Planting Parties are all the Wave

This past Monday I kissed the baby, gave my husband the peace out sign and hit the rainy roads up to Winchester, MA for a Wave Petunias event at Mahoney's Garden Center. I was invited to a gardening party thrown to show some local gardening aficionados how to create the perfect planter using lots of different kinds of plants, petunias included obvi. I'll be honest. Before this week, I can't say that I have ever used petunias in my gardening. I guess I thought that they looked hard to care for and keep alive. This mama needs a hardy plant that can take a lickin'... Well, I found out that petunias should be one of my "go to's" in my gardening future + I learned lots of cool tips for generally caring for my potted plants. Check out my recap after the jump and glean some worthy gardening wisdom if you please...

I extended the invite to my good friends Bridget and Marb, who jumped at the chance to #1 get out of the house and #2 get their hands dirty. Marb started a new hashtag as far as I'm concerned " #DirtDontHurt". Oh how we laughed...We started off the evening with some bites and sips, I mean it's not every day that you get to garden while drinking wine. Well, I don't get to do that every day. In any event, the rain didn't stop us from getting to know each other and start getting our creative gardening juices flowing.

Claire, Wave's resident Petunia guru, taught us all about perfecting the planter of our dreams with petunias, herbs and other filler plants. She started us off with the basics but encouraged us to be creative with all of our steps in the process since this was all about having fun. It's as easy as you want it to be but I'll highlight the steps.

• Pick a planter that fits our home or porch's decor. Make sure it has a hole/s for drainage.
• Add a buffer of filler at the bottom of your planter to save on soil and provide drainage. You can use gravel or for a lighter planter, try used water bottles (crazy good idea, right?!)
• Filler your planter with soil with a few inches of space for adding your plants
• Choose a fancy combo of plants with your eye for gardening design. Let yourself have fun!
• You don't have to break apart the roots of your plants, rather you can squeeze them in to provide better rooting.
• Space your plants apart evenly, allowing a little space between each so they have room to "grow" into their new surroundings.
• Fill the empty spaces with soil and firm up. You don't want space for disease to spread.
• Water and enjoy your creation!

Thanks to Wave Petunias for a super fun evening where I learned a lot and laughed even more. They definitely made me a petunia convert. Not only are they pretty but they are easy to care for and will light up your garden beds. I am looking forward to coming back from vacation to add a few new planters to my zen deck.

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