Keep Your Garden Blooming All Summer Long--Even Pansies

Pansies at Dry Creek brave the August heat.

Because I couldn't wait for summer to begin to get an idea of how my outdoor kitchen  would look when completed, I planted pansies and violas in fiber-lined flower baskets in March.  Normally, I wouldn't do that. Pansies and violas are spring flowers and need lots of moisture.  Even planted in the ground, where moisture retention is better, they usually don't survive past the 4th of July.  In a fiber-lined basket, where water quickly runs on through, and the hot winds of summer dry out the fiber, the soil, and the roots, I figured life expectancy for these delicate spring flowers would be far less.  They were an impulse, a temporary satisfaction until the garden took hold.  I was planning to replace them in early July.  And yet, here it is August 10th, and my baskets are still bright with yellow, purple and lavender blooms.  Why?

Marci came a cross a couple of videos on YouTube that changed forever the seasons of my garden.  Evan as new to gardening as I am, I've always known to plant so that you have flowers bloom all season.  But, I didn't know that by trimming flowers, you can extend their life greatly, so that seasons bleed into each other, spring, summer and fall flowers blooming side by side.  Unnatural?  Sure, but exotic and beautiful.  I currently have pansies, petunias, gladiolas, hollyhocks, sunflowers and chrysanthemums all blooming simultaneously.

Watch these videos and learn how to stretch the life of your spring annuals across the long, hot summer.

Click on the above video to learn how to extend the life and beauty of your pansies.

   Click on the above video to learn how to extend the life and beauty of your petunias.