Mandevilla

Since I have a resident chipmunk who continually chews the very bottom of my clematis clean off leaving my entire vine to die on the trellis, I decided this year to plant a tropical vine in my non-tropical location hoping that the chipmunk tastes doesn't suit my tropical Mandevilla.

My Mandevilla vine sits in part of the garden that has plenty of sun in the morning to early afternoon.  Pinching off the spent flowers encourages more blooming.  These vining plants reach heights of 15 feet or more with stems filled with glossy green leaves. Although they are a low-maintenance vine, they do thrive on a granulated time-released fertilizer every two weeks during the summer months to thrive.  

Originally from Brazil, this tropical vine suits a climate of no less than 55 degrees F (13 degrees C) so for my 5b zone, it is absolutely necessary to bring it in for the winter.  They are a bit tricky to over winter in the house but if given a cool sun-filled room they should do fine.

These beautiful vines bloom non-stop from spring until fall.  They are ideal in containers, on trellises or arbors and so far it seems that chipmunks don't like how they taste!

HARDY CACTUS - Propagating

It doesn't take very much to propagate these cactus just some patience.  Start by cutting off one of the 'pads'.  Let the cut heal by just sitting it in partial shade (not on the dirt!) for a few days.  Once the cut is healed over, plant it in the ground upright or in a pot with loose well draining soil, and wait a few weeks for it to root.

The yellow blooms come after a drought so not watering the cactus really promotes blooming

Two year old plant from one cutting.  They grow quite quickly

Hardy Cactus

I'm HUGE on different types of hostas in my garden and every spring I usually add one or two or ten different kinds. But a couple of years ago I planted some hardy cactus (Opuntia a.k.a prickly pear), a cactus that thrives on cold winters and drought conditions which has been perfect for the kind of summer I've been having. This is a perfect plant in that hot, dry spot of the your garden where absolutely nothing else will grow.

These plants don't like to be fertilized but do need well draining soil. Ideal soil will be sandy or silty with a good proportion of gravel mixed in for drainage.  My prickly pear has about five hours of sun a day but does seem to do quite well with some shade.

This is a really wonderful addition to a garden!

Sea Holly

Years ago, my mother-in-law had this really unique plant in her garden that I hadn't seen before and since she couldn't remember what it's name was, it took me ages to find.  Recently I finally came across it at a local nursery and purchased this perennial for my own garden....

SEA HOLLY (Eryngium planum).

What is really great about this perennial is that it simply thrives on less attention! Really drought tolerant, and poor soil conditions also do not upset this unusual addition to your garden.  It does not, however, like to be moved once it's planted, so make sure you give it a place where it can spread and grow.  If you want to propagate this plant, it's best to do it with seeds. 

I have planted my sea holly against a hot, dry wall of my home, only watering it when it's been days of no rain, and so far, it's doing great.

Just loving this addition to my garden!

The Deck this Summer

So far this summer

Blue Spruces actually do very well in containers.  This one will stay in this container for about a year, then move up to something a bit bigger. THEN, one of these Christmas's it's going to be the live Christmas tree for our family. 

 Who doesn't love Boston Ferns?

The SHAMROCKS to the right come in some beautiful shades.  All green leaves have beautiful white flowers; the all purple leaves have pinkish flowers and then there's the purple and green leaf one (which is a bit harder to find) that have light pink flowers.  The corms can be brought in during the winter stored in a nice dark dry part of the basement. Replanted in the spring, they'll give you TONS of flowers. 

The shamrock was traditionally used for it's medicinal properties and was a popular motif in Victorian times.  For me, I just love it on my deck. 

 Purple shamrocks

Who says you can't put your Christmas Cactus out in the summer?  Mine bloom the entire summer on my deck.

WONDERFUL GLASS FLOWER PROJECT

This is a super easy project which is lots of fun to do.  So get cracking to yard sales, garage sales, or search in your back cupboards and find some of those old glass plates you haven't used for years.  My favorite place to go is Bibles for Missions where I can find a whole slew of different glassware so reasonable!  I got all my glass for this project for under $10.00!

To start the project you need at least four to five different pieces of glassware - keep in mind some of your color combinations. Clear glass plates provide a nice balance to deeper colored glass plates.


These are the five pieces I started with.  Since the center of my plates were never going to be seen, it was important to find pieces that had interesting edges.  






Begin by nesting different sized pieces together.  No less than four glass pieces should be used.  

Starting with the largest plate, which is my clear glass smooth one, use epoxy glue to adhere the dishes together.

