Why I Oughta...

Back at the beginning of the month, I posted some details and photos of our front yard annual plantings including their inspiration from Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.  At the time, I planted (only) a series of Dusty Miller white annuals and talked about how I'd fill them out with a few other colors and flowers.  After doing a little bit of hemming and hawing, I decided to just see what struck me at the big box garden center.  I ended up coming home with purple and yellows.   Purple petunias.  24 of them.  And Yellow Zinnias.  18 of those.  I planted the purple petunias in between each pair of the Dusty Millers.  And planted the Zinnias in a row *behind* those - closer to the house/boxwoods.  Below, you can see what they look like right now, immediately after planting.   Here's a look at the yellow, flowering annual zinnias: And, here below, is the purple petunia: I'm hopeful that they'll fill-in and what I call 'get bushy'.  I'll monitor these across the bala

I've lusted after the green Versailles Orangerie planter boxes that you see all over Paris filled with trees in gardens and parks.  I've posted about them a couple of times here on the blog and even thought about trying to make one on my own .  While were were trouncing around Paris this Summer, we certainly saw the original ones with upright wood slats.  But, I also was tuned into a new version: made from metal.   Here, below, is one of them I saw on a side street in Paris.  It has a scrubby tree/shrub in it, but feels fairly underplanted. And, below, are pair of them (unplanted as well) in the park leading to the Eiffel Tower.    A closer look inside these shows they are two-piece containers with an interior 'cage' that seems it can be 'lifted out' (see the corner hooks below).  I'm guessing that two-piece setup is intended for Winter as they can leave the planter in place, but take the tree to the Orangerie for overwintering.  The other thing (see below)