Maddies Garden

My sweet 14 year old daughter, Maddie, has been toiling away in the garden all spring and summer long! In April she noticed that we had a tomato plant volunteer, she has very good eyes, that one. Here is the first fruit of her labors, one tiny little tomato with tons and tons to come.

Butterfly Garden

 

My backyard is a blank slate, a nightmare of a blank slate. As is stands right now, it's just a giant mud pit from hell, that still has a few pieces of construction equipment in it. Are you getting a feel for my mood here? 

This yard has a lot of problems, but timing is the biggest one. It's spring (almost), so we can't expect to get grass to take hold. Our baby grass will just burn up in the June sun. But we'll try anyway, I'll happily waste a bag or two of grass seed this spring.

Since the slate is blank, I really want to carefully create some structure in the garden. I want to put up a fence between our yard and our neighbors, unfortunately I can't afford it right now. Janet and I have enjoyed living without the fence that came down when we lost our other tree during Hurricane Irene. She and I created two gardens along our mutual property lines with a stone path that got up easily to each others back doors. But I really want a puppy someday and I don't think she'll like it in her yard all the time. When you have a dog, fences make good neighbors, right? If a fence is going to happen, now's the time. 

Also, I want to judicially pick and choose trees and bushes that will give my landscape 4-season appeal. I want my backyard to have great winter interest. Winter is depressing enough, I want some evergreen's to look at! Again, we all know that you need to plant the trees and bushes in the fall.

So what do we do? Live with a pit of mud and invite the weeds to take hold? I don't think so. 

So here's the plan!! I'll have the contractor set in the fence posts in the next month or so and then when we have the money, Don and I will add the rails and pickets ourselves. The posts will give the yard a scene of it's boundaries. In the mean time, I'm seeing oilcloth party banners strung from post to post!!

This week we enjoyed spring like weather, it was 75 degrees so I had to get outside and do something!! I started creating a curvy line of bricks and wood I've found laying around the yard, to separate the future garden beds from the eventual grassy areas.

But, what are we going to put in these beds this spring and summer?? As I logged on to Pinterest to look through my garden board it dawned on me... BUTTERFLIES, I want butterflies!! I'm going to buy a bunch of wildflower seeds and create a butterfly garden. I am so excited!! I can't wait to get the kids over to the Great Big Green House to pick out our seeds. 

Check out this great website I found, it gives you a list of the butterflies that you get in your state,  here's Virginia!! They also have a list of plants that each butterfly likes best. This will be a great family project, but, don't tell the kids that I'm seeing a science lesson here!! 

Happy end of February, spring is coming!!! 

Fun idea --- Outdoor Kitchen!

Better Homes and Garden

Budget-Friendly Ideas for Outdoor Rooms

gardenosis

gardenosis, originally uploaded by ModernJune.

While Maddie and I were chilling on the hammock this evening she got very serious and said "Mamma, I have a serious disease -- it's called Gardenosis!"  Ha-ha!   What a gal, she even got her brother out in the garden today!  I love her!

border, originally uploaded by ModernJune

Check out this and many more of our garden photos on my flickr page!  

wisteria wars

All of this...

...used to be on this!  

Left unchecked for just one year the wisteria climbed up into the tree branches and engulfed the tree and the power lines like an evil snake.   This winter it became clear that the structure, tree, and power lines couldn't take another year of the wisterias rapid growth.  So, down it came.  We know that war is not over yet, the plant is only cut down and would love nothing more that to be allowed to grow back with a vengeance.  Sometime soon we will decide the future of the shed and pergola, then we will know if the wisteria can stay.  IF it has to go I don't look forward to that job one tiny bit!  

This summer I look forward to my lovely Red Velvet Mandevilla (Mother's Day gift to self) to cover that pergola, cuz in the fall it will have to come down.  

 

Oilcloth for parties!

I have been totally obsessed with oilcloth tablecloths. I mean what is not to love? Pretty and practical. I have been whipping them out in droves! I love making them they really make me happy!

This weekend we, the Richmond Craft Mafia, are having a baby shower for our dear friend Nikole's baby girl Thea. I have the honor of hosting it in our backyard. I have been really enjoyed reclaiming our backyard from it's current jungle-like state.

I have moved a few things around. Our new umbrella recently broke and of course I have no receipt for it so I just remove the darn thing completely. Then I moved the table to the grotto! I love it there and I always have. I moved it a few years ago thinking that our family would eat al fresco more frequently if I moved the table closer to the house. NOT! My kids HATE to eat outside because of fly's and bugs.

I like my outdoor office!



With the table gone from it's spot, I had a moment of brilliance, I moved the hammock to the back of the house. The back of our house needs a focal point, it is very plain Jane with it's one ugly window. That wall needs 3 lovely windows so I can sew and enjoy the outdoors. This would make my Cave like studio less oppressive!



I digress...wasn't the subject supposed to be oilcloth tablecloths?

