Hey friends welcome to Gardening With Creekside today we have a fun little project an experiment
that I am going to be doing in the garden over probably at least like the next year uh what
am I going to be doing well Jerry and I went to Illinois the other week to the headquarters of
proven winners they had a summit of some of the folks that work with them and while we were there
we had some meetings of course and on the table were these cute little quart-sized containers
of the tater tot Arbor bitey and so of course I took them home because they they were meant
for us to take home so these sweet little tater tots we got two of them one for me and one for
Jerry got loaded up into his suitcase flew home from Illinois they've been hanging out outside
for the past couple of weeks and today I am going to pot them up into two containers and
then surround them with some beautiful pansies and have them out by the front porch now you're
like Jenny that's not really much of an experiment like what are you talking about woman well tater
tot is a cute little and I say cute because it is little um this little armor biting because it is
only going to get one to two feet tall and wide we've had tons of people at the nursery ask us if
we have tater tots we don't we've never grown it before because it is Hardy in zones three to seven
we're North Carolina Zone 7B so when something is only carting to a zone seven and I'm a 7B and I'm
in the south then I get really kind of like iffy and I don't want to invest a whole lot a bunch of
money or sell a plant to a customer if I don't know that it's going to do well here so that's
what the experiment is going to be and because these are little quart sized plants I'm going to
put them into these decorative containers along with the pansies that way they can go ahead and
grow and get bigger and that they survive and do not just survive but if they Thrive and do well
you know in the next maybe year or so they get nice size to them then I will plot them into the
landscape to see how they do there so that is what we are going to do I will tell you that we
are trying to beat the rain that is coming Megan is my handy dandy camera lady today so she has an
umbrella behind us behind the camera so she is my assistant um so we're gonna get these tied
it up I'm going to show you exactly how to do it I'm gonna do it in real time and um then we're
going to show you a little bit on the front porch what we have been doing she and I had a lot of fun
going through and decorating our large apple pie that is on the front porch so that was a lot of
fun so I will show you that um so we're gonna get these containers filled up with the prison winners
cutting soil um this is my favorite potting sole I use this for all my containers it just does really
well for us in our area with our climate with our constant rain especially in the you know the
winter time tons and tons of rain here um like I said it's gonna start raining tonight it's going
to rain tomorrow and then every day for the rest of this week we have rain chances not that it's
going to be a complete washout but it is going to rain so let me get these fill it up with some soil
just a little bit so maybe it's gonna go grab me some more soil that we can get the other one done
while she's doing that we'll go ahead and hot up this first one so I'm super excited to try
these little tater tots I mean they're just the cutest little thing and then of course the name
I mean you can't beat the name Tater Tots so there we go so here she comes thank you ma'am
off in a second now where would you use this cute little tater tot well this is definitely
because it is an evergreen as all orbs are be a great Evergreen and because of its petite size it
would do really really well as like the front of like in this flower bed as a foundation planting
love arbs as Foundation plantings because they just do so well there are very Hardy really you
know no bugs no pests really are kind of foolproof easy peasy and at this size you're not gonna have
to be pruning it like constantly right so it's very easy to deal with no pruning needed it does
um it is great for containers borders edging and mass planting and then of course because it's an
evergreen it has four seasons of Interest so it doesn't matter if it's spring summer fall
or winter you're going to have some great interest with your with your arms so what we're going to do
said is take these little guys out and you can see they have a great root system right
so really nice strong healthy root system in that court if this is the size that we get
as a grower so we could easily move this up to a one gallon two or even a three
gallon if we wanted to but today I am going to improvise that I could have done that and then
waited right waited for a year or so until it filled it out and then I could have just
you know put it directly in the landscape but what fun is that might as well go ahead and use
it for a little bit of Interest now I know is this going to be like the most stunning container ever
no probably not but is it going to be a lot of fun and is it going to serve my purpose on to see
if this plant does well in our climate it sure is absolutely so here we have some great white
pansies I got 10 because I'm thinking maybe like five per container and I would love to say that
