Welcome!

For the last couple of summers, when taking a nice, relaxing cruise around the lake, I noticed a house that had placed several big pots of bright yellow flowers near the shore on their property.  I really liked them.  I liked that the people wanted to share these flowers with boaters that went by.  Thought it was welcoming, you know? Not only to their property but to the lake, to the day. 

I wanted to do the same and bought four, what appeared in the store, BIG pots, in red.  I wasn’t sure how hubs felt about this plan as it meant his needing to move to mow and I know he hates that.  I was excited to plant them, to share them…but what kind of flowers?  These pots were going to be in bright sunshine and I’m more used to shade closer to the house ~ hosta and impatients.  Should I go with  geraniums?  Possibly,  but I sure liked those bright yellow flowers on the other side of the lake.  Because I had heard they needed minimal care I decided on marigolds.  Now, I have to tell you, I am not a marigold fan.  To me they are a bit boring, smell funny and generally don’t appeal to me.   I kept going back to the minimal care thing, and the bright yellow, and marigolds it is. I did opt for the variety of color and have orange and rusty maroon as well as the yellow.  

So I planted my four gigantic pots.  They looked great.  I thought they would fill in nicely and I had included a spikey grass thing in the middle of each one.  I liked them a lot.

However, the pots were not as big as they appeared in the store.  When I got them down to the lakefront and lined them all up they were actually kind of puny.  I was pretty disappointed, but kept it to myself.  After about a week, hubs says to me “Those pots are too small; you need to get something else.”  Well, at least I had my answer as to how he felt about them!

The next day I bought four REALLY huge pots and was able to just set the four smaller pots down inside, with a little beefing up at the bottom.  Once the flowers filled in, I was pretty sure this would make the impression I hoped, and I was pleased!  Those marigolds are great little flowers and I'm becoming a fan! 

I overbought on marigolds, probably because of my too small pots, but I had a place for those in a flower bed that had housed a couple rose bushes a dogwood tree, also in the sun.   

My concern was visitors running in to the pots at night, while down at a bonfire or something.  I thought about those solar path lights and purchased four really cute globe solar lights to put in each pot.  Then at night, there would be just a little glow to remind people the pots are  there.  Perfect. 

The solar lights turned out to be flickering - no, strobing - red, green and blue carnival like things.  My sister-in-law looked out the first night they were in and thought a SWAT team had landed on shore or something.  These things are obnoxious, let me tell you.  Nothing indicated they were flickering, or multicolored, and as much as I like the brightness of the flowers there is nothing about me that says flickering carnival lights.  But, I liked the round globe, sunken in the pots and I have accepted their presence.  

I can’t imagine what the fishermen think.  You know what else? Those pots could still be bigger.