petunias, as my dog is very fond of them. Petunias are safe for dogs, and I have had great success with them out in the dog run.

This year I found two terra cotta strawberry planters on clearance for $10 each at Home Depot. They’re about knee high and an amazing find at that price. I intended to plant, well, strawberries in them, but you can go back in my blog and read about the reasons why strawberries are a PITA here. Namely:

• They’re too hard to find;
• When you do find them, they’re too expensive;
• They just die, like everything else in this dust bowl; and
• When they do live and the stars align and you get actual strawberries from them then the birds eat them.

See exhibit A, the $30 bird food of 2022.

Anyhow, I seem to remember growing up we had petunias and sweet allysum in a nice little arrangement so I planted these annuals around the beginning of November. With a bit of deadheading, they should bloom all season long and remain a focal point of the backyard. I just pinch the stem under each flower – I found out the hard way it’s not enough to only remove the petals. The price is right, too. For about $3.95 you get six randomly colored petunia plants, and they grow larger very easily here so don’t bother buying the bigger plants or arrangements that are so tempting in the nursery when you can DIY for a fraction of the price. Just don’t get the leaves wet when you water and you’re golden!

By the way if you are any sort of gardener and don’t already own one (or a wheelbarrow), a wagon meant to tote kids or beach crap or whatever, is an awesome tool to have. I use mine once in a blue moon like Halloween to haul my kids around but the rest of the year it works great to transport all my plants. I can stuff that thing full of plants directly from my trunk and wheel it around back, into the shade, where my annuals can perish in style in the wagon still in the containers I purchased them in, instead of languishing on the patio waiting for me to get around to planting them.

Also sweet allysum is extra forgiving of the aforementioned annual forgetfulness of planting the annuals.

But have you ever seen such beauty? I mean really. These are definitely at their peak and I’m truly enjoying them!