at the beginning of the season when I was planting the sweet yellow violas on the other side of the
front porch that I had this great master plan in mind I did um but we planted of course here
lately the yellow and white pansies down near the entrance to the nursery and then I have some left
over so I'm going to use the rest of them in the burn so we're going to continue that whole theme
of the white and yellow and kind of this front part of the house and the entrance to the nursery
handy and violas are wonderful annuals for us that are definitely cool weather because we are in
North Carolina I can plant these beginning really kind of like in September end of September all
the way through the spring and use them and they will give us flowers and interest throughout the
whole like winter months it is wonderful so here I have my little tater tot is down in the center
surrounded by five white pansies really simple it's going to go on the front that way they'll get
as much sun as I possibly can in because pansies and violas are full sun plants and yeah so it'll
be really fun to watch these grow so we've got one now and one to go that's the thing about gardening
right is that it really can be a year-round sport I really suppose the tuna longer you live I think
sometimes we we just um we get so inside of our own little world that we forget that other people
have you know that everybody else isn't just like us and what our lives are like so for me in North
Carolina I think you know like I forget that some people can't Garden year round you know you could
be covered in snow and it's frozen and you're not gonna see your ground until you know April
or May so we are blessed here in North Carolina in the South that we really can garden year round
um our ground never really freezes so we can do fun things in the garden all year
round so the next cute little tater tot goes in there I am gonna when I finish both of these I
am going to top dress the container with the mixture that Jerry and I have gotten it is a
60 40 blend so it is 40 compost 60 percent
um H-Town bark pants I think that's the right way it could be the other way around anyway
it's a 60 40. we're using it um gonna use it as like mulch top dressing we did that
in the berm so I'm going to go through and top dress these containers with that mixture as well
our little pansies to go and we're getting it in there I don't know about y'all but it's hard for
me to believe that it's oh my gosh Christmas is right around the corner it was yesterday
yesterday was it Monday Monday this week forget what day it was I don't even know what today is
um and they were like Yeah Christmas is like less than three weeks away oh my goodness it is crazy
all right so here we go so I have got the little tater tots in there surrounded by the tansies now
um my potting soil was already damp so I'm not you know worried about watering it and like I said we
are trying to beat the rain we're gonna get rain tonight all tonight and then all throughout the
week so I am not going to worry about watering this it is fine this is December it is not August
it is not July they will be just fine they will not get waterlogged whatsoever so we're going
to move these over to the steps of the porch and then I'm going to show you what Megan and
I did and give you a little update on those cute little yellow violas that we've planted over there
um underneath the horse so we've got both of the little containers placed here by the front
porch I went ahead and pulled them out further away from the house simply because of our winter
sun is very different than our summer sun like most people's is and so I need in in order for
the pansies to get the sun I have to pull them away from the house so that they can get that
sun here they are in the front of the house and you can see we've got just make a very simple
statement folks you know what gardening does not have to be complicated and involved at times we
were having lunch today in the house of course and I was talking with Jerry and Megan and I was
like you know last week for us we got three major projects done in three days we did like we fixed
your driveway with the drainage we got the pansies planted at the entrance and then we got the berm
mulch so three massive products uh projects that we were like exhausted with so I said where last
week was like killing ourselves this week is going to be nice light easy little projects and that is
exactly what today is everything in moderation my friends you got to pace yourselves so
uh my plan is my hope is is that these little white pansies will fill in quite nicely as I
really think they will the little um tater tots will have time to get nice new root growth and
development in there and become very happy and just give me a nice little splash of color here
on the front porch now speaking of the front porch I keep my Christmas decorations very
simple y'all this time of year I'm tired that's just that's just the bottom line I'm tired and
um so we just keep it really simple but I do want to show you um this fun container here that Megan
and I literally did uh right before we started the video I have of course my Aqua pot here that
I've had for several years here and um so let me just explain to you what everything is now
