Plastic Thumb

In need of a quick pick-me-up and eager to celebrate the first sunny day in a while, I put together two hanging planters in the micro-yard.  Actually, our back yard isn't tiny, but it is certainly small.  Still, I find gardening a chore.  While I love having plants and flowers on our patio, I'm just not good at maintaining them.   Taking into account that I am always leaving town during the hottest months, most of my efforts end up baked in the sun.  But I think these baskets turned out pretty nice!

The truth is (and real gardeners and flower enthusiasts probably already know), these are fake. They are worse than fake, they are really cheap.  This was a project to help me decide if this is the way to go with flower baskets.  Last year,  birds and critters absolutely decimated my baskets.  The ones which I bought fully grown, looked great for only a short period of time.  Mostly because I spent a lot of time away from home.   Whether I buy the baskets at a bona-fide garden center, big box store, or cheap super market, they still wither and die because of our weekends and extended time away.

These cheap stalks were just stuck in the dirt. I'll have to get foam and put that in and cover it all up with something attractive if I decide to upgrade.  Hopefully the birds won't steal whatever I choose.  Our birds are real scavengers and have uprooted many of the plants and flowers I have tried to grow.

I've seen outdoor-ready baskets on shopping shows but they are too pricey for me to consider.  With shopping out of many folks reach, maybe they will go on sale at some point.  Otherwise I will have to wait for more stores to open up so I can shop for something better (and on sale).  These two set me back around fifteen to twenty bucks (for both).  I am anxious to see how they hold up on a rainy and windy day (which we get a lot of).  In any event, it was nice to take a break and do something in the yard that yielded immediate results.

But don't worry, I'm not going to plant plastic herbs!