Fairy Gardens

I recently went to a class with my daughter~in~law to learn how to make a Fairy Garden.

The class was at Washington Nursery.

They had a lot of small plants and accessories to use in our gardens.

We purchased large glass jars with lids to build our terrariums in.

They're really easy to make.
Start with a clean jar, add a layer of pea gravel, horticultural charcoal and soiless dirt.
Add plants and little decorations to build a scene.
Add a very small amount of water and pop on the lid.

 

My first fairy garden is simple but sweet.

This one has one small plant, the small gnome reading a book and a few mushrooms.

The other one I made is larger with more plants, rocks, larger gnome and a few more decorations.

If these fairy gardens do well, I've got plans for a large one :)

 





Spring is Coming

Spring is in the air today here.

The weather will be warming up over the next week ~ finally.

Since I still can't get outside in my flower garden yet, I decided to do some indoor 'gardening'.

I created this Orchid Planter this morning.

There are 2 types of ferns, 2 orchids and 1 'pup' form my bromeliad.

It really adds a touch of Spring to the house.

I plan on doing more indoor gardening in the weeks to come.



My Pumpkin Grew Up

Remember when I first showed you my pumpkin sprouting, HERE

Well, here he is all grown up!

He didn't make it to the 400 lbs the package said it would.
Pumpkins are harder to grow than I thought.

I'll harvest him in a few weeks and turn him into a JackO'Lantern.

A Pumpkin In the G♥rden

My first pumpkin made its appearance.

I have 4 pumpkin vines in my garden. It's the first time I've tried growing them.

This little guy is suppose to get 400 ~ 500 pounds!

I'll keep ya' posted on his progress.

BL♥♥M

My Elodie Lilies are starting to bloom.

I planted several varieties of lilies this past Spring. All sizes and colors.

I've got asiatic and oriental lilies spread throughout my garden.

I'll post more photos as they start to open.

More Glass Plate Flowers

My father in law, Jack, finished up more glass plate flowers for me.

I really ♥ them!

He made a feeder from a cake plate and bowl.
Jack is pretty handy and came up with a unique way to make these.

They were pretty easy to create. You do need a glass bit to drill through the plates.
He soldered a metal wood insert (it's threaded) into the end of a 4' piece of 3/8" copper tubing.
The end of the tubing is slightly bent. He put a finishing washer then a long screw through the first dish, a small washer, the plate, a small washer, then screwed it into the threaded insert.

Don't screw it super tight & bring them in before the weather turns really cold.

Glass Plate Flower

I LOVE this!

I was surfing the internet and came across flowers made from glass plates, saucers, bowls, etc. put on copper stakes for yard/flower garden decorations.

I went to the thrift store and picked up several pretty plates and bowls in different sizes. My father~in~law drilled the holes in them and put them together for me.

I'm planning on having several of these in my flower garden very soon :)

I'll post a photo when they're finished. They look beautiful in the sunlight.

100% Recycled Planter Bench

A few tree branches, scraps of cedar boards, one husband & a Sunday afternoon . . . put them all together and a few hours later I have a new planter bench.

When I get plants in it and set out in the backyard, I'll post a pic.

It really needs to warm up, I'm itching to get digging in my flower garden

Butterfly Crossing

It's still really cool here and not a lot has come up in the garden yet, but I thought I'd try to hurry it along and make a new garden sign.

I found these blank, black metal signs at Michaels.

I decided to put some butterflies on it and Butterfly Crossing. I get lots of butterflies in my garden in the summer.

I cut the white, matte outdoor vinyl on my Cricut.
The font is Amaze & the butterfly was free. I put it all together in SCAL

Hurry up summer!

Our 1st harvest ~ Yellow Squash

Fresh picked from our raised bed garden.
The squash plants got a lot bigger than we'd thought they would.

Waiting on tomatoes, jalepenos and green peppers

Seedlings

We transplanted all our seedlings into larger pots today.

Tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, zinnias, sweet peas, salvias & poppies.

Time to start a second batch of seeds :)

Orchids

I love orchids

I have several in bloom now and am waiting on a few to send up a new flower stalk.

































These aren't growing well, so I made a terrarium for them to up the humidity.
I'll let you know how they do.

My Garden '09

Here's a link to some photos of my flower garden this year.

My Garden '09

I hope you enjoy looking through them.

Happy Summer,
Reen

Lilies

My Elodie Lilies have begun to open up.
I hope to get some photos of my garden next week and upload a slideshow.

Simply . . . Clematis

From my Garden 2009

Living Wreath

We went to visit my son & DIL this weekend.
David and I made 'living' wreaths . . . of sorts.
I bought a wire salamander & a turtle at JoAnn's. We covered the inside in sheet moss, added dirt and another layer of moss. We used thin wire to hold everything in on the underside.
We poked holes in the moss with a pencil and added the Hens & Chickens.
They turned out great.

Here's David's turtle & my salamander

Garden Gate Sign

I made this sign for our fence gate.



















I used my Cricut Expression and outdoor grade vinyl. The Welcome with the swirl under it and the bird & branch were free svg files from the internet. I added the 'to my Garden' lettering. I put it all together in SCAL.
The metal frame is from Lowe's. I didn't like the graphic that was in it, so I took it apart and spray painted over it. I applied the vinyl and put the frame back together.

I love it :) I plan to do some work in my flower garden this weekend. I think Spring has finally sprung here.

We Made Terrariums!

My son David was visiting this past weekend and we made terrariums.
Since we both love plants, I thought it was the perfect project for us to try.
I bought a couple of glass containers at Michael's and after a trip to the local nursery, we had everything we needed:

*Small pebbles
*Activated charcoal
*Spaghnum moss
*Soil
*Sheet moss
*Plants

We had a lot of fun putting the terrariums together. My son is quite creative and made a really nice looking landscape in his. Hopefully, I can get my husband to take pictures of them soon.

Here is the one I made.

I also really like orchids and finally have found the perfect window to grow them in.