Gardening! Or at least an attempt?

Spring is a great time for gardening, especially since there isn’t a whole lot else to do except stay inside and make your way through the entirety of Netflix.

Recently, I went to a nearby garden center, Bell Nurseries in North Haven, to get some soil and some plants. They have a mostly outdoor selection which is nice, so you’re not indoors while shopping. The employee I spoke with recommended already sprouted/blooming plants because they’ve already shown to be viable. They had a nice selection but I tend to err on the thriftier side and ended up buying a bunch of packs of seeds ($2 a pack). I also got a few 20 pound bags of soil ($7? $8?) to add to my existing garden area.

I was all excited to start planting last week, but most of the sites I visited said you should wait until there’s no potential frost and ideally temperatures between 60 and 75. This week finally seems like the right time to do it. (Now I just need to find some free time!)

Now, I’ve generally had a pretty black thumb when it comes to plants or gardening, but I have this patch near my garage that used to have rose bushes and had to be dug up (won’t go into that homeowner story just now) so it’s just a patch of scraggly grass and dirt. So, when I was browsing the many packs of seeds available, I read the backs to make sure spring was the right time for planting, and ideally perennials which should re-grow year after year. Another thing to pay attention to is if the plant needs mostly sunlight or needs some shade, too. My specific patch is in sunlight all day.

Now, I’m not actually brave enough to take on trying to plant vegetables yet, but many others are. Here’s a list of some good plants to plant in May from House Beautiful. I believe some of my purchases included zinnias, morning glories, and sunflowers (I bought 8 different seed packets).

Don’t forget, plants and flowers can do wonders for your curb appeal. If you’re looking to sell your home, I’d probably recommend buying already growing plants (rather than seeds) so you don’t have to wait. Right in front of your house is always a nice look, or if you want a little more of a project, digging out a space on your lawn and adding mulch and flowers (or even a small tree/bushes) can look really nice. If your lawn is looking a little more desperate, it never hurts to hire a professional landscaping company either. I recently used Lawn Monkey Landscaping to do some lawn tidying/weed pulling/branch cutting and my lawn looked SO much better afterwards. There are tons of lawn companies out there so read your own reviews and pick the best! Our neighbors just used Ooh La La Tree Service to take down some bent over trees in our rear yard (we share a backyard) and some new trees are going in next week (their most recent video on Facebook shows the progress).

Are you planting anything this month? Any horror or success stories? Let me know! I will update with some photos/notes once I actually get a chance to plant!

#realtor #zinnia #connecticut #trees #sunflower #seeds #nurseries #lawn #soil #flowers #realestate