Getting paid to garden? Sign me up! Sign me up!

I don't do a lot of container gardening at home because:

a) Nice containers tend to be expensive, and...
b) I am well over my allotted gardening budget for the year and I don't think I could get Peter to shell out even more cash on my new favorite hobby (he is already calling me obsessed).

So when I discovered that there were some pots that needed to be replanted at work, I jumped at the chance (nonprofit, no union, yay me).  Besides what is better than gardening on someone else's dime (even if it's a dime you really need to stretch, budget cuts and all).  Keep in mind, I am a manager in a nonprofit, so this doesn't technically fall under my job description - let's just say I am community minded (and motivated by my own selfish needs...)

I contacted my friends at Hands2Mouth - a super cool community garden initiative in Rockland County - and they recommended I head over to D'Ercole in Norwood, New Jersey.  I never turn down a chance to pick through a garden center, so I headed over there this morning.  D'Ercole has a really nice assortment of plants at great prices - and the staff are very friendly!

Two hours, five pots and $80 later, and the patio looked as good as new (okay, not exactly HGTV'd, but good for a novice gardener like me).

Check out some shots of the finished products:

Not crazy about the color combo here - in my mind the yellows looked better than they do in reality.

Used sage and lavender here - I heart lavender!

Broke up some stonecrop as an accent plant - hope I didn't kill it!

Because of the location of the pots, I was able to choose plants that thrive in full sun, which was a nice change from the shady ditch our house sits in.  Now I am just praying for rain because I didn't have time to water them.  My luck, this will be the one day this week it doesn't rain!