Earth day flowers

It was earth day. Did you do anything special?

Andrew and I decided that one way to help take care of the earth is to actually touch the dirt and make the earth pretty. This actually was the perfect decision because I was motivated by our Green Thumb church class the night before and Andrew LOVES gardening. We decided to go to Bachmans. As we were getting out of the car, Andrew told me the plan: everything he thought was pretty we would buy. We could not stick to "the plan" because Andrew thought EVERYTHING was beautiful and we brought the Miata.
We both love Hydrangeas. I have two bushes in my yard. They don't look this good though. Not enough sun I think..
Look at all these colors. I wish I had some sun in my yard...and some gardening talent.
Andrew is going to be the gardener in our family. He was so excited to be around so many pretty flowers and plants. He wanted to hold them and he wanted to figure out exactly how much water each plant needed. He takes the gardener role very seriously.
We decided on a bunch of pansies...because they can be planted now and survive the strange early spring weather around here. We tried to choose some of each color. I am a little nervous for the marigolds. High maintenance plants don't survive around here (it is to early to plant them outside).
Today we were just starting these two long narrow containers. I was not kidding when I told you that Andrew takes his gardening responsibilities seriously. Last year we let him pick out two plants. We put them in our side flower garden. Andrew would check on them throughout the day just to make sure they had sun and water. If they were not in the sun, he would dig them up and replant them in the sun again. These plants actually did not survive very long. So I think movable containers are the ticket for this gardener. Yesterday morning he already had moved around the small milk jug container into the middle of the yard. Better sun.
As soon as Emily got home, she and Lauren joined in the fun. Emily decided to adopt a Marigold.

Our neighbor Lauren picked a purple pansy.
We really are excited about the yard this year. Our next plan is to pick out a few vegetables to plant in containers. Not a lot. We are following the baby step into gardening plan.