Each of my pieces have been epoxied together.  Give it at least 24 hours for the glue to be completely dry.  My finished nesting plates

Add your own mounting hardware or even
 use a plate stand like I have

Finished project in my garden.  To spruce it up a bit, you can add brooches, or shot glasses and vases of different sizes to add to your piece to make it more colorful

Patio Lanterns

This is such a quick craft.  You'll need scissors, rope, hammer, screw driver, mason jar(s), tea light and some stones. I'm using glow in the dark aquarium stones in white.

Using the hammer and screwdriver punch a hole into the top of the mason jar. Thread a piece of rope (about two feet long) through the hole and tie a knot. Add the stones to the bottom of the jar, set tea light on top of the stones and using the mason jar's ring, screw on top of jar.  

THERE YOU HAVE IT

THE LIVING CHAIR

 

Finally found the time to finish my living chair. This chair is about 100 years old and had been sitting down a basement for years.  It was completely held together with tons of paint and was never going to be sat on again - so perfect for The Living Chair.

So first and foremost find a chair then remove the seat.  This seat was super easy to remove because the majority of it was completely rotted through.


2.  Using chicken wire (wear gloves cause edges of the wire is sharp) make a 'bowl' with the chicken wire and then staple the chicken wire around the seat of the chair with a staple gun.

3.  Once the chicken wire is stapled all around the seat of the chair, cut off the excess chicken wire with wire cutters.

4.  You're going to need to use something to hold the potting mix. At some nurseries you can buy coconut liner by the foot which is perfect for this project because it's cheaper and you can cut the perfect size circle.

5.  Using a light potting mix (I use Miracle Grow potting mix for just about everything) fill up the bowl of the chair. 

6.  Now the fun part.  Add plants.  I've seen lots of different varieties of plants for this project. Some are completely filled with succulents which are gorgeous and barely need any watering but I've filled mine with easy to grow perennials like 'hens and chickens' and different sorts of sedums.  

Add a couple of gnomes for fun or anything else that adds color.   Whatever soil is still showing after planting, just cover with any kind of moss.

And there you have it.  A really neat piece of living art for your back yard.

Zone 5a vs 9b

When I've finally gotten years of growing in a Zone 5A climate down pat, pretty soon I'll be moving and changing more than just zones.. What grew in a Zone 5a will not grow in a 9b.  For example.  I love my hostas.  My garden right now hosts more than 50 different cultivars of hostas.  But, in a Zone 9B, hostas do not work.  I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it's because they don't have a chance to sleep through a cold dark winter so any hosta that does (try) to grow in a 9b zone just looks sad.  It never really amounts to anything amazing.

While recently away looking for another home, I did have the chance to explore some plant options in my new Zone that I think I'll love in my new garden.  Number one being "Society Garlic".
 

Society Garlic is, so far, my favorite border plant.  It is hardy in my soon to be new zone 9b.  It's from the onion/garlic family; has a really happy purple flower and grows in clumps that are easy to divide. I just love this plant.  Now if I wanted this last Zone 5a summer to include Society Garlic first I'd have to find it, which after visiting a dozen odd nurseries they all screwed up their nose when I asked for it.  If however you do find it, it works great in the northern climates, BUT, it does have to come in for winter (like me).

Number two choice is:  Angelona.  This plant is just beautiful.  It' is a native of Mexico and is suited to being drought tolerant which will work perfectly for me. This plant will be an absolute must for me in my new garden!




In my new garden there will be of course the typical bougainvillea bushes and mandevilla vines that we can actually purchase here in our Zone 5b nurseries.  There are wonderful looking vines but my biggest problem still remains finding a sunny enough window in the winter time to have it survive indoors.  It will do great in my new garden, never having to be dragged in doors for five months! during the cold of the 5B winters!

Last but not least the Pentas are absolutely going to be a staple in my garden.  They come in lots of colors - pink, purple, red, white, lavender and hummingbirds and butterflies love them.  They are super drought resistant and take little to no care.  Perfect !

OH BABY OH BABY

Eventually I'll stop collecting, and to be honest I am not a huge collector of things and when I do collect. I'll usually only pick up a few of one thing, but recently I have fallen in love with retro baby themed planters from the 1940's and 1950's. What is really lovely about these planters is that they're never all the same because parts of the planters were hand painted.  So the glaze dots for eyes and flowers are slightly different on every planter.

These planters were plentiful in the five-and-dime stores back in the forties, but after the U.S.'s entry into WWII dried up the supply of these ceramics from Japan, more U.S. manufacturers started pumping them out by the hundreds of thousands.

