The Kansas winds have blown  spring in and we have been working in our raised bed gardens planting what will hopefully keep us in fresh vegetables for a good portion of the summer. This year with the birth of baby #4 we decided to scale our garden back to the basics: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and flowers.  After we had completed planting the garden and our flower pots I realized that we easily had enough left over to make a small Marian garden in a planter base I already had.

For this project you will need:

• “Mama Mary,” as we like to call her.  We picked up a holy water font from our chapel gift shop!
• A planter base.  Mine is a 13″ terra cotta. 
• Some potting soil.
• Flowers for full sun. 
• Mulch or Rocks to keep your soil in place.
• (A good helper never hurts either!)

First, start by filling your tray with potting soil.

Add Mary and secure her.  Since our statue was a holy water font we filled the base with soil to help hold her in place.  She should be standing about 1/3rd of the way back into the planter with 2/3rd’s remaining behind her.

Select the plants that you want and set them in place on top of the soil to get an idea of how many you will need and the spacing to allow for planting.  We ended up using (1) grassy plant, (4) petunias, and (3) small flowers.

Get your gloves on and plant them!  All of our kids thoroughly enjoy planting!

We added pebbles to help keep the soil in place when we water. 

Watering is the fun part!  There may or may not have been an argument going on about *who* got to do the honors for this photo.  🙂

So pretty!

The kids loved this simple garden project and want to keep it for their own!  I think I have convinced them however to give it as a Mother’s Day gift to my spiritual mother, Barbara.  I have never known what to get her for Mother’s Day and I am certain that she will love this surprise! 

 

Have you thought about Mother’s Day gifts yet?  You have time to get one (or more!) of these done for this weekend!  I would love to see yours if you make one… be sure to comment with a photo if you do!