Cookies, Crayons, Classes, & Chaos: garden

Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

DIY Garden Art

In addition to using upcycled drainage tiles and cinder blocks in the garden, here are some more DIY projects for creating your garden paradise.

Sand cast concrete stone project from Squidoo Garden Crafts

Mosaic bench from The Garden Forum
Uses reverse technique with tiles on contact paper

Cement molds from The Garden Forum
This one really sets the bar high!

Leaf casting and loads of inspiration from Garden Therapy

Woven grasses project from Squidoo Garden Crafts

Branch trellis project from Squidoo Garden Crafts

Breathtaking pebble mosaic from Tatoo Donkey

From The Garden Forum
Faux hanging log using hypertufa

Pebble Mosaic Tutorial from This Old House

More Resources for Inspiration from your ♥ local library or bookstore ♥

Cement blocks in the garden

Somebody help me! Here's another craigslist posting that I want so badly! Free cinder blocks.

If only I had a truck to pick them up here is what I would do....

Raised beds and paths from Personality is Preferred

Raised stone garden bed from Wild Ginger Farm

Simple raised bed from Container Gardening Ideas

No dig garden from Permaculture Power
Notice how they even use the spaces in the perimeter blocks

Garden wall from Home Improvement

Decorative planters from Remodelista

From Elephant's Eye garden
Is it a bench or a garden? Read more to find out!

Bench from Organic Farm*
*attributed to Better Homes and Garden
but I cannot find the original link

Strawberry pyramid from the Green Thumb Alliance

More raised beds form the Green Thumb Alliance.
See how you can add mini hoop houses?!

My Life as an Ex-Foodie* shows how fencing is easily added to raised bed
*original attribution for photo not provided

Sub-Irrigated Gardens: Easy to water, perfect for small spaces

Why haven't I thought of this? It's a perfect use for drainage pipes!

I'm thinking of using this in my raised beds that are so far away from the water source which is a pain to hook up to the soaker hose.

Visit Inside the Inside Urban Green site with instruction for many different types of Sub-irrigated gardens aka SIP's.

One type of SIP garden from Inside Urban Green

Upcyled Clay Drainage Pipe Tile

January is such a fun time for armchair gardening here in the Northern Hemisphere.

A craigslist posting for some clay tiles has been thinking about these projects I might try while I wait for spring to arrive. Garden fountains, flower pots, planters, stoves, and more!

From this....

To these....

Welcome to My World - upcycled tile drains

One of many Squidoo garden craft projects

Sauna rocket from Permies

Clay tile planters from My Personal Jungle

Clay drainage tile fountain from Fountains Unique

And while we're in the business of sealing and painting terracotta how about this?....

Clay pot birdbath tutorial from Patricia's Pots

Decorating with Nature: 3 Design Projects

These projects are more sophisticated adult versions of nature crafts that can be used for decorating the inside and out.

(1) Graffiti Moss

Inhabitat provides all the instructions and tutorials needed to make letters, shapes, or whatever graffiti inspiration is on tap with moss! (See cool instruction graphics and different recipe here.)

DIY Moss Graffiti

(2) Tree themed shelf

One of Inhabitat's many green gift guides for 2011 showcased this awesome shelf made with real trees. Available from Hold Close The Moon on etsy.

Wall Hook / Shelf by Hold Close the Moon

(3) Tree branch wall hooks

Those wild and crazy inventor-hackers at Sugru have figured out how to use their moldable sugru silicone putty to make permanent wall hooks using tree branches.

I think it's really cool-looking and functional. But I just wonder what happens when you want to take the hooks down since the sugru appears to be really really permanent.

If I were to do this I would put the tree branches on a back board type of thing so it can be hung on the wall and removed later if needed.

Wall Hooks by Sugru

Lush living: 3 Ways to Decorate with Living Greenery

Pouring over some delicious magazines (thank you library!!!) I found inviting indoor projects to try. These are nature crafts sophisticated enough for adults but things the kids can do to.

Hopefully they can help to help fill the winter void when I'm missing my time in the flower beds and gardens.

Terrarium

From The Vintage Modern blog

The Vintage Modern provides a handy tutorial on making your own terrarium. Featured in the September 2011 issue of Real Simple, the terrarium is described as adding many components to the home:

-- Like a fish bowl it adds life
-- Reflects light, brightening dark walls
-- Feels calm and homey

-- Adds sophistication when used in modern shapes

Living Cactus Wreath

Featured in the October 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens this succulent wreath can provide an easy care decorative element for indoors and out.

Check out the complete instructions at their site.

Living Moss Balls

From Carissa's Creativity Space

Carissa offers a great tutorial on inexpensively making a real life living moss ball for display.

It will need to be kept moist and out of the sun, but otherwise is a simple way to incorporate greenery a display for any season.

For the CNN junkie who likes gardening: The story of Luther Burbank

It's hard to believe that many of my geeky interests co-mingled in this one book; Plants, politics, and history.

If CNN was around at the beginning of our history, the contents of this book are what we would have been watching as our nation's infrastructure, land grant universities, and ideals unfolded with an amazing cast of characters;Inventors, politicians, celebrities, scholars, business owners.

Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, President Warren G. Harding, and
businessman Harvey C. Firestone at one of a series of camping trips 1921 in Maryland.

Here's a smart kid who was a misfit by all accounts, who would fall though the cracks of today's education system, but went on to become a great inventor right alongside Edison and Ford.

Photo of Burbank with Thomas Edison taken in garden
beside ivy-covered wall of new residence
by John Ross of Santa Rosa. http://www.sonic.net/~rb45/P-I-F.htm

Seeing the photos and reading the stories of Edison, Ford, Firestone, and Burbank interacting with one another were fascinating, along with accounts of interations with the Wright brothers, Hellen Keller, Leland Stanford and other dignitaries of the day.

