Pretty Pots

Our house has an upstairs balcony that we pretty much never use.

Yes, the wall behind it is ugly and peeling. Husband says we can't paint over it because technically the wall belongs to our neighbor. Even though neighbor never sees it. *grumble*

When we bought the house, the previous owners left all these faded, cracked plastic flower pots and a rusting stand on a piece of wood they haphazardly nailed to the deck.

Duuuude.

Meanwhile, I've got all these cute IKEA flower pots leftover from our wedding that I'd like to repurpose or something.

So I set out to put these pots to good use. I picked up some seed packets from Wal-Mart. I've never successfully grown flowers from seeds before, but why not try again?

Note: I am definitely a black thumb and therefore have taken zero time to learn about flowers. There were two types of seeds at the store — annual and perennial — and I didn't know the difference. My mom informed me that annuals are ones you have to replant every year, but perennials will come back year after year. Good to know. I'm lazy, so I got perennials.

If I can get them to grow at all, I will have flowers for many years.

I pitched all the cracked pots in the trash and hauled the metal frame downstairs. It got black gunk on my hands, so I thought maybe it was just dirty and the original color would still be under the dirt, but no dice. It was just dirty and faded and rusty and sad.

So I gave the frame a quick paint job with some black Rustoleum so it wouldn't rust any worse. Much better!

I picked up some potting soil and filled the pots, then used my gardening shovel fingers to plant my seeds.

And now, we wait!

I would still like to do something about that piece of wood (the spot in the middle bothers me), and Hubs and I plan to seal the deck at some point, but those are projects for another day.

Have you ever grown anything from seeds before? What would you do to make the deck look prettier?