Holey Annuals!

I have holes in my garden. Not the ones I planned for or wanted, either. These holes mock me. They were former homes for plants which simply didn't make it in my garden. The reasons for the failure of these plants to make it here are many, but not worth worrying about now. There will still be holes next week-- and holes full of weeds by September if I don't do something about them pretty quickly.

I realize that I'm the only one who has this problem, so readers, please humor me. I'll consider it therapy, and you can use it as information...for somebody else with a problem garden, of course.

What to do with spaces like these in the middle of a hot July, soon to be August? End of the season annuals are one idea, if I can find a flat of something that isn't as dead as what I just threw out...or better yet, maybe I can find some bulbs that haven't fully blossomed? I spent a good half hour surveying the successes in the garden, and it dawned on me that I have a glut of volunteer impatiens. They seem to be thriving in areas where I never planted the first one!

This little bit of knowledge yeilded my first solution. Rocket scientist that I am, I yanked up some of the leggier impatiens, thinned out some of their more robust clumps, and tossed them into the spaces left by my good intentions gone bad. A light sprinkling of soil and a good rain revived them-- just enough to pop their seed heads and start the color showing on the existing stems. I threw in a slow release fertilizer with a high middle number, and a week later, are they looking good! Talk about cheap! Don't forget, part shade or cool weather is a must for the impatients to transplant well.

If you have a hot or sunny site, here's another suggestion...most garden centers have petunias on sale. Sure, they may be stringy and wimpy, but if they aren't diseased they are a deal. Clean up any yellowing foliage and spent blooms. Plant them in rich soil , add liquid fertilizer (15-30-15) when planting, and every two weeks thereafter to keep them in bloom. You'll get a nice flush of heat tolerant color.

I also have a pot of geranuims in one of my few sunny spots, which needed some cleaning up, so I used some of them as fill-in color in brighter beds. Geraniums are often avaialble in garden shops at big discounts, too, and you can mix them nicely with impatiens or petunias. Dappled shade will bring out some geranuim blooming, but dead shade will not.

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