Lately I have been doing large orders for parties. One client purchased 4 oilcloth tablecloths in all yellow poppy for her annual backyard party. She decided to use the same color to tie in all the different size tables. Then for an engagement party someone ordered four 60" tablecloths in four different colors. Roses, yellow poppy, red fruity and blue strawberries. That was very fun!

Now for myself I am going to use the Red Polka Dot tablecloths from my craft show stash as a starting point. I will use these on the long row of tables then I will a table runner in red fruity. I will use my current Red fruity tablecloths on the food and drink tables. And of course all my little side tables get their fun table topper in Red Polka Dots!

fun, fun, fun!

spring fever

Maddie, Aidan and I have a serious case of spring fever. For me, well, I can't seem to stay in the cave (I mean studio) for long before wandering outside. Once I am out there in the glorious spring weather it's long to wish my hands were dirty and that I was surrounded by flowers.



So today after a morning of making flowers out of polymer clay while listening to Harry Potter. We went off to Azalea Garden Center to see Mike and Mary Anne for a serious dose of flower buying. We called today art and nature school! ; )

I told the kids we were buying nothing but hanging plants and pre-potted plants. Basically expensive flowers, expensive but complete. I have a really bad habit of buying flower and never having time to plant them. What a waste. So did I just buy the convenience flowers? Did that happen? Hell no! We ended up with some herbs, a flat of flowers that needed planting as well as 3 hanging baskets. Big sigh.... I love gardening. I miss it so much, Modern June has taken away all that creative free time that I once had. There we go again the illusive concept of balance!

Two hours later the plants are all in and there is dirt under my nails. Heaven! Here is what we did...


The hanging pots that was easy-peasy! I love these red geraniums, I forget what kind they are and I have cleaned up so well the tags are long gone already. I had them here last year, they were very tolerant of my neglect. They are worth buying year after year!


Here we did a mix of coleus, caladium's, and petunias. I love these three that line the steps up to the front door.


Maddie had a great idea for the remaining flowers, we opened up the front border by taking out day lilies and small hostas. I would of like to have taken a photo of the bed but my crazy kids kind of pulverized them with the jet spray while watering them, URG. I think Aidan heard USE the jet spray not the shower setting, instead of what I really said. He must of missed the word DON'T.

It is probably to early but I cleaned off all the pollen off the porch furniture, I have a feeling I will be doing that job all over again. The pollen here in RVA is horrible for weeks everything is covered with a green powder. But for tonight it is clean...I see myself sipping Corona's on the porch. Hey, I should do that now!

With rain all weekend I will have plenty of time to catch up on my work. Right? I totally need permission to take a day off. That's a bad sign. Work-a-holic!!!

Enjoy your weekend no matter what you do!

a bit of my garden

Wow! What a difference some hard work and sunshine can do for a girl. I am in such a better mood for being out digging in the dirt! I need that, Don always remembers that, but I always forget! I realized today that there are parts of my yard that I have not stepped upon for 4 months. My yard is not big. I totally understand why that is but I also know that is not healthy for me. I need dirt under my finger nails for optimal personal balance. LOL.


This photo came to me via my Martha Stewart newsletter. This is what I need. But after the 104 degree days and once the mosquitos are dead and gone. There is something magical that happens in the first week or two of September. Here in Virginia there is a break in the weather. A time when we all run outside again. We eat al fresco. We spend the entire day in the yard. We do school outside. And even the little boy that yelled at me today saying that he is not an "outside boy", even he ventures out of doors. Even if not for long.

I will be waiting for all of that and more!

gardening

I heard Don tell his sister that I used to be a gardener once. I took great offense to that, but today I realized that he was right. This morning while putting out the recycling I was shocked at how bad my yard looks -- my gardens are overrun with weeds and the grass is long in some spots, non existent in others and then the weeds in the middle are brown and crunchy! Yikes, this is so not OK.

So, I skipped my walk, I skipped my blog, I skipped my email. And I thought to myself, how would fly lady crisis clean a back yard? Well the whole yard was shady at that moment so I decided to start where the sun would hit first. I grabbed my bucket, filled it my tools, and went to work. I worked in 6 foot sections: weeding, cleaning, and creating a new tidy edge of grass. Once I finished a section I swept off the brick boarder so it all looked much better. I continued until I was driven inside by two hungry kids that needed some breakfast.

Later that morning Maddie and I cleaned out the mulched play area and the sand box. That makes such a difference -- the area is under a huge Oak tree that drops twigs and leave 365 days a year.

It took about 2 hours to cleanup 1/4 of the yard. That is not too bad! I am off now to mulch the areas that I cleaned out -- that will make all the difference. I was hoping to find a few annuals to plop in and add a little last minute color, but the local garden shop had nothing. I should not be surprised given the time of year and the heat, but I was bummed not to be able to put something new in.

The photos are from our last trip to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden!