Early Spring in the Garden

This time of year makes it impossible for me to put my camera away!  I'm filling up all my storage with spring-time-everything, so I thought I had better share a little: 

Pink Dogwood

Hosta

Muscadine Grape

Fern

I loved finding these in the wreath on my front door (!)...

and a few days later!

They are just about to take flight as I write this and I will miss checking on them every day.

White Azalea

Chives

Phlox (on its way out), Clematis (on its way in) and Angus (on his hind legs).

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful time of the year, too!

Fun and Funky Planters

Man, it's hot out.  Almost hot enough to make me to ignore my garden.  I think I'll sit inside and blog about it instead;)

Remember my post early this summer on Instagram and Facebook with this year's version of my birdcage planter?

Just impatiens this year:)

I just remembered that I have another unorthodox planter I haven't shown you yet, one I made out of an ancient Ikea chair that had lost its seat:

Grass, Bells (suffering from the heat) and Sweet Potato Vine (loving the heat)

I'm not much for pink flamingos, but I do like a garden that has some quirkiness to it, and unusual planters are a great way to achieve that goal.  Here are a few more examples I'd like to try someday:

Wheelbarrow via Bob Vila

Birdbath via Empress of Dirt

Toy Truck via Junk Market Style (I have one just like this!)

Dough Bowl via Ballard Designs

Wherever and whatever you are planting this summer, hope you're having fun and staying cool.

DIY Mini Greenhouse: Start Seeds Using Trash!

Hey peeps!  Here's another frugal idea that digs deep...into the trash can.  Ugh, Michelle, that's bad. But the results are pretty cool!

This is how I started seeds this year:

K-cups (foil peeled off, emptied of coffee grounds, and rinsed) + a Disposable Foil Pan with Cover! You can clean a used foil pan or buy yourself a new one.

Put them in a sunny window and spritz with water every day or two.  The clear lid allows you to see if your seeds have sprouted, and it locks moisture in so you can water them less frequently (remember to keep the soil moist for new seedlings)!

These guys are going through their awkward teenage stage, and have already moved out of the greenhouse...soon they'll be in the garden!

Have fun sprouting your own seeds this spring!

Garden Goals 2016

It's so weird that I don't publish more about gardening.  It is one of my most favorite activities in the world!  I'm definitely at my happiest digging in the dirt.  So I've decided to be a little more intentional about sharing my hobby and show you how our backyard and gardens are coming along.

This house has a decent-sized backyard but when we moved in it was weedy and overgrown.  It's still weedy, but I've carved out some areas for plantings and have bigger plans for down the line. Creating landscapes can be a slow process but I love that each year things improve!

The Backyard Perennial Garden

This is the area that has changed the most since we moved in 2.5 years ago.  Here's my only real "before" shot, but you get the idea:

Here's what it looks like today:

Pardon the iPhone pictures.  Lazy girls unite.

Last year I installed some cheap backer board edging.  I would love to replace it with stone eventually but this girl is on a budget for now!  My goal for this Spring and Summer is for it to be bursting with color.  I want purples, pinks and whites to be my primary colors, like this (I can dream!):

Photo: Magazin Zahrada

I have already planted Coneflowers (three different kinds), Butterfly Bush, Butterfly Weed, Allium, Chrysanthemum, perennial Verbena, Day Lilies, grasses, and will fill in with some annuals.  Did you notice my Christmas Tree? It's doing surprisingly well out here in spite of the fact that I planted it in the dead of winter.  I love mixing evergreens into borders because of the year-round interest and structure they provide.

In the far corner I have some ugly old bag chairs, but those will be replaced very soon with this little set from Ikea:

Ikea Tarno Table & Two Chairs

The Herb Garden

Our herb garden sits in front of the fence to our backyard, along the end of our driveway.  It's one of my favorite things about our landscaping, because it is very convenient to the kitchen and was well cared for before I moved in.  Here's a picture of the clematis that grows there; you can kind of see the herbs in the background:



The herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano) were huge last year, and I hope they will do well again (I grown mint and basil, too, but usually in pots).  Mostly here I want to throw in a few more flowers to fill up the blank spots, and would love to plant more lavender too.

