Showing posts with label bleeding heart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bleeding heart. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

As My Garden Grows

It has been especially hard this year to get the garden growing. I missed all the garden blog hops because mine just wasn't ready.


I blame it mostly on the cold weather. My garden is almost all perennials but I do like to plant annuals in pots for around the yard and the front porch. It just never fails here in the northeast that you just can't trust the weather until after Memorial Day.


At least my favorite Spring plants came back in a big way this year and flourished.


My Bleeding Heart is just huge and was full of gorgeous flowers.


The Quince bush bloomed profusely this year and my Forget Me Nots doubled in size and quantity.








I have been collecting new things for my garden since last summer. All stored over the winter, now being revealed in my garden at last.


I found this great fence at a roadside sale I just happened to drive by on the way home from Naples. I could not afford much of what the antique dealer had but the fence was $8 so I went for it.



I love how cute an old sink filled with flowers looks in the garden so I started looking for one. I found this one at the Restore. I am still looking for a faucet. The plates are a recent barn sale find. I filled the sink with my new favorite flowers, white Bacopa.


I could not pass this rusty milk can up, even though it would be the fourth one in my collection. The wheel is a barn sale find and the watering can garland is something I have had that rusted perfectly over the years.


I found this great door last year, also at a drive by sale. It was only $5.



I didn't do anything with it last summer because I didn't know if I wanted to paint it or distress it. I figured we'd put it away for the winter and then I would deal with it in the Spring.


Fast forward to Spring and I am wondering where my door is. My husband says, "oh, it's behind the grill". It never got put in the garage for the winter!

I am so glad because the fierce northeast winter weathered it so much more perfectly than I could.





I saw the idea for a garden hose wreath on Pinterest and I just made mine very simple. I just tied a garden shovel, a garden fork and some old gloves to the top.




I showed you a sneak peek of the door in my last post but I restyled it to this....
the little rocker a recent yard sale find.




Just around the right side of the same tree is where the fairies live.



And this is where the Royal Fairies live...




I mentioned a few times before that I was going to make a fairy garden in my big galvanized tub for my garden. Well, I decided that smaller is better and I am happy with my small enamel pan fairy garden.


I even found some small plates to add to her garden. The plants are small succulents and pink baby's breath. The little fairy just sits by her house all day admiring her lovely garden.




Next to the fairy garden the Poppy's are starting to bloom...




Instead of the fairy garden, I planted purple Bacopa in my huge galvanized tub again this year. Last year it grew to overflowing and was gorgeous. It is early stages....



In my middle garden, that needs a good weeding, I tried another new idea I found online.....a succulent garden in a bird bath. The birds never noticed this old wrought iron bath last year so I decided to try a new kind of garden. It has already grown and spread out.



I hung my blue shutter up again from last year and added a rusty star to the rusty shovel that was there.

Last year I found a huge ivy geranium to hang from my post that stayed beautiful all year. This year I decided to try and plant my own in the rusty old wire basket my daughter Jena gave me for Mother's Day.




I finally found a plant to survive in my aqua wire basket. It is a very hot spot and the planter is very shallow. Purslane seems to love those conditions so we will see how it does this summer. It has the sweetest pink flowers.




Along the house I have been digging out and re-doing the garden. It was so overgrown.
Last year I had a table with a chair and the shutters in this spot....



In one summer that poor table got so weather worn that I decided not to put it out in the garden again. It is being very useful in my new booth. So instead, I did a makeover on this vignette.

The chair was a roadside find. That is my Elephant Ear plant in the large galvanized bucket that hasn't started growing yet.


The plates are another cute idea I found on the many blogs I visit. I just happened to have a few left over from the garden flowers I made last year.

The large one to the right of the shutters is one I made for myself after making three others for gifts....Aqua!




My purple Iris bloomed this year after a no show last year. They are so pretty but seem to want to grow out instead of up. I know I need to move them but I am so afraid of killing them. They are unique!


I just loved these ceramic garden hands with two birds on them. It reminds me of the scripture Job 12:10 - In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

I found them at Rite Aid of all places!!



My Orange Blossom tree is a little late in blooming this year, which is magnificent when in full bloom. Here is a peek at it just starting to pop. That's my new birdhouse hanging from it. My husband got if for me from Wegmans.

I couldn't wait for the Margarita Daisies to bloom for this post, but they look about ready to pop too.


After a long day puttering in the garden, there is a place to rest and relax....


I can finally rest a little and, like my little fairy, just sit back and watch my garden grow.


AnnMarie xoxo

I am linking up with these fine blog parties:

Home Sweet Home
Anything Blue Friday
"Anything Goes" Pink Saturday
Dishing It & Digging It Link Party
Happiness is Homemade Link Party
You're Gonna Love It Tuesday
Top Recipes, Crafts, and Tips of the Day from Plucky
Best of the Weekend
June Garden Party

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

NaNa's Garden

My garden is finally coming alive. The days are starting to be warmer, even if only for a few hours in the afternoon, but that is helping to green everything up.