I will say that I spent zero dollars on this Arrangement today now did I have some money you
know in in earlier times absolutely like the aqua pot yes I bought the aqua pot but it's been here
for like I said maybe four years now um and then the little decorations the artificial decorations
in the container were left over from many Christmases ago so I had saved them and recycled
them what we have in the center is our centerpiece here our height that is a fuja green giant that I
am borrowing from the nursery it is still in it's a three gallon container just sitting down inside
the aqua pot and then everything else we went and foraged in the either the Garden or the woods
around us so all of this is off of our property all wild and just right it's just out there and
just went and grabbed it so we have of course Magnolia leaves we we're in North Carolina you got
to have some Magnolias so we've got Magnolias in there we have got these are off of my cryptomerias
in the back in those gorgeous massive trees I love this look at the tips of them how fun is that and
so this is one branch and I actually turned it upside down so on the tree it was the other way
so it was swooshing up now it's trailing down so look at that such a fun little interest on the
um on the foliage I love that then of course every year I do use my limelight hydrangea blooms I just
went down to my Limelight by the creek and cut off five blooms pop them in there really nice we've
got some wild Holly from the woods of course and then this is a cedar so there is Cedar in there
also from the woods and then I would love to say oh yeah we have berries growing like this around
here yeah I know Hobby Lobby grew those berries for me as did the fun little twisty trolleys and
the fun little sticks with all of the interest but I mean you know for going out in your yard
and you know just finding some fun just colors and textures I wish I had something blue that
would have been from my Berkey but I'm trying to get those to grow and if I had gone in there
and cut Lambs off of them one I don't want to but then Jerry would absolutely shoot me
so we gotta let them grow a little bit grab them grow a little bit more before I start cutting on
them but you're looking for you know colors and textures and shapes and what's you know really
upright and what's down um but it just makes a really fun I think a very very pretty Arrangement
and the the way that we have them in there is that the I left the soil is still in there from
um my planting this summer I have not emptied this out yet so I left all the
soil in there that way it acts as a holder for all of those limbs um the Green Giant is
in its container just sitting in the soil and then the soil is holding everything else in
um yeah so there you go so that is that now I want to come on down here and I want to share with you
an update on how the violas are doing you were with me when I planted these violas I believe and
um man look at that they are some happy cheery little flowers for sure the weeds are coming
the winter weeds are coming in there I came in there and um got some weeds out there's
still some in there but that's just the thing you have to do right you have to come through
your garden and walk through and just check on everything pull those little pesky little
weeds before they get too big this is if you're not familiar this is a dwarf um Horseman a Blue
Atlas Cedar this tree absolutely loves this spot it's only been in here for two years I believe and
really branching out quite nicely beautiful foliage on it the color is just fantastic
um it is got really short little needles on it that beautiful kind of that bluish color love
it and then of course behind it are the tea olives the sweet osmanthus and you can see that they have
some blooms on them that is what is so wonderful one of the things that is so wonderful about the
Tea olives is that they are a fall winter early spring bloomer and this tea tiny little white
flowers give off the most delicious fragrance it is just magical clearly these are evergreens
they will get nice and big I pruned them once a year that will be in late spring and just keep
them nice and thick and tight you can see that is another tea Olive right here was planted at the
same time as these guys they had this one has not been pruned at all this year I will prune it it is
much larger because at the base of that tea Olive is where our dehumidifier from underneath the
house it is where it drains so it gets a constant supply of water especially in the summertime so it
is a very very happy tea Olive for sure Emily is home so my alarm is going off alerting me
um but yeah so you know whether you're in the garden doing some sort of like massive project
or you're just going to come and do some sort of little container or if you're just going
to go and walk through your yard maybe it's covered in snow but get out there enjoy it
bundle up get your toboggan get your scarf get your mittens get your animals out there
and just go for a walk even if it's only you know to go get the mail or something just get
outside get some fresh air oh it does the body good to get outside as always we so appreciate
you for gardening with Creekside you all have a great day we'll see in the next video bye friends