This is its "winter look" and I will come back and share what happens in just a few short weeks:

That vine creeping along the top of the fence is a very old muscadine grape vine.  It produces like crazy all summer; it was overdue for pruning so I got that done back in January.  To the right of the gate, I dug up a volunteer clematis last spring and planted it there for repetition and symmetry.  I'm hoping it gets big like its friends.

For the stairs, I would like to replace the pea gravel with a durable plant we can walk on, like creeping thyme or something. Any suggestions?

The Side Yard

It's comical to call this a "yard" since at its narrowest it is about 2.5 feet across:

Yikes.

This is obviously the strip between my driveway and my neighbor's, and it was one of my top-two least favorite things about this house (don't get me started on my Master Bath).  I've spent a lot of time planning what to do with this strip.  My goal is to have something to look at besides her basement-entry garage and driveway. My plan is to plant a mix of evergreens and grasses this fall, which will give me a better view from my kitchen and provide some privacy.  I'm gathering my inspiration pics:

Photo: Mountain Meadows Nursery

Photo: BHG

Photo: Northern Gardener

With such a narrow strip of dirt I am choosing compact evergreens, but I am optimistic that this really ugly view can dramatically improve!

So: 2016 garden goals are to improve on the perennial flower garden, make a few small changes to the herb garden, and create a massive planting in the "side yard."  I'll keep you updated as we go along!

Various and Sundry Updates

Whew!  After being down for the count for a couple of weeks, this one has been a whirlwind! There's gotta be a middle ground between living on the couch and running all the time, right?  It's been good to be back to normal though, and I am grateful!  So for the various and sundry updates...

...Spring fever is in high pitch around here, well at least for Mommy;)  I've switched up our mantel decor to Spring:

...and I'm enjoying this green paint job on my little old country desk:

This desk is on its way to gray with green showing through on the edges...but its nice timing for St. Patties to have it all green!

...I've been cleaning up garden beds and will show you more tomorrow on that.

...Oh!  The blog has a slightly new look, what do you think?  I'm hoping its a simpler, prettier interface for you.  I totally welcome your feedback and would love to hear what you think!

...And then there's this: my cat, licking a finger, in slow motion.  Because ew.  And because it's so good to laugh.

I Made a Fairy Garden!

This Spring I finally made my own little Fairy Garden! 

It's called Lavender Lookout and in my imagination Lavender the fairy sits on her little bench overlooking the ocean.

I have wanted to do a miniature garden for years, and what stopped me was that all the larger flat containers I could find were way expensive.  Finally it occurred to me that--duh--simpler is better: use what you have, Michelle!  

So I took this pot that broke when some little hooligan I know ran his bike into it--and I used retaining fences and plants to prevent erosion.  I ended up loving it so much for its uniqueness and that's what I really wanted to share with you.  Don't be stopped from pursuing that next project because you don't have the "perfect" solution!  See what you have and get creative--you might end up loving it even more than what you originally had in mind!

Around the Garden

One of my greatest pleasures in life is seeing things grow, especially in the spring when everything that comes up is such a joy after a long winter.  It has been especially fun this year, in a new house.  I have been so surprised by so much that has bloomed around here!

One of the major highlights has been the clematis.

These two vines have put on a straight-up show for us.

We also had incredible azaleas!  I'll be honest, I really don't love azaleas, but these were really pretty.

Here is a picture of more azaleas, along with these crazy bluebells that came up everywhere.

That was Round One.  Now we're into Round Two and getting gorgeous roses.

How quickly and beautifully these have bloomed has been a surprise to me.  I did cut the roses back in February and fertilize when they started growing, but I can't take credit for this gorgeousness.  That's all God.

I used the roses plus oregano from the herb garden for a simple floral arrangement for my Mother's Day Brunch.  It's a trick I learned from the florist at Fearrington House, where I used to work wedding receptions: mix herbs in with your flowers for beautiful fragrance and a natural look.

So, what's growing in your garden?  I would love to hear about it...and I'll take any cuttings you want to give me;)