Garden photos!

Finally got a chance to post more garden photos. If you scroll back to the BEFORE pics, you can see what a difference just a few short years can make in a small town garden. Amazing, isn't it?

First is our sweet little apricot tree outside the back door, painted purple, of course.



Then there's my sweet little chicken planter that I've had for years underneath our one oak tree. I need to fill it with some hens 'n chicks (ha). That bushy dark green plant you see is a volunteer chili pequin that the birds so kindly planted for me, right where I wanted it. And of course there are the dianthus (my grandmother used to call them "pinks") which everybody told me I couldn't grow here.

Oddly enough, I was just flipping through one of my favorite antique garden books, The Amateur's Flower Garden by Mr. Shirley Hibberd (published in Great Britain in 1871), and found this quote: "The truth is quite otherwise, as many a cottager who has blundered into floriculture without knowing anything of properties and exhibitions could attest by the bonny pinks and carnations in his little garden." Take THAT, stupid garden person at Big Box Store!



A fiberglass planter I painted blue holds Gregg's Blue Mist flower, a metal obelisk thingy and is planted underneath with yard long beans. A variety of salivas and other natives grow along the fence, and a honeysuckle that starts on the neighbor's side and drapes over the fence. It's invasive, but makes a great home for lots of birds. The tree you can see is a dwarf Japanese plum that has ONE plum on it this year. It's still young yet, though. An old blue wine bottle gives off a spark of gorgeous color in the middle of the planter.



And since these old cedar fences turn black and grungy and moldy over time, I decided to do a little "colorwash" on mine. This is the double gate leading to the backyard garden. I'm using "dump paint" from Lowe's, marked-down paint that they've miss mixed for whatever reason. Lately I've found a lot of the VOC-free stuff there. I put a little in an old yogurt container, mix in a little water, then slop it on! So far, it's three different colors, but I love it that way! The plants really look beautiful against it. I have a long way to go, but it's great therapy and I love the effect.



More to come...

Dig it!

bobbi c.