Can one play with ornamentals as well as food plants?

[badgerpup]

Just found new growth on the Sensation lilac I planted last year so I know it survived and I won't have to replace it.
They're pretty things...flowers are purple with a white picotee border.
Don't expect it to bloom for a few years yet...BUT!
The Ludwig Spaeth lilac (very dark purple blooms) I planted six years ago is going to bloom for THE VERY FIRST TIME this year! :bounce::woohoo:

Going to set up my tomatoes and peppers this week...putting them in five-gallon buckets on the patio so they'll be more accessible...and found that the lemon thyme I'd put in a planter pot on the back porch survived as well!

Planted a lot of sweet woodruff here and there in my flowerbeds last year as a cover and weed choker-outer...and it looks as though it's gotten the idea.
Going to have clear out a lot of the malva sylvestris though...that stuff is invasive!
Shame too...it's pretty and it has an incredibly long bloom time, but it's going all over the place where I don't want it.

[BOSSHOG]

1. Great Plan

May I suggest you put about a fourth of the five gallon buckets in mulch at the bottom to assist in drainage. And don't forget to poke holes in the bottoms of the buckets.

[badgerpup]

2. Thanks for the mulch tip!

I did learn (the hard way :blush:) that drainage holes in bucket are a Necessary Thing...
but when I tried putting small rocks (large gravel?) in as well, the water drained out so fast...

This sounds like a happy medium...good drainage and no rotting roots, but the enough water in the soil for the little rootlets (and so the whole plant) to be happy. :pals: