A Little Outdoor Sprucing

We have started to have a few days of nicer weather here in Texas and judging by my allergies… SPRING has sprung.  And since it was so beautiful out last Saturday I jumped on the chance to do some spring flower planting.  Our new house has two stone planters around the base of our trees out front, and they were just begging for some spring color! The trees are really starting to green up and I wanted some color on the ground to balance it out!

It is amazing to me what a few small flowers can do for a yard! Under the trees they get quite a bit of shade, so I planted 2 different varieties of impatiens.  I’ve had good luck with those in the Texas heat as long as they don’t get too much sun!

In our last house we had a great patio which we saw each morning out our kitchen sliding glass door, so I regularly planted pots and pots of flowers to add some color to the side patio (some that survived and some that didn’t, and even gave my metal flower towers a coat of happy teal paint.  We have good landscaping around the pool in our backyard, so a ton of pots weren’t strictly necessary, but I just love how cheerful they make things, so I planted a few.  The two top baskets are dianthus, one I just planted with new flowers, but the other one survived from last summer (even through the move) so I’ve just watered and fertilized it and it is starting to bloom again.

On the second shelf from left to right are Kalanchoe, Petunias, Petunias, and a Rieger Begonia.  I know the petunias will thrive in pots in the Texas heat, and I had moderately good luck with the Kalanchoe the last time I grew one… it is a desert flower, so hopefully it will survive.  The rieger begonia I just couldn’t resist, but after getting home and doing some research it looks like maybe it won’t survive in its flowering state for very long, so that may have been a waste, but they were SO PRETTY!! The bottom shelves have two more rieger begonias and another pot of white pansies.

Then the big pot on the left has hibiscus, the pot in the center has Salvia and some other green ivy that has survived the last year in that pot, and the sad plant on the far right I got after my grandfather’s funeral almost 5 years ago.  Between my dog deciding to eat its soil a few times, me forgetting to water it when it lived indoors for a while, it is on its last limb.  But I can’t bring myself to throw it out until it is REALLY dead.

The other outdoor sprucing I did was to purchase a power washer.  (I bought this guy from Amazon because it got good reviews) Our patio looks a lot worse for the wear after the winter and all the dead patio things we had laying out after our move but before we have cleaned up.  For a couple of years I have been borrowing a friends pressure washer, but decided after about 10 times of borrowing one, it was time to buy my own.  Especially since this house has some places that could really use it!

Here’s the worst area: I’m not quite sure what the big black and green stain in the center is from, but the line down the middle and the round circle at the bottom are where a piece of our hammock and umbrella stand sat all winter.  Needless to say this area tracked a LOT of dirt into our house, and looked a little too redneck for my tastes.

But after about 45 minutes of pressure washing?

That is much better!!! Pressure washing is one of the most rewarding cleaning projects because you get to shoot a water gun and can literally watch the dirt disappear! See where I’ve pressure washed and where I haven’t??

One more last look at the final results after they have dried out a bit:

Have you guys been out enjoying the nicer weather? Do you have any favorite flowers to plant in pots in the Texas heat?