Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for November 24, 2019

Men like an underdog!

Perhaps he didn’t want you to think he was being critical of your gardening skills if he pointed out those flowers not thriving so well. You could have included him in the process of caring for the garden a lot sooner.

I had some mums on the front porch, died in the early August heat. Dumped them by the front rose bush, they bloomed out and finally died after the frost. Curious to see what happens in spring.

I have an aloe plant that I thought died. Tossed it into my small circle garden. Next thing I know, it’s taken it over! So I figure loving neglect works :)

I bought one of those hanging geraniums years ago. Bring it inside every winter, put it back out in the spring. Still blooms, but looks very weird.

Is she discarding the pots, or just the plants at the curb? Why not reuse the pots and mulch the rest?

Knock off the dirt first and save the pot.

No no! I need to chuck the pots too. If not, when Spring rolls around, the wife will think she needs to buy more new plants to fill them up.

Well, his heart’s in the place, even though the expert Gardener has declared post mortum.

Those geraniums are a warm-climate perennial. They can survive a few frosts and they’ll bounce right back if you’re in a state like California, Texas, or Florida. In the rest of the U.S. they sell them as annuals. Where do Arlo and Janis live?

Is it just me, or has Arlo’s nose grown?

If they’re gardeners why would they put them out in the trash anyway — they should empty the potting soil and dead flowers into a bed to add organic matter

Ma was born with a green thumb and could make geraniums grow in concrete. She met her match with Florida sand, though..But after a couple years’ application of cow-poop and ‘other organic stuff’ she had her and other’s trailer spaces all flowered out, although it fell to her to maintain the mess when the snowbirds flew the coop…

What, no compost pile??

Husband was not successful at growing flowers in front of our house. (I have a brown thumb – want your ivy or weeds to die – let me touch them and they WILL be gone.) we think it is because the house faces east and we keep a van parked on the arc in the semi-circular drive on our very small property so there is even less sun. About 8 years ago we were driving in the Lancaster, PA area and I noticed a lovely arrangement of flowers cascading from a pot in an iron stand and pointed it out to husband.

The idea I had was to buy different flowers for the 3 growing seasons and put them into what turned out to be 3 stands that we bought and in this way we would have flowers in front except in winter. We went through at least 2 years of the flowers either blooming once and never again or dying quickly.

Then one year we bought geraniums in the spring. In the late fall they were still there. So now we always buy same. Husband does baby them.

When the geraniums die in the fall we replace them with another idea of mine. We bought 3 artificial poinsettia plants that could go outside. Husband filled a pot for each with the stuff that is made to insulate that comes out of a can and expands and hardens. We stuck the plant in each pot before the stuff hardened and also stuck cut up pieces of thin roping on top of the stuff to hide it. So in the fall the three pots of poinsettia go out for the winter – until the snow is coming and then we pull them in. Neighbors have asked how we grow poinsettia outside in the cold they look so real. Though they are a bit lighter in color than they were originally.

It’s only 4 months in Edmonton Alberta