Author: Quandie

all the buzz.

Published on by Quandie7 Comments

Good morning from the garden.

It seems like planting pollinator friendly plants is getting all the buzz these days (pardon the very bad pun).

I have to admit that I’ve never planted anything just because it’s good for pollinators.  That quality is way down on the list of things I look for in a plant.  I figure any flowering plant is better for the environment than just having a lawn, right?

I do sometimes choose things specifically to attract hummingbirds though, like Salvia guaranitica, or Black & Blue Salvia.

After all, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a pretty hummingbird in the garden?  I can verify that yes, the hummingbirds definitely love this one.

This year I’ve discovered that the Swallowtail butterflies really like my verbena bonariensis.

As do the bees.

So that’s an added bonus to growing it, but I would grow it anyway because I love the look of it.

And that brings me to my Serendipity Allium.

I planted these about three years ago, and this is the first year that they’ve really looked fantastic.  That’s about right, the first year they sleep, the 2nd year they creep, etc.  This is their year to leap!

I also had 4 or 5 seedlings sprout up around the main plant this spring, so although they aren’t especially known to re-seed freely, mine definitely is.

I have to say, these things are bee magnets!

Look closely at the photo.  Do you see how many bees are on there?!

Although the big fat bumble bees aren’t particularly aggressive, they still would prefer that I not mess with them in the garden.  I’ve never been stung by one, but they do chase me away by buzzing around my face and bumping into me which is just as effective.

So I’m pretty much avoiding weeding in this area for the time being and just letting the bees have their fill.

But to be honest, I’m just blaming my lack of weeding on the bees because they are a convenient scapegoat.  I usually get a little tired of gardening about this time of year.  It’s probably lucky that I live in zone 4b/5a because I don’t think I’d enjoy having a longer gardening season.  Even our short growing season is a bit too long for me.

One last thing, while we’re talking about bugs, over the last couple of years I have been approached by at least half a dozen door-to-door sales people trying to get me to sign up for their pest control services.

They always catch me while I’m out in the garden, and they always use the same tactics mentioning that they are only in the neighborhood because my neighbor John Doe (insert actual neighbor’s name here) uses their service.  The latest saleswoman was very charming, mentioning how amazing my gardens were and appreciating how much work they must entail.  And wouldn’t I like to get rid of those pesky spider webs?

I always say that I’m trying to encourage pollinators, not kill them.  The I’m told, ‘oh, but our product is plant based’ … um, yeah, but it still kills insects right?

Anyway, I recently did some research and found a press release from the MN Attorney General’s office warning people about door-to-door pest control scams (you can find that here).  Apparently they are running rampant in the Twin Cities.  So if you are local, or if this is also happening where you are, just be warned.  Send those door-to-door salespeople packing, no matter how charming they might seem.

I’d love to know which plants in your garden are the biggest pollinator attractors.  Leave a comment and let me know.

the oxford fog toolbox.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

I’ve been patiently waiting to share today’s toolbox with you guys!

You see, Dixie Belle sent me the new colors from the Countryside Collection of their Silk paint in advance of the release.  So I immediately went and painted a toolbox in one of them, and then realized I wouldn’t be able to share it for weeks!  I should have read the fine print first 😉

In fact, I painted this one before any of the toolboxes that I shared during toolbox week!

And then I had to keep it hush hush until the new colors were revealed.  And I’ll let you in on a secret, I’m not good at keeping secrets.

But I made it!  And now I can share, so let’s start with the ‘before’ of this toolbox.

It was pretty basic, in good shape but a very drab color.

After my usual prep of cleaning it well, lightly scuff sanding it and giving it a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss, I painted the interior in DB’s Blue Grass.

Then I painted the outside in the new Countryside Collection color called Oxford Fog.

I just knew these two colors would pair up beautifully.

They are two different styles of paint.  The Silk paint is a water based all-in-one acrylic paint with a built in primer and top coat.  On the other hand, the Blue Grass is from DB’s line of chalk style paints.  Chalk paint doesn’t always require a primer, but I like to add additional protection from bleed-thru with the Bonding Boss when painting over rusty metal with both styles of paint.  In addition, for durability the chalk paint should be top-coated with hemp oil, wax, or a clear water based sealer.  I used Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat to seal the interior of the toolbox.  Furthermore, although the Silk paint doesn’t require a topcoat, the transfer does.  So I finished off the outside of the toolbox with some of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

While technically you could mix these two paints together since they are both water based, I’m not sure I would recommend that.   However, you certainly can use both on the same project like I’ve done with this toolbox.

