Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Planting Pansies

Pansy by Tony Ruta
Pansy

The girls and I planted pansies yesterday. Pansies usually do very well in the winter here and we often plant them in the fall so we can enjoy them until it gets too hot in the summer. They are winter hardy in zones 4 through 8 (we are in zone 7).

The girls aren't too fond of weeding and some other types of yard work, but they LOVE planting flowers and seeds. They are more willing to weed the flower beds if they planted the flowers. It's also a nice way for us to spend time together. We can enjoy being outside and being quiet if we want, or talking if we want.

Some of the neighbor children stopped by to see what we were doing and it turned into sort of an impromptu gardening lesson. They wanted to know why we were planting flowers in the fall, so I told them about pansies and how they can survive a freeze and even snow. We also turned up a few grubs while we were digging (ewww!) so we had a little talk about that too as I threw the grubs onto the sidewalk and encouraged the kids to stomp on them. I know, gross, but I would rather have them squished on the sidewalk where I can wash them off than eating my flower roots. :)

2 comments:

Sue said...

Thank you for visiting my blog. I am really enjoying reading through yours.

I have such a hard time getting summer flowers to grow on our balcony, and honestly don't find them as pretty anyway. I just love when pansy season arrives! I like the tiny ones -- they are called violas here in Japan. Or, as the sign I saw at the garden center the other day said, "vioras";).

Anonymous said...

Luke in texas said,
really like your page.have had pansies out front since january.they look wonderfull now.easy to plant,easy to care for and alot of color.spring is right around the corner,enjoy....Luke