This book gives us insight into the running thread of history and agricultural policy decisions in the context of Darwin, Irish potato famine, poverty, American enthusiasm for inventions and ingenuity and the politics and emergence of the American academic institutions.

So many of the debates and discussions are still relevant today, some ideals having come full circle. This book made history come alive in technicolor.

Decisions regarding plant patenting that Luther Burbank fought so hard for but did not see before his death, continue to evolve and were modified as recently as 1994.

We now see plant patenting issues discussed in response to the medical marijuana laws enacted by states. The pharmaceutical industry, the designated distributor of other medicines, is blocked in distribution, not only by drug laws but by plant patent laws.

Heirloom Vegetables

We can see how the initial goals to improve plant production to address poverty and bring improvements has resulted in genetically modified foods, tasteless produce that travels well, and loss of heirloom varieties. It is an arc of probably unintended consequences from the initial quests.

How could I not know about Luther Burbank before reading this book? Arbor day was created in his honor and celebrated on his birthday. His birthplace resides "down the road" at Greenfield Village.

Certainly this book has been food for thought.

Lawns with Less Grass: Outdoor play spaces for children

We have been working to eliminate as much unnecessary grass as possible.

If the grass isn't a space in the yard that is conducive to playing ball or some other purpose, I feel there is no need for grass which needs to be watered and mowed.

Instead, my goal is to make our yard a magical place for kids to grow and explore, even in the middle of the city.

So we added a small pond, lovingly referred to as a puddle by my neighbor, and lots of plantings.

Perennial beds, vegetable gardens, fruit trees and bushes, and paths give us lots of alternatives to grass.

Butterflies, birds, rabbits, hummingbirds, bees, and even deer come to visit our little oasis in the city.

I drew much inspiration from "A Child's Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children" by Molly Dannenmaier. The photos are incredible. The ideas unique and magical. I wanted to jump into each page and live there.

The book provided ideas for creating the essential elements of an outdoor playspace including, water, dirt, sand, creatures, and places for climbing, pretending, hiding, picking, moving, learning, imagining.

Because we live on a corner lot, with lots of front yard and hardly any back yard, all our gardens are front yard gardens. So it was wonderful to find a book all about growing in the front yard instead of the traditional back yard garden.

I love the concept of The Welcoming Garden by Gordon Hayward, with gardens that call out an invitation to enter and gather instead of being seen as barriers or perimeter borders.

Here are the books which have been useful in thinking about how to create our outdoor environment for children and adults, keeping in mind low-maintenance goals while being on a small plot of land in which all our space is in the front. That's a tall order! These are some great books to help.

Garden themed books

These are some books we recently checked out at the library and had a lot of fun with!

Good Morning Garden -- Beautiful paper illustrations inspire the urge to note only get out and enjoy nature but to think of new ways to be creative with paper.

Princess Chamomile's Garden -- An adorable story of determination and creativity. We ALL loved the final garden design and wished we could replicate it at our house. It was magical and whimsical with some good lessons.

Sweet Strawberries -- This is an interesting story to stimulate discussion on the importance of a positive attitude toward others. It shows how we can choose how to see the world and what an impact that has on our own lives. As readers we can enjoy the thrill of the strawberry adventure and feel smug knowing we would be superior in knowing how to treat others with kindness.

Disclaimer: While others may call the husband a sour man, as a psychologist my impression was that he is a brash, abrasive, controlling, borderline abusive husband, but one who does seem to learn his lesson in the end. If a child has exposure to violent adults in his/her life this might resonate in a negative way. But it does offer adults the opportunity to talk with their children about appropriate ways adults should treat other adults and children.

Plant of the day: Viburnum

If you've ever been lured by an incredible scent on a walk, chances are you might have passed a viburnum shrub. It's one of the most intense fragrances I've ever encountered.

"Tough as nails with a heavenly fragrance, the Viburnum burkwoodii Mohawk is an outstanding choice for a hedge shrub.

"It has beautiful flowers and fragrance in the spring, pretty summer berries for the song birds, and beautiful orange leaves for fall."

Check out this wonderful plant at Great Garden Plants.

Plant of the day: Syringa Bloomerang™ reblooming lilac

Can it get more perfect than this??

Who wouldn't want to enjoy the heavenly fragrance of lilacs for the entire summer?!

And though we probably love those giant old fashioned lilacs, they can be quite large and overpowering on many of our smaller residential properties.

So check out this beautiful new for 2010 Syringa Bloomerang™ lilac at White Flower Farms or Great Garden Plants that stays compact at 4' and makes a great hedge.

Plant of the day: Ajuga

With spring upon us I have the usual urge to start replacing grass with flowers, herbs, fruiting plants, vegetables, and all things pretty and delicious!

One of my goals for this year is to remove more of the curbside grass. It's hard to mow under all the trees there and there really is no use for the grass anyway.

So instead of watering and mowing something useless, why not replace it with something pretty that doesn't need constant watering or mowing?!

So the plant I want to feature today is a perfect replacement for that useless grass: Ajuga.

Ajuga Chocolate Chip

Ajuga is a low growing ground cover that can thrive in many kinds of soils and doesn't need a lot of water. As an evergreen ground cover it is a nice replacement for grass. It's a perennial and it spreads to cover areas fairly quickly and choke out weeks.

Because it does spread quickly it is best in areas bordered by hard edging or retaining walls. So this makes it a good candidate for those front right of ways bounded by concrete curbing.

Check out the many varieties of Ajuga available at American Meadows and Classy Groundcovers.

It's a virtual flowering carpet and much more interesting than the hackneyed pachasandra.