Once my paint was dry, I added some florals from the I.O.D. Saint Germain transfer.

Gosh those florals are gorgeous, aren’t they?

I wrapped them around the sides …

and up over the top.

Next up I pulled out my precious stash of I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfers.  For those who aren’t familiar, I call them ‘precious’ because this transfer was retired several years ago and is very hard to find now.  I have a steadily dwindling stash of them, but unfortunately it’s not going to last forever.

Anyway, I chose some sections of text from Label Ephemera and applied them next.

I followed that up with that coat of clear wax that I mentioned earlier.

I staged my photos of the toolbox in the shade garden, but I also placed a couple of watering can flower arrangements behind it for added color.

I think the Quick Fire Fab hydrangea, hosta flowers and some verbena bonariensis made a pretty combo.

With fall just around the corner, followed closely by Christmas (I know, way too early, but they will be here before we know it), I’m wondering if I need to lay off the florals for a while.

Or do you think florals can be used year ’round?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Meanwhile, this toolbox is for sale.  Check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details (sorry, I don’t ship my items).

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the beautiful new Oxford Fog and Blue Grass paints used for this makeover.

the truffle bar stools.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

This summer I’ve been trying to make an effort to go through things that have been stored upstairs in the carriage house for too long.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t made much headway.  Somehow there’s always something more fun to do.

However, I did manage to drag this set of three bar stools down the stairs and into my workshop a few weeks back.

I don’t remember exactly when I purchased these, except that it was before I was retired.  So … yeah … at least 4 years ago.  I seriously considered putting them at the curb with a free sign on them.  But then I thought, no, just bite the bullet and paint them.

I originally planned to paint them black, and then add a Swiss cross to the seats like the stool I painted a few weeks back.  To that end, after cleaning them up, I gave them each a coat of Rust-Oleum’s spray black primer.  I even got so far as to paint the first chair in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.

But I just didn’t love how the stool looked in black.  Then a little voice in my head said ‘hey, why not try out one of the new Dixie Belle Silk All-In-One paint colors instead?’

I picked Truffle because it’s a lovely, rich neutral.

The Silk line of paint has a built in primer and top coat, so technically I didn’t need to prime these bar stools.  But it was already done, and I’m not mad about it.  These stools had that shiny factory finish look to them, so a little extra primer just made it that much easier for the Silk paint to stick.

Each chair got two coats of the Truffle.

Then, inspiration struck.  I saw a post on Iron Orchid Design’s Instagram showing a set of cutting boards that were painted by Jonathon Marc Mendes.  If you haven’t ever seen his work, you should check out his Instagram account,  I really admire his style.

You might be wondering how a trio of cutting boards could inspire a set of barstools.

But it was the way he used the I.O.D. Gregory’s Catalogue paint inlay that caught my eye.  He just used parts of it rather than using the entire design.  And I happened to have that particular paint inlay on hand, so I thought why not try this look on the barstool seats.

So that’s what I did.

FYI, the paint inlay worked perfectly with the Silk paint (which is an acrylic paint).  One tip I’ve read is to not wait too long to remove the inlay’s paper backing.  Unlike chalk paint, acrylic paint is not reactivated with water and may not release the paper backing of the paint inlay as easily if left too long.  After applying the inlay into wet paint, I let it dry for about 30 minutes before wetting the paper back down and peeling off the backing (for full paint inlay instructions, head to this post).

After spraying the seats of the chairs with Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer to keep the inlay from smearing, I then sanded the edges of the chairs to distress them.

Finally, I decided I wanted to add just a little more depth to the Truffle color with dark wax.  So I blended some of Dixie Belle’s Brown wax with some of their Big Mama’s Butta.  The addition of the Butta helps the wax go on more evenly, and makes it easier to blend.  It also mellows the look of the brown wax a bit.

Here’s a look at the difference between a stool with the wax (on left), and one without (on right).

So even though the Silk paint doesn’t require a top coat, you absolutely can add one for aesthetic reasons like I’ve done here.  That brown wax really added some depth to the Truffle paint.

I realize that the look of the partial typography on each stool is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it’s pretty fun.

What do you think?

This trio of bar stools is for sale locally, so check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more info if interested.

Thank you to Dixie Belle for providing their products used in today’s makeover.

made in the shade.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

Good morning from the garden.

This morning I thought I’d share a quick tour of the mid-August shade garden.

This shade garden runs between the house and the driveway.  It is just a basic rectangle without any fancy curves or anything, but I consider it my favorite of all my garden beds.

