One Man's Trash...

Its no secret that I am perfectly willing to pick up things off the side of the road in hopes of restoring them in some fashion (I come by it naturally- my mom is the queen of finding roadside treasures).  So when I was out running a summer ago (yes more than a year ago) and I found this beauty, I had to go  back and get it...

Yes, thats right- an old school chair, plastic seat and all.  I placed this sweet little chair on the front porch with promises that I would make it pretty real soon.  And that didn't happen.  The chair ended up sitting there, unloved, for well over a year.  Whoops. 

But with the impending arrival of Seth's family for Thanksgiving, I finally found the motivation to make this lovely actually lovely.

 I started by taking the chair apart and sanding it well. 

I spray painted the frame oil rubbed bronze.  The light fixture on the porch is ORB, so I figured a darker frame would go better.

 I spray painted the sets green.

 And put it all back together...

And placed it back in its home on the porch.

Like most projects I tackle, this was insanely easy and fast.  It really is embarrassing that it took me so long to finally get this done, especially because it looks SO much better.  I think the chair needs a plant or something sitting on it.  Hopefully it wont take me more than a year to get on that...

Concrete Planters

How 'bout a post that has nothing to do with the baby?  Well, maybe a little to do with  the baby cause she was there (and very helpful). 

We have jasmine growing up the sides of our pergola.  It is a beautiful vine and it smells heavenly when it blooms.  Simply, we love it.  However, we do not love the planters we put it in.  They are cheap, falling apart, allow no room for root growth and are simply ugly.  Don't believe me?  See for yourself...

Not so pretty...  So we set off to make some easy, awesome looking planters out of those big, concrete stepping stones you can get at any hardware or landscaping store.  We opted for the 16" squares because we wanted lots of room for the plants to grow.  Plus we only made the four sided (no bottom), so the root system could eventually work its way into  the ground.

To start, we purchased 16 squares (4 squares per planter times 4 planters)  and some landscaping adhesive.  Once we got then home, we positioned Ella to supervise (babies first project, yay!)...

And we laid out our steps...

applied some adhesive...

And added the next step...

And the next...

And the last one...

And pretty soon, we had 4 planters all set...

Two quick notes:  this stuff sets up pretty fast, but we found it was helpful to hold the steps in place for just a minute to ensure that it was stable and the adhesive we got recommended allowing 5 days before the project was used, so these babies got a few days in the garage before they were installed.

And speaking of installation, my darling husband gets all the credit here.  These suckers are crazy heavy and Ella decided she wanted to eat.  So Seth got the planters into place, removed the old planters, added new dirt, and got the plants all settled in their new home (my husband is pretty awesome).  And the results are fantastic...

The planters look slightly industrial and really complement the pergola (rather than making it look cheap)...

I am super excited about the  new planters, especially because they are so large.  I may be able to nestle in some annuals come spring time.  Anyone else do some last minute fall gardening?

Whose Your Favorite Pollinator?

Baby G isn't the only new addition (to-be) in our household.  The story goes like this...  My dad has been keeping bees in his backyard for several years.  After seeing how enjoyment he get's out of his insects and knowing how much the world needs more honeybees, Seth and I mentioned that we would be interested in doing a little keeping of our own.  So for Christmas, Dad graciously gifted us with a hive body, frames, and the rest of the stuff we needed to get started.  We got everything set up and in late April, Dad delivered some bees.  We got a queen (pretty important) and I think around 200 bees to assist her.  In my ever growing state, I have not played such an active part in the bee keeping process.  Luckily, Seth has taken to it and last weekend, he opened up the hive to check around.

Seth got the smoker all started and opened up the hive.  The bees were none to pleased.  The smoker is important because they smoke calms the bees down a bit (basically it gets them a little high).  This is crucial for a sting free process.

Inside the hive body, we have frames for the bees to build comb on and store honey.  Sometimes, they build in places they shouldn't, like the top of the box.

Sweet little bees...

When they build where they aren't supposed to, Seth gets to scrape away the comb.  If you leave the comb near the hive, the worker bees will come and pull all the good stuff out and return it to the hive.  Its pretty cool.

Pure, raw, honey!  We do plan to harvest our honey.  The hive needs time to be well established, so it will probably be a year before we are able to do that.

Hive maintenance also calls for pulling out the frames to see how full they are.  This one is getting there.

This frame is almost full.  Once all the frames are full, we will add another hive body on top.  This helps prevent the hive from breaking into two and swarming. 

And there you have it- bee keeping as narrated by me.  There are way more technical terms for all this and probably a bunch of stuff I am leaving out.  Overall, bee keeping is relatively simple and honey bees are badly needed.  PSA: Everyone go get a hive.  Now.  But really, they are easy and beneficial. 

Still not the Yard of the Month

Time for some follow up...  Last time we check in on the yard, I shared our scary blank canvas and a super sweet illustration of what will come.  So how did we do?

