Gardening Archives - Page 5 of 14

Garden Gate Trellis

July 18, 2012 jennifer Gardening

Recently I took a little walk around my yard to see just how bad things are after a summer of neglect. No happy surprises there; it’s as bad as I feared.

On the edge of my yard, however, is a happy little spot where my neighbors have two lovely garden boxes bursting with vegetables and I had to share this great idea they had.

They bolted an old garden gate into the box to use as a trellis for beans and peas. It was one of those happy things that fits perfectly once the idea hits.

I’ve loved watching the peas climb steadily up the gate.

Beautiful. Makes you want to go hunting for an old gate, doesn’t it?

It also makes me hungry. There is nothing in the world like fresh sugar snap peas straight off the vine in your own backyard.

Now to find the time to do battle on my weeds!

Hopeful Homemaker

A Little Experiment

July 2, 2012 jennifer Gardening

Last fall I added allium to the list of bulbs planted in my yard. They came up beautifully in the spring and I loved the pretty purple ball floating so high above the ground on their tall stalks.

One afternoon a friend and I were talking on my driveway when she pointed to the allium and asked, “Do you spray your flowers?” I was completely confused by her question and she explained that she and a friend of hers both spray paint their allium after they brown. She said they look amazing for the rest of the summer. I was totally surprised by this and a little bit dubious, but even when they browned their form was so pretty in the flowerbed that I decided to try it rather than cut them down.

Some of the flowers had already fallen over so I started on them. I tried white paint first but didn’t love it. Not enough presence. Next I got a beautiful tomato red paint and re-painted them. Much better.

They sit in a vase in my dining room and I love how they turned out!

For the flowers still standing in the yard I took a piece of cardboard to sort of wrap around each flower and catch as much overspray as possible. I didn’t want to paint the surrounding plants, concrete, etc. They’re not perfect, but all of a sudden there’s more color out there and I like the way it looks. Here are a couple of them mingling with blue delphinium:

My little experiment went well, and will be something to consider doing in future years. I’m certainly planting more allium!

What I requested for Mother’s Day

May 16, 2012 jennifer Gardening

Dirt. In lieu of flowers or a gift or whatever, I asked for a load of dirt.

We have garden beds to supplement and I have lots of weed patches that need to become something else. So we got some dirt.

We really don’t have time for it right now, but the season marches on without us. Sometimes that’s the only way to do things, to add them when you don’t think you can and just work harder. The neighborhood children, including my own, are sure happy with it!