Flowers and Hypertufa...

I want to show off this Balsam, also known as Touch Me Nots. The seeds were given to me and I sowed them late, as in late July. They are now in full bloom and really pretty. It is like a touch of spring.






Here is a close up of the blooms. Aren't they colorful? I am hoping that I will be able to collect some seeds and grow these again next year. I really do like them.






I made this sphere early in summer out of Hypertufa. I used a basketball, a sap bucket, and a cut down butter bowl as molds for each of the pieces. It was a lot of fun to make and I think it turned out fabulous! I hope to someday have moss growing on it.
Hypertufa is a mix of portland cement, sand, and peat moss. It is the modern, inexpensive version of the cut, light weight stone that old England used to make troughs. If you tried to buy some of those troughs now, they are very expensive. Hypertufa is a wonderful thing that can be molded into just about anything. You are only limited by your imagination. There is lots of info on the net about it. Here are a couple links that I have used to learn about it.

http://www.efildoog-nz.com/hypertufa.htm

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_containers_outdoor/article/0,1785,HGTV_3561_4834334,00.html

http://www.gardengatemagazine.com/extras/53birdbath-video.php

I will talk more about Hypertufa and show some of my other creations in a later post.

I hope you enjoyed this today. I am off to work on my chair!

Fabric...

Well, here is the fabric that I picked to cover the chair in. I am not brave enough to try a pattern yet! I worry that I won't match it up correctly or will attach it crooked and be very obvious.
So I have picked safely, although I did have a great time looking at everything. I am going to do the seat in the blue and the rest in the chocolate brown. I am also thinking of doing the piping in the opposite colors, blue on brown and brown on blue.
These are both medium weight fabrics. I don't always pick an upholstery weight fabric, because I really don't want it to last forever. I can only stand looking at the same colors for so long and having two boys in the house...well, it wouldn't last forever anyway. I will probably be ready for something new in 5 years or so and it will need it.
Hopefully in the next couple of days I can get started on putting it together. I am excited! I have a lot of fun and get a lot of satisfaction redoing a chair.

End of summer...

Well, unfortunately, it really is here. The end of summer. I have been taking cuttings of Perilla and Impatiens and putting into water. The Perilla has quickly grown a mass of roots in the bottle I put it in. I dug up and potted my Poinsettia. It has really grown a lot this summer, but was beginning to suffer from the heat. We are having cooler temps right now and it really loves that. I potted up a variety of sedums and planted those into a hypertufa planter that I made. It too will be coming inside within a few weeks.

I still have many, many things to dig up and repot, an Amarylis, which I think has a couple of babies attached now, several Geraniums, an Orchid, and an African Violet. There may be more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

I still have day lilies to plant. I haven't any idea what variety they are. I found these sitting in a wheel barrow marked free along a back road nearby (I couldn't pass up free plants!). I have lots of stuff that I still want to dig up and relocate.

I also still have plants setting seed that I want to collect. Among them are Amaranthus,
Castor Bean, and
4:00's.
I have a half whiskey barrel that I want to plant some lettuce and spinach in real soon. We are having perfect temps for those to grow.

We are still enjoying a few things blooming. Sweet Autumn Clematis mingling with the Amaranthus. There is also one lone Jackmanii Clematis bloom mixed in with those also. Pink mix Cosmos is still going strong, as are the Moss Roses. Balsam plants are just beginning to put on a colorful show. I sowed these seeds late, the end of July, and it looks like spring in that area! I think I will sow more annual seeds later in the season next year. What a nice surprise to have that second flush of new flowers.
I have one Aster that is still blooming well. It is not in a prime viewing location though, so it will be moved also. There is also Plumbago (the perfect color), some Canna's, a few blue & salmon colored Flax, Muscari, Great Lobelia, and mini-Hosta's.
Purple Mist Shrub is still absolutely beautiful. What a wonderful surprise when I found this shrub crowded in the middle of some Red Buds. I moved it into a more open, sunnier location and I think (I hope) that next year it will be even better.

There is still a lot of outdoor work to be done before it gets too cold. Leaves will be dropping soon and in one area, they all fall at the same time. It is quite spectacular to see, all the leaves coming down in waves, so thick that you can't see past them. These will all need collected and hopefully shredded to put into the flower beds. There is wood that needs to be cut, so we can enjoy the fireplace (my favorite place in the winter!). Branches to be broken down into kindling.

I still want to gather flat rocks to continue some pathways and also some bricks to line some beds.

There is still a water trough that needs emptied and water plants to be stored.

So many things, but they are all items that will make next years gardening even bigger, better, and have more profuse flowers. At least, that is the idea, the hope, the reason for gardening...

My craft...

Well, I don't have a specific craft that I do. I am more of a Jill-of-all-trades! I like to try them all! I keep waiting to come across that magical one that calls to me and begs me to continue to do it over and over again, but I haven't found it yet.
I have tried many named things; stained glass, reupholstering, hypertufa, painting, bowling ball art, amongst others. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of these projects. Some can only be done with specific weather (hypertufa can only be done when night temps are above 50 degrees-that's only about 5 months of the year, here). Some require expensive equipment to do at home and some I have found that I lack the skill to do it very well!

I do have quite a chair collection. Reupholstering them has probably been the one thing that I have done frequently over the years. I get a kick out of getting some crappy chair at the flea market and making it look new. Now people give me a chance to take their cast off chairs before sending them to Goodwill or the dump. It is rare for me to turn a chair down and even have a few in the barn waiting for me to get to work on them.

Here are a couple pictures of the current chair that I am working on. I got this from my mother-in-law and it may be hard to believe, but it is going to be a beautiful comfy chair when I am through with it!










This is the point I am at with it right now:

I am at a stand still until I go and find the perfect fabric for it. I don't have a specific color/pattern yet. I wait and see what jumps out at me. There is so many wonderful fabrics and I like to look at them like art before making a decision. I will keep you posted on its progres...

New for me!

Hi All!
I am super new to blogging and it was quite by accident that this was started! But now that it is, I may as well continue on with it!

As you may have guessed from the title, I am interested in both gardening and also creating/reusing junk! One man's trash is a woman's treasure...

I hope you will enjoy this blog, or at the least find something amusing or interesting about it. Maybe even learn something new or give you some ideas.

Thanks!