Christmas Greens: Simple secrets from a former florist.

Have you ever wondered how florists and decorators put together those beautiful displays of over the top holiday greens?

Turns out it is easy, and cheap! Follow along to learn how...

A construction zone of his own.

 

My Personal Assistant loves all things construction. (It might have something to do with the number of site visits I take him on, but every parent drags their kid to work at some point right?) Diggers, dump trucks, skid steers, flat beds, transporters, front end loaders, steam rollers, tractors, cranes...you name it, he loves it. Oatmeal is not oatmeal any more, it is "construction zone oatmeal". Nothing is picked up with our hands, only with our "crane hands". We even have a scripted conversation about diggers that we have every time we get in the car. The script must not vary, this is not improv. This is serious.

Him: "Can we see some diggers today?"

Me: "Perhaps, if we keep our eyes open."

I got the idea that perhaps he needed a construction zone of his own.

Harvest time.

See that little bit of red? That is my wheelbarrow. My totally normal-sized, not-miniature-at-all wheel barrow. The giant UFO sized disks are sunflowers. Ahh harvest time, so rewarding, so overwhelming...

OMG. I have a blog. (And sidewalk art stuff.)

The division of labor around these here blog parts is that Daisy writes for Thursday/Friday and I write for Monday/Tuesday, which usually happens on Sunday/Monday evening respectfully. Only yesterday was my seven year anniversary and the night before it was my turn to teach Wee School, my neighborhood's free parent run summer school for tots, and I have been feeling really sick, so I skipped the writing, figuring the five of you would understand. Unfortunately, Wee School got rained out. And I was totally bummed. I had 8+ cups of fresh sidewalk finger paint and a quart of fresh frozen wacky sidewalk chalk plus all the fun water activities I had planned, and no one was going to see it. Then I was all...OMG I have a blog. (Literally, that is exactly what I thought. Total weirdo, I know.) So sweet blog readers, behold, I present all five of you with sidewalk finger paint!

...how does your garden grow?

Welcome to part 2 of my mid-summer garden update. You are thrilled I am sure. Whatever, I am doing it anyway.

The play area looks really different. The daisies have filled in, the grasses are growing but short, (I may replace them with something taller in the fall) and the grass has filled in except for all the places we killed it by leaving toys out. (The shade on the sand box is fine, it just rained and I forgot to straighten it before taking this picture.) The climbing wall has become a place for building forts. Adorable, yet not pretty. Good thing this area is more about fun than pretty.

Mary, Mary quite contrary...

Can you believe it is mid-summer already? Holy cow. Summer must be the fastest season. Really, July always seems to catch me off guard. I thought it would be a good time to take stock of what's happening in the garden. The spring garden is, of course, well past it's peak, and there is something eating the columbine. But...

Solar powered pondless water feature

I have wanted a water feature in the garden for a long time. This year I finally found a solar powered fountain pump that looked like it was worth trying. I had the perfect pot, but I needed the fountain to be kid safe, so I made it pondless. Here's how I did it...

Fast Fix(es)

I was going to write about just one quick fix, then as I was taking the final picture, I realized there were several in one area. Here's the list of problems I had with this corner of the patio. There aren't any before pics. You will just have to trust me that it was unsightly.

1. Dirt was coming through the chain link fence every time it rained.
2. Chain link fence (duh).
3. It was boring.
4. Weeds.

Weed Killer!

This entry will be brief and to the point.  I have weeds.  I hate them.  I kill them.

BUT!

I do not want to kill my child with Roundup.

Gardening in dry shade.

I have a confession to make. I am, by trade, a Landscape Architect. When people discover this, I get a lot of questions. And that's cool. No really, I don't mind. But I can't tell you what to plant in your back yard at a cocktail party, because I am at a cocktail party and not in your back yard. I need to experience a space to know what it needs. And while I try to always maintain a professional attitude when the plant questions start, when you tell me that you can't have a garden because you have shade, or horror of horrors, dry shade, you might need to give me a minute because I am mentally rolling my eyes and picturing this:

That's my shade garden. My dry shade garden. Smashed between our cement walk and the neighbor's. Under a giant hemlock on the west end and a giant cedar on the east end (that's right, acidic dry shade). My house and porch almost completely block the southern exposure. My neighbor's side gets sun between oh, noon and 1 pm. My side gets almost no direct light. And I never water it. Isn't it lovely?

I just sleep in the house.

Yup. That about sums it up.

I wish I had been the one to come up with this graphic, or that I could track down who did, because I think we could be besties, but it was one of those bad pins on Pinterest that goes nowhere.

This time of year don't bother calling. I'm in the garden. And I'm not taking calls. Visitors, yes. Calls, no way man.

Our local "Frost Date" is anticipated around here like Christmas. By me if not by everyone else. But even before it is "safe" to be planting out tender seedlings, I find plenty to do in the garden. Like creating a natural play space for my Personal Assistant. And setting up my portable greenhouse for seed starting, and constructing a fence/tomato cages to keep the Personal Assistant from sliding down the hill and over the wall.

It actually came it pretty great and cost a fraction of a regular fence. I think it would be perfect if you need a fence around the veggie garden for keeping critters out. The blow by blow is after the jump.

Earth Day Play Day

I love natural playgrounds. I am crazy about them. They offer so many befits for kids and the environment. As a designer, I also love that they can blend into the landscape, which is perfect in my postage stamp back yard. Read after the jump to see how I transformed a corner of the yard into a natural playscape on the cheap.