Gardens are more than flowers

Now that the bones of the new garden are in place, I’m learning each month what’s working or not from a plant perspective. At the same time, flower gardens are more than just flowers. A garden can be a sanctuary, a place for being. What other elements engender a sense of calm? A place to sit quietly and enjoy the space. What other media might you incorporate? Metal or stone? Different places to sit, things to look at. As the weather warms, you see more birds winging through the garden. Chipmunks and squirrels. The garden is a new habitat that includes small animals passing through. I haven’t gotten to a water feature yet, but we will. Soon, the metal gates will form a more complete enclosure.

Serenity is whole again, waiting for a patch

After Larry got one screw in, I patched the waist seam and tomorrow will be sanding and staining the patch. Feels like forever. After that Serenity gets two more even longer screws and I’ll be final coating him with a wonderful Tung Oil blend. I can’t wait!

The weed killer

As I was in the middle of patching Serenity’s midriff, I got a call that we were finally getting a truckload of gravel for the driveway and the metal stand for the new plant tower tomorrow morning! That meant spraying the driveway one last time with a favorite weed killer -white vinegar (1 gallon), Dawn (¼ cup) and Epsom Salts (2 cups). I love this sprayer and use it every year- great buy. If you’re going to have a gravel drive, you need to maintain it or it might just become a ratty piece of lawn.

Check out the “spyder” plant holder

This afternoon called for prep of the top half of the plant stand. I had to brush, sand, and wash it for painting tomorrow morning. I’ve been waiting since last summer after we spotted it at an estate sale. Seemed like the perfect “arty” plant holder. I’ll show you it assembled next post.

Great buys seem to always include a certain amount of elbow grease expended by yours truly (and husband). Part of the process is sometimes seeing an item out of place or time and imagining its potential. Then, you have to update it to make it work in its new iteration.

Indie folk tune, Riptide, written by Australian Vance Joy, became a hit in 2014. The author, James Keogh, (aka Vance) began it in 2008. James had many different inputs; one was the movie, Midnight Cowboy. I always like to read something about the lyrics. James says that for him, sometimes the lyrics are about the sound of the words- not the meaning, which he identifies as a characteristic of pop music. True/false? I like the music here and its delivery. We’l see where Vance goes next.