The BIC Plant and Gardening Thread

[sister13]

Hello BIC friends and fellow gardeners! Whether you have a container on your balcony, some indoor plants, a whole garden, or even if you just happen to visit a botanical garden or see a lovely space or plant in your neighborhood you want to share, this is the place! Please share pics, tips, plans and tricks about all things gardening!  

For many years I had a container balcony garden with mostly flowers and herbs (when travel allowed), and I am now embarking on my first backyard landscaping and gardening journey. 

I am often taking inspiration from the natural world around me and have recently had some spring inspiration for the Makeup Challenge of the Week and have loved chatting about gardening in our sun threads, so I thought a new thread would be nice. 

It’s always so interesting to me to see plants and gardens from different regions and countries, so I hope you’ll join the conversation!  

PS: if you create a makeup look based on some plant or garden inspiration, please feel free to post your look or flat-lay here, too! 

Here are a few pics of my spring bulbs to start and I’ll share more soon (kindly ignore the weeds)! 

 

 

My old balcony (from the outside) - I’ll try to find an internal pic too:

[sister13]

The guy at the nursery said it was very hardy and super easy to care for, very low maintenance. It’s a climbing iceberg rose and says it’s zones 5-11. @ather 

[ather]

@sister13  Thanks I’ll have to look it up!! 

[JoSometimes]

The smoke from the wildfires up north made it difficult for us to be outside. Luckily, we had a rainy day yesterday and that washed out the smoke from the atmosphere.

Forgot to plant some sweet peas this year but one of the pods must have fallen into the planter and cracked open because this little one started creeping out of the soil. 

The rose bush bloomed this week! There are surprisingly few thorns on the stems and this one’s grown pretty tall, so I’m not too worried about it being plucked by little grabby hands. 

Some of the peonies have graced the yard with their presence. There are quite a few buds still to open, so it’ll just get better from here!

And speaking of grabby hands, here’s one that found a ripe strawberry! Most are still green/white, but they couldn’t resist gobbling down the ones that were red.

And we should have a nice big bowl of blueberries this year! There are so many!

And the tire planters are doing well. The creeping thyme caught up and bloomed too, so I think everyone is happy in their tire home. My kids were pretty diligent in watering them up until the smoke from the wildfires up north rolled in and we stopped playing outside. 

[jaaayp]

@JoSometimes OMG!!!! I see a strawberry!!!!

[JoSometimes]

@jaaayp It’s not there anymore. 😄😋🍓

[jaaayp]

@JoSometimes 😂😂😂

[ather]

@JoSometimes  Wow your flowers are beautiful! Do your roses get aphids? Or do you spray them? Peonies are my fav! Glad they are already blooming. Woah! You have strawberries already!!! Lucky!! I had my strawberry plant outside and we had this huge storm roll in when I was at work and it picked up the container of strawberries and flew across my yard. So my strawberries are lost. We took some strawberry tops and planted them so fingers crossed we get a few of it works!! 

[JoSometimes]

@ather The whole yard gets aphids but there’s also a lot of ladybugs to eat them, so it kind of balances out. 

And I’m sorry to hear about your strawberries. Hopefully the tops grow into new plants. 

[sister13]

I don’t know a soul who could resist that strawberry!! Everything looks amazing!!! @JoSometimes 

[JoSometimes]

Thanks @sister13! We’re in for a rainy week, so it should help everything grow nicely.

[CookieGirl1]

@JoSometimes mmmmm, I love strawberries and blueberries.

[JoSometimes]

@CookieGirl1 Same! I love coming home, plucking a few off the plants and enjoying a quick snack. 

[CookieGirl1]

@JoSometimes I'm coming over for snack time...

[Mellmars1185]

@JoSometimes You have such a wonderful, thriving garden. The strawberries look delicious🍓! I absolutely love your tire planters. That is such a creative use of a tire. The purple is so pretty 💜.

[JoSometimes]

Thanks @Mellmars1185! I’ve seen tire planters a lot online. I had a few other ideas of things I could do with them but turning them planters was the easiest. And the paint was leftover from other projects. I didn’t want it to go to waste. 

[Titian06]

@JoSometimes - Your strawberries look so good! 🍓🍓🍓  The tire planters are so pretty! 🥰🌷💜

[JoSometimes]

Thank you @Titian06! I’m looking forward to trying them soon, even if I only get a handful. 

[sister13]

Garden Update! My Scarlet O’Hara peony. The blooms start off deep red, then get pinker as they fade. I’m in love with her! 



My Blizzard mock orange. Still quite scraggly, especially compared to her cousin, Snow White (below), but has cute single blooms that are fragrant. (I haven’t planted it yet because my husband may have been right about them needing to regrade the yard.)

The Snow White mock orange and the Siberian Iris I brought from my moms behind it. I’ll probably move the Iris in the fall, but the white and purple are striking! I’ll probably get some more of these Iris from my mom’s in the fall. 

This hydrangea I planted last fall is only about 8-10 inches tall and doesn’t really seem like it’s getting taller, but has some flower buds forming.

[eshoe]

Well this just made my day, @sister13 - so much cheer and what a vibrant garden you have!! Thank you for sharing.

[sister13]

Aww, thank you @eshoe ! @JoSometimes It is still 98% mud and weeds (I’m leaving the weeds to help keep the erosion at bay where possible) but I do think eventually it will be lovely! 

[JoSometimes]

@sister13 Smart idea to leave the weeds in place until you’re ready! I’m sure it’ll look amazing once it’s all done!