A bit better, eh?

I know these shots don't do a lot to highlight what happened, mostly because I like to buy baby plants and let them grow into bigger plants.  Baby plants are less expensive and easier to plant since you don't have to dig a big ass hole.

So lets take another look at that sweet drawing I did...

What you can see in the above pictures is that the hydrangea has been moved and we have added two more hydrangeas, we have planted four hostas, we have plated a ton of daylilies and 3 rose plants.

And a closer look at each area...

HOSTAS

We got these beauties out at the Greensboro Shrub Nursery.  I believe that are called "fancee."  Luckily, they are fairly sun tolerant, so they should be able to handle the PM sun they will occasionally get hit with and these babies can get big.  I love big hostas.  We need to add more to fill out the area some more, but just these four make a pretty big difference.

HYDRANGEAS

The one hydrangea we already had is the endless summer variety.  Sadly, the Greensboro Shrub Nursery didn't have anymore endless summer's, so we picked out another blue/purple variety.  We'll see how this all works out when they bloom.

DAYLILIES

I ordered our daylilies from Smokeys Daylily Gardens.  We went with a mixed lot and was able to get 25 fans (or baby plants) for pretty cheap.  I am really pleased with this purchase.  The plants came fast and were in great shape.  I can't wait to see them next spring when they are in bloom.

ROSES
I knew I wanted to plant roses in this area because they can tolerate the afternoon sun.  After planting two knock out roses in the past, I was ready for something a little less easy care and a little more ROSE!  After doing some research, I mostly settled on David Austen roses.  These roses are know for their old rose charm (fantastic sent and beautiful shape), while still being disease resistant.  All roses came from Chamblee's Rose Nursery.  The roses arrived in excellent shape and best of all, they are potted, not bare root. 

The Winchester Cathedral rose is noted for its bushy appearance, old rose sent and double blooms. 

The Evelyn rose is named for Crabtree and Evelyn and mimics their awesome light rose sent.  And I love their light yellowy, pinky soft color.

This baby is actually the only non David Austen rose I purchased.  Named "sea foam," it is an earth kind rose.  Earth Kind roses have been cultivated to grow well in a variety of soil types, which reduces their need for soil amendments, fertilizers and pesticides.  Also, they have been bred for drought tolerance once established.  I am super excited to see how this one does.

And that wraps up our fall planting.  Clearly we still have loads to do, such as adding a new layer of pine needles, keeping up with the wedding and filling in the empty areas some more. But at least for now, I don't feel like our poor yard is such a barren wasteland.

Anybody else tackling some fall planting?

Not the Yard of the Month

Our cute little neighborhood association holds a yard of the month competition each month from April until October.  Seth and I are in no danger of winning that award.  I am slightly embarrassed to admit that our yard has only gotten worse since that post.  Really, it's not so much my fault.  This summer has been hotter than hell and dry.  That did nothing to improve our yard.  So that leaves us where we started, with a big blank scrubby looking yard...

See?  Well, really not see?  There is nothing except leaves and a scant layer of pine needles.  Sigh.

But don't disgrace- there is a vision...

Okay, so clearly this is my house and yard.  Stop laughing.  I know you're just jealous of my mad paint skills.

So lets start with what we have.  Starting left, Seth and I planted a whole bunch of lilies and glads, which are great, but they bloom for about 2 weeks and then dry up.  Sad face.  We then have 2 camellias, pretty evenly spaced in the yard.  We also have a dogwood.  We have a poor hydrangea planted on the other side of the dogwood.  Baby gets too much harsh sun.  In front of the hydrangea, we have some (8ish, 10ish) day lilies planted.

A quick note on why things are hard to grow in our yard.  Our house is oriented towards the south.  Which is a good thing, normally.  However, our nice, old, established neighborhood is full of nice old, established, massive trees.  These trees block the sun until about 3pm.  And then our yard gets full on  southern summer sun until dark.  Just imagine staying in your nice cool air conditioned house and the running outside, naked with no protection and standing in the dead heat until dark.  You ass would be fried and so are our plants.

So with that in mind, onto the planting plan...  Starting on the right this time, we are going to move the hydrangea to a more protected space.  We will then fill in that spot with some roses.  Roses are actually pretty hardy and afternoon sun helps prevent certain types of mildew.  In front of the roses, we will fill in with more day lilies.  The hydrangea will move to the fence line between the two camellias.  Two more hydrangeas will be added so that no one gets lonely.  In front of the hydrangeas, we will fill in with hostas.  I know this seems risky given our sun situation.  But, hostas can be pretty sun tolerant and because a big branch from the oak tree hangs over this area, I think they should be a-okay.  That brings us all the way to the left, which I haven't totally figured out yet.  Right now I am thinking a mixture of coneflowers...

And just to keep you in suspense, I can reveal that Seth and I have spent the last 2 weekends planting.  Check back early next week for the results.