It’s also the one that is most visible from inside the house, so on rainy weekends like this one I can still enjoy the garden.

It contains some of the most well-established plants that I have, especially since the Hosta albomarginata was here when we bought our house 37 years ago.

It’s the hosta in the foreground of this photo …

I consider it one of the old standby traditional hostas that every foundation planting had 40 years ago.  It’s a basic green with white margins, and it’s probably … no … definitely my least favorite hosta in the garden.  That being said, it’s also a tremendous workhorse.  I’ve divided mine so many times over the years that I now have dozens of them, and they are huge.  So removing them and replacing them would be quite the project.

Sadly, it’s also the most susceptible to both hail damage and insect damage because the foliage is not as sturdy as some of the newer varieties.  However, so far this summer we haven’t had any hail (knock on wood), and I’ve been using Sluggo Plus to take care of the slugs and earwigs and that’s working really well.

I just discovered Sluggo Plus this year (ordered from Amazon).  I used to use the regular Sluggo which contains iron phosphate, which is effective against slugs and snails.  Sluggo Plus, contains both iron phosphate and spinosad, a natural insecticide which is effective against earwigs and pill bugs.  Last summer was pretty wet and the earwigs did lots of damage to my hostas, so I wanted to stay on top of that problem this year and it’s lucky I did because this summer continues to be fairly wet as well.

It’s nice to have hostas that still look good in mid-August.

That bright green hosta is Sun Power, and it just glows in the shade.

Another of my favorites is Lakeside Dragonfly (center front below).

It’s perfect for the front of a shady garden bed.

I’m still finding plenty of jumping worms in my garden, and I can tell that they have had an impact on the texture of my soil, especially in the shade garden.  The top couple of inches of soil look very granular, and it dries out quickly.  Fortunately we’ve had plenty of rain this summer, but I’m keeping a close eye on the garden and watering regularly if it gets too dry.  I’m also adding nutrients in the form of both bagged compost and Espoma’s Plant Tone.  There is conflicting info out there on whether or not using an organic fertilizer makes the problem worse by also feeding the worms, but I can’t find any better suggestions for keeping my plants well fed.

I would say that my well established perennials are doing just fine despite the worms, including my Japanese painted fern.

The annuals that I planted this year don’t seem to be struggling either.  Some of you may remember that I filled in some empty spots with Impatiens.

They filled in quite nicely and add a bright pop of color to my otherwise mostly green garden.  The bright pink of the Lipstick impatiens is pretty, but it isn’t really my vibe though.

Perhaps next year I will use the Apple Blossom double impatiens instead.

They are looking quite lovely in my planters and are more in line with my personal aesthetic.

In the spring I mentioned that one section of my shade garden had completely died out over the winter including my Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’.

  I replaced the aralia with one I purchased at Home Depot, and also added in a couple of new hostas, bleeding heart and astilbe.

They are all doing well, and the astilbe is blooming for a 2nd time!

This is Astilbe Younique Ruby Red and everything I’ve found online says this plant does not rebloom so I don’t know what to make of it.

The Fairy Candles (or Black Cohosh, but seriously, isn’t Fairy Candles a way better name?) that I got from my friend Jackie are doing great growing around Cossetta’s feet.

Cossetta is the statue that I purchased at a garage sale that was right behind Cossettas Italian restaurant in St. Paul.  That was such an amazing find.  I never seem to find things like this at garage sales anymore, what a bummer.

But anyway, the Fairy Candles are done blooming now, but here’s how they looked in bloom a few weeks ago.

And with that I’ll bring this tour of the shade garden to a close.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my shade garden and that it inspired you in some way.  Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite element is in this garden!

all that glitters.

Published on by Quandie13 Comments

A few weeks back my friend Jackie gave me some toolboxes.

Well, I’m collectively calling them toolboxes, but really there were a couple of toolboxes, a tackle box and even a lunchbox.

The outside of the lunchbox was black, and when I opened it up I found that the inside was a shiny gold.  So with that combo in mind, I decided to take some inspiration from the books that I recently painted …

After giving it a good wash, I touched up the interior color with a fresh coat of Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold spray paint.

Then I freshened up the exterior with a coat of Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  Once dry, I pulled out the I.O.D. Wilde Bloemen transfers and started adding florals to the front of the lunchbox.

Once those were all in place, I added some gold typography from the I.O.D. Étiquettes transfer.

To play up the gold a bit more, I used some of Dixie Belle’s Gilding Wax in Gold on the latches (after having painted them with Caviar along with the rest of the lunchbox).

