On Sunday afternoon I headed to a seasonal local nursery, Block's Stand & Greenhouse, to scout around for some plants for my gardens. They have wonderful plants, a huge variety and great prices so it is a fun place to shop. 
An hour and a half later I walked away having spent a little over a hundred dollars. It was definitely a lot to spend but I got a ton of things including 3 flats of large vanilla marigolds, a flat of impatiens, 3 hanging baskets of snapdragons, 10 2-1/2" pots of dahlias, 10 2-1/2" pots of superbells, 4 calla lilies, a large mandevilla, a large rhubarb, 2 large yellow pepper plants and then a couple of pea, bean and zucchini plants. I think that is all but honestly I easily could have forgotten something.
It is going to take me a little while to get everything in the ground but at least I planted the front bed that wraps around my porch before it got dark on Sunday.
With the front of the bed in shade and the side getting full sun it can be a little tricky to find a way to make the plantings look cohesive and still thrive. Last year I made a little bamboo trellis for the corner and trained a pink mandevilla up it. It looked pretty and grew like crazy so I planted it again this year.
Along the front of the bed I already had three boxwoods that I planted last year. I planted some pink calla lilies in between them with a border of starsister dahlias in front. I'm not sure how the dahlias will do in this location but they looked so pretty that I wanted to try them.
On the side of the bed I thought that I had killed the shrubs last summer when they didn't get watered while I was in Southeast Asia for almost three weeks. They totally surprised me by coming back to life this spring. I pruned the dead branches and decided to see if I can do better with them this year. In front of them I planted a border of pink superbells which I think will do well in the sun.
After getting all of my annuals planted I finished everything off with two bags of black mulch to hopefully cut down on weeds. I like how everything looks and hopefully the flowers fill in a bit over the summer.
What have you been planting in your garden? Did you go overboard shopping at a nursery or are you capable of exercising more restraint than me?
Linked To: Centsational Girl's Garden Link Party