How to Not Do Schoolwork on the Weekends

One of my students asked me on Friday if I come in on the weekend and grade papers. Um, that would be a big ole negative... So, what do I do on the weekend when I'm not pining away for the weekend to be over and the school week to start back on Monday? This weekend, I 'springed' up the house. NO - I did not clean? Are you crazy? I planted flowers!

It's too early to plant flowers outside here still - it's really not safe until after the first week of May or so, so I did some indoor arranging. On my lightning fast trip to Raleigh, I picked up the book Container Gardening by Stephanie Donaldson out of the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble. Boy did it set my planting spirit on fire! I made Logan take me to the antique mall to look for neat stuff to plant in. My main goal was a neat old tool carrier. Um, do you happen to know what an old tool carrier is going for these days? Try around $40-50. Yeah, I thought it was a little excessive too...So if you have one of those sitting around, you could probably dust it off and make a pretty good profit out of it. So, I didn't find anything at the antique mall - I do plan on trying the junky flea market stores next but until then, I found some pots around the house that will satisfy my need for planting.

I did find a neat pail at Wal-mart for about $2 and I got a dwarf snapdragon plant and dianthus for 99 cents each and a pack of 6 blue lobelias for $1.67. Here are my planting creations :

In the hanging planter, the lobelia should fill out and spread over the side a little more and in the middle is one of the red dianthus like in the pail. It will fill out more too. Dianthus are really one of my most favorite annuals to put in my flower beds and I have found if I take good care of them and pinch the head back, I have had them come back year after year. If the snapdragon and dianthus outgrow their other pots, I can always transfer them outside when it gets warmer. I might take the lone snapdragon in to sit on my desk at school...It will remind me that, no, I don't go in and grade papers on the weekend...and that it's only 8 more weeks until summer vacation :)