I was out in my yard today with my granddaughter Chloe, playing ball and looking at all the different things in my gardens, some vintage, some getting there!

I always go thrifting with buying for my shop in mind, but occasionally......okay, more than occasionally.......I keep a few things! This red metal chair is one of them. Partly because it is big and too heavy to ship and mostly because I love it and it is red!


I saw this castle in a catalog and my husband surprised me with it as a gift.


He also surprised me with this fairy door and windows. Around the corner from the castle is where the fairies live. We had this thing about circling items we wanted in catalogs as gift ideas. It definitely makes it easier to decide what to buy for each other and you always get what you want!


Chloe loves to go over and pet the deer. I got it at a yard sale where I practically had to fight the guy for it. He was selling it but reluctant to let it go because his late mother painted it. I am happy to have her just to watch Chloe go over and pet the "mommy" deer.


This bleeding heart was very small when my husband bought it for me. It must be planted in the right place because it is thriving there. The metal frog with the pink flower was a gift from my friend Lisa.


Chloe is a natural! A perfect pose next to my made in Mexico metal sunflower.


I have a lot of frogs in my gardens and this couple is my favorite. I think of it as me and my husband! Surrounded by Hosta and tiny blue Spring wildflowers, he is hiding a bouquet of flowers behind his back waiting for the right moment to present them.


We "inherited" the Christmas tree ferns when we bought the house. They are such a beautiful shade of green and just fill in everything beautifully. They multiply too so they are popping up all over my yard and they look great all the way to September. There are Lily of the Valley sprinkled in there too. I love the random, wild look of a garden as well as the perfect manicured one, so I left this area to grow where they may.


A Jim Shore frog lives in the ferns every summer.


Chloe is mesmerized by a tiny red spider crawling on the stepping stone my son made at school.


I love this terra cotta bird bath. I got it in the early 90's at the Renaissance Faire in Sterling, New York. Made by a local artisan, it has a frog perched on a leaf.


This bird bath was found at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in nearby Canandaigua. It is totally rusted cast iron which makes it perfect for a vintage junkie like me. The plants are Marguerite daisies, a gift from my daughter Jena, that will soon be a mass of tiny white flowers. Next to the daisy bed is my orange Daylily, my most favorite flower of summer. Growing up we had the exact ones all along the side of the garage. 


I was so intrigued by gargoyles after seeing them displayed all over the gardens at a summer cottage we stayed at. I had to get one for my garden, but just a small one. They are a little creepy looking! The background plants are chives which will have fuzzy purple flowers on them. I transplanted them from my farmhouse 18 years ago!


I bought a tree face for my husband one year which started a must-have trend for our yard. As you can see here, four trees have faces on them, each one a little different from the other. They do make an interesting addition to the garden. That's my kitty, Miss Kitty, perched on the brick fireplace.


More Christmas tree ferns all along the garage and Chloe in her Cozy Coupe. The CM on it stands for Christian Michael, my almost 16 year old son. It was also used by my first granddaughter Cassidy who is now 9 and will be used by Jeremy Craig (JC as they will call him), due in September, when he is old enough. Those Little Tikes toys last forever!


Chloe found it a fun game for me to chase her around the path with the stepping stones around the tree. I had to slow her down because of all the roots coming out on one side. My husband spray paints them every year not to stumble on them when making his way to the grill.


At one point she wanted to hop around. It was really hard for this old body to do that, even with two new hips!


I think the new growth on the pine tree is so pretty! It is a huge tree and the focal point of our yard and gardens.


I have always wanted to live by water, probably from going to the Thousand Islands every summer as a kid. I just love the sound of water nearby. Well, I kind of got my dream. There is a creek (really a water run-off) running under our yard from the other side of the street, and then along the back of our yard. When the water is high there is a constant sound of rushing water in the air. I'll take it!


If you made it to the end, thanks for taking the tour with me. It actually helped me see all that we've accomplished in 18 years. There is so much more to do and maintain but I am not in a hurry. I do what I can, one day at a time.

AnnMarie xoxo

I am linking up with these great blog hop parties:

Wednesday's Adorned From Above
Fluster's Creative Muster Linky Party
A Little R & R Wednesday Linky Party
What's It Wednesday
Fishtail Cottage Garden Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
Home and Garden Thursday
Feathered Nest Friday
Fertilizier Friday/Flaunt Your Flowers
Freedom Fridays with All My Bloggy Friends
Weekend Retreat Link Party
Weekends Are Fun Blog Hop
Pink Saturday
Strut Your Stuff Saturday Link Party
Amaze Me Monday
Make It Pretty Monday
Masterpiece Monday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
A Return to Loveliness
Cottage Garden Party
You're Gonna Love It Tuesday
A Little R and R