May 24 - Creating a Garden for the Road

I celebrated Mother's Day this past weekend. I had a project and couldn't break away, so we postponed the celebration. She was a real trouper. We went shopping, went out to dinner and had fun.

Each year, I try to plant something at my parents' house that will bloom around Mother's Day. Well, I didn't get there this year. But, I did something better. I took them tomato plants - already planted in rich, black composte - straight from my pile!

Joel drilled holes 3-4 inches above the bottom of 5-gallon pails. A friend of mine said that was a good way to container plant tomatoes. You still have drainage, but you never lose the moisture. Hope it works! I filtered the weeds and roots out of it. That should cut down on the nasty week population in each of the pails.

Later this summer, they'll have a bounty of juicy, meaty red tomatoes. I planted Mortgage Lifters. The old saying is that if you plant this type of tomato, you'll be able to save enough money to pay the mortgage - or something like that. Anyway, that variety is a heavy producer.

And, I planted some pink pentas on the patio. My mom can watch the butterflies dance around the petals this summer.

As for my own garden, well, I'm late in getting everything else planted. But, I now have 2 large tomatoes and a few more on the way!