I followed all of that up with some of DB’s Big Mama’s Butta as a top coat.  I found that the Big Mama’s started removing a bit of that Gilding Wax though.  I’m not sure if that was because I didn’t wait long enough for the Gilding Wax to harden, or if the Butta and Gilding Wax aren’t compatible.  To be on the safe side, perhaps adding Gilding Wax last would be the way to go in the future.

Either way, the problem would be easy enough to solve by adding more Gilding Wax to the latches.  But I think I kind of like the worn look that resulted so I’m leaving them this way.

They say that all that glitters is not gold, but in this case it is … well, shiny metallic gold anyway.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know.

mini garden furniture.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

Aside from the fairy garden, I haven’t spent any time working on miniatures this summer.

The plan was to work on the porches and the garden of my dollhouse, but I think I’ve realized that mini’s are going to be more of a winter thing for me.

That being said, I have been accumulating stuff for the dollhouse porches.

I purchased this unfinished patio set at Hobby Lobby sometime last year.

When I had my milk paint out for another project recently, I decided to go ahead and paint these up at the same time.

I began by giving all four pieces a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean so that I would have something to distress my final coat of milk paint back to other than raw wood.

Next I mixed up some Sweet Pickens Milk Paint in a color called Pantry Door.  I had a sample packet that I purchased from The Painted Heirloom for $7.  The little sample packets work great for painting miniatures, and it’s a fun way to try out new colors.

After applying two coats of the milk paint, I sanded the pieces with 220 grit sandpaper to distress them.  I tried to only sand back to that darker Coffee Bean layer, and I mostly succeeded.

Of course, there are also some spots where I went too far.

But that’s OK, I still love how they turned out.

I staged them out in the fairy garden.

But I didn’t put any sort of top coat over the milk paint, so they definitely wouldn’t really hold up outside.  They’ll be fine on the porch of the dollhouse though, when I get to it.

Speaking of the fairy garden, I was out there doing a little pruning the other day and was amazed at how much some of the plants have taken off.

Remember the miniature hostas that I purchased at a garage sale back in June?

Here’s the Pandora’s Box in June when I planted it …

And here is it now.

And, in fact, I even divided this one initially breaking up the one plant I purchased into two plants.  Here’s the 2nd one …

This is one of the things I love about planting divisions from someone v. a new plant from a nursery.  They usually have a very established root system and the plant will fill out much more quickly.

Sadly, now that I have jumping worms in my garden, I can no longer easily share my own plants in this way.  Granted, I could share them if I carefully washed off all of the dirt that could contain jumping worm cocoons.  But personally, I’d rather not take the chance of giving others jumping worms.

That being said, I already have jumping worms so I’m not so concerned about bringing them in on garage sale plants.  Maybe that’s a mistake, I don’t know.  Bottom line; don’t risk it in your garden.  Do as I say, not as I do.

But I digress, this post was supposed to be about miniature patio furniture.

Coming soon I’ll share the bistro set that I painted up for the porch, I can’t share it quite yet because I used a new color from the Dixie Belle Silk paint line.  I have to wait for the official reveal before I can share that with you.  But stay tuned, because this color is quickly becoming my new favorite!

early bloomers.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

Good morning from the garden.

Well, we’ve had some exciting times in the garden lately.  We had severe thunderstorms blow through, two nights in a row a week or two ago.

We survived the first storm with just a few small branches strewn about, but the second one took down a sizeable limb from our neighbor Ken’s remaining tree.

If you’ve been following me for long, you’ll remember that Ken had a very large tree in his backyard cut down last year because he was worried it would come down in a storm.

They cut it into sections and then lifted it out (right over the top of our house) using a crane.

At the time he also had some deadwood cut out of his remaining smaller tree.

So in an ironic turn of events, he lost a big branch from that smaller tree in the 2nd storm.

And of course, the branch fell right onto the new hydrangea hedge that I planted last summer after Ken had that larger tree removed.

Fortunately it didn’t really do any damage.

The hydrangeas bounced right back.

These are Quick Fire Fab hydrangeas.  So far my hedge is only about 3′ tall, and according to Proven Winners they will max out at 6′ to 8′.  However, they also say that about Limelight hydrangeas and my Limelights are easily 10′ tall or more.  So I’m hoping to end up with a tall hedge here.

The Quick Fire Fab are the earliest to bloom of the panicle hydrangeas.  The flowers start out white (as you can see in the photo with the branch on them), and then slowly go from white to pale pink to