If your planted pots still look like this, you’ll be encouraged by the tutorial below.  Winter will end.  Life will return… maybe not to this particular plant, but new life can be found!  I’m sure of it. 

So…. I promised you I’d show you plenty of spring this week.  When Ella-Mae said we were going to make a flower pot that was “spring-y”, I laughed.  Spring-y around here doesn’t have much to do with the weather.  The hind end of a cow who looks ready to calve is said to be “spring-y”.  Rest assured, I’m not going to show you pictures of that, althought “spring-y” cows are still in abundance around here.  I just thought since this is Cowgirl Clippings, it’s only appropriate to share that little bit of cattle terminology with you. 

Now, by all means, lets talk about flowers, please!  To make a nice Spring-y flower pot, first you need a good looking pot…

…. here is the before picture.

Next you need to fill the pot with aluminum cans so you don’t have 500 lbs of dirt loading the thing down.  Those cans will make it semi-possible to move this big pot when it’s full.

….and the cans will provide a nice drainage system for your potted plants, too.

Now fill the rest of the pot with soil.

Find yourself a cute little blonde helper and ask her to give you her cheesiest smile.

Find yourself another helper… a very maternal preteen who likes holding babies.  Finding a helper with gorgeous red hair is an added bonus.

Once those logistics are taken care of, it’s time to plan your planting…

… set the flowers where you think they’ll look most appealing.  (For this particular pot, we chose to have some height in the back, then tapered the flowers by height towards the front.) Ask the three year old gardener what she thinks of the arrangement and make your final decision.

Take flowers out of plastic containers…. 

… plant flowers….

…the more color the better. When you’re done planting each flower you’ve chosen to use…

… stand back and admire the beauty.

You’ll want to give the flowers a trickle of water…

… nah… give ‘em a good drink!

You’ll probably have a little cleanup after your efforts.

And finally….

… an essential philosophy in gardening and life…

Stop. And smell the flowers!