Making it Lovely

Tag: gardening

  • Honor Roll (The Gardens and Patios Edition)

    Honor Roll (The Gardens and Patios Edition)

    These are the things that have made my Honor Roll.
    House of Hipsters' Patio Makeover

    • House of Hipsters and Jojotastic both just finished up their patio makeovers, and now I’m inspired to get outside and do a bit of sprucing up! I’ve worked on the front porch before, but there are two small porches in the back that could use a little love too.

    • Looking again at Jenna Lyons’ garden, a lot of the magic was in the photography but man does that overhead shot continue to inspire.

    • Are you doing the 31 Day Flower Drawing Challenge?
      “It will only take a lily bit of time to become an expert at flower drawing.” (Gotta love the pun-filled intro video!)

    • Where did I read about climbing hydrangeas recently, was it Martha Stewart Living? I was at Jayson Home yesterday looking at the plants, and they said people have been buying them like crazy this year. I wanted to pick up a plant or two, but I should probably make a plan first.
      Those foxgloves though! Too bad they’re so toxic because they would look amazing in front of my house.

    • I’m currently rereading my copy of Charlotte Moss’ Garden Inspirations, and Bunny Williams’ On Garden Style is next. Any gardening books I should add to my list?

    • You know what I want? I want a garden planner kind of like those anatomy books for kids with the transparent overlays of the body where you can peel away the layers of skin, muscle, organs, and blood vessels until you’re left with the skeleton. I want to see full-sized plants, suited for our garden zone and sun exposure, that I can layer together so I can figure this whole thing out. I had high hopes for the BHG Garden Planner but it’s not actually all that practical. Is there a book, kit, site, or app like this that you would recommend?

  • All Tree, All Shade

    All Tree, All Shade

    Clearly I do not know how to prune roses properly because ours, especially the climbing ones, are looking leggy. I’ve been reading up about how to correct them, and it sounds like late winter is the time to do any major reshaping. They are blooming at least, but not in the pretty, profuse way they were when we first moved in.

    Climbing Roses

    The trellis that they’re growing on fell over a little while back. We tried to right it as much as possible, but it’s not easy with all of the thorns! It’s up, mostly, and tied to the porch for more support.

    In other garden news, the boxwoods got a big trimming. Please, please, please fill in, hedges! I’ve read up a lot about them being able to bounce back, even after drastic pruning, but I could never find any information on how long it takes and I do know that in general, they’re slow-growing. Also, the right side is much taller than the left but I’m afraid to trim off the top. I figure I’ll wait to see how they fare after this first attempt at cutting them back.

    Pruned Boxwoods

    (You can see the leggy climbing roses in the background, along the left side of our porch. And our stroller really complements the color scheme, does it not?)

    We’re giving a little attention to the lawn too. There’s a beautiful mature ash tree out front, but it throws more shade than the ladies on Drag Race. (That was contrived and cheesy and for that, I’m sorry. Not sorry enough to delete though.)

    Ash Tree

    Ash Tree

    We got a quote for new sod, which was something like $600, and there’s no guarantee it would take. We could do the labor part ourselves to bring the cost down, but again there’s no guarantee it would actually grow, so we passed on that and overseeded the lawn with shade-tolerant fescue.

    Sparse Lawn

    It has been about two weeks and we’ve watered every day that the rain didn’t do it for us. I don’t think it’s doing much, but those little spindly blades may turn into something if we’re patient, right? That’s the hope, anyway.

    New Blades of Grass

  • Pom Pom Peony Support

    Pom Pom Peony Support

    I have a million peony bushes in the backyard (well, twelve or so), but I think the one nearest the egg chair might qualify for special treatment with this support cage from Terrain.