Unfortunately finding them isn't all that easy, but this summer I'll offering up some of my favorites to any new babies on the way.

I Never Would Have Guessed

I've always wanted to plant bulbs but because there seems to be an endless amount of rabbits and squirrels in my backyard it has been pointless.  The bulbs I have planted in past years were just a smorgasbord of tasty delights for the critters that wandered my garden.

Until now!  Last fall I thought I would give it another shot and bought some allium bulbs.  Alliums are part of the onion family and have these huge, happy purple balls on top of their straight stalks. 

This past fall I did something different and a little odd to my bulbs that I had heard would absolutely keep the squirrels away. Prior to planting the bulbs, I got a dab of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) on my finger and put it around  the bulb.  I didn't get any  of the jelly on the top or the bottom of the bulb. Then I planted my bulbs; (alliums like to be planted about three times the diameter of the bulb).  Our spring has not sprung yet, but the allium bulbs are all coming up and I haven't lost a single one to the squirrels.

I can only assume that this will work for all bulbs that are planted, but can't say for sure since I didn't plant anything else other than the alliums.  I am, however, thrilled that this petroleum jelly thing seems to have worked famously well! 

Old Wives Tales

Over the years I've heard the odd 'wives tale' about gardening. Some are very like the rhyme

"Plant your seeds in a row, one for the pheasant, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow", 

which just meant, plant more seeds than you'll need because not all seeds will take.  Some new seedlings will die, and some may be taken out by pests in the garden and you do have to thin out the weaker ones to make room for healthy seedlings.

Another favorite - beer makes good slug bait.  And it actually does! However it seems after some studies were made (one study in particular by the Colorado State University) suggests that the beer be fresh (fewer were caught when the beer was flat), that slugs prefer a lager over ales, and they also found, believe it or not, that slugs preferred Bud Light.

Some old ways of doing things were simply wrong.  I was always told to put some stones in the bottom of a clay pot to cover the holes before I put my plant in.  Not a good move.  Since water moves through stones very slowly, the soil at the top of the stones stays wetter causing the roots to rot.  You're much better off putting a coffee filter over the hole to prevent the soil from washing out.

STARTING YOUR GARDEN - and staying on BUDGET

A couple of ideas when you're just starting your garden and want to stay on budget.

To start, decide exactly what you can afford to spend on your garden to start with and stick to it.

Take just part of your garden - (divide up in sections) and begin with one part of your garden first.

Absolutely do the work yourself.  It will save you TONS of money!

Don't ever scrimp on soil preparation - Great soil just makes for healthy plants that you don't have to replace down the road.

Buy plants in the fall (or late late summer) and buy smaller potted plants; like plants in four inch pots for instance.  Small plants grow. All nursery stock goes on sale at the end of the season and you can get some great buys on everything from hardscaping (like bird baths, etc.) to plants.

And last but not least, if you're not having fun, then you're never going to create a space that you enjoy being in!

Engleman Ivy

I've never quite understood how someone couldn't LOVE gardening.  For me, I could spend hours in the garden; actually I can spend hours in ANYONE'S garden and have often been seen in friend's gardens helping them plant, remove, replant, and dig!  As long as I'm digging in dirt, I'm happy.

So a bit about my own garden.  I have a very small garden.  Most of my backyard is taken up with a large deck and because I live in a cookie cutter house on a cooking cutter street, my yard isn't very wide.  The part that isn't deck out my back yard has a border garden.  

Engleman Ivy in full sun


And since in the cookie cutter design of subdivision homes, I decided to plant Parthenocissus quinquefolia 'Engelmannii  a.k.a Engleman Ivy to grow up and along my fence.  It gives a really nice softening affect to hard looking fences.  Plus the birds love it and are always hiding in it and eating the berries that come out in early fall on the plant. 

Engleman Ivy will grow in shade or sun so no matter what part of my fence I put it on, it looks great.  Having said that, the best fall colors are on the part of the fence that is in full sun.  In the fall, the leaves turn orange then red.  Very pretty!  Since it's a crazy fast growing vine, cutting it back is no problem in the fall.  It actually looks much better the following summer when it is cut back.  I usually take at least a foot off the top of it and tidy up the suckers that grow around the base.

The only problem I've ever had with Engleman Ivy.  I did try it once on some arbors that surround my deck, and it actually looked great (for a while) but as summer went on, the leaves started to stress and fall off.  Turned out that because the area was really sheltered. there just wasn't enough air movement to keep the vine happy.

Engleman Ivy in partial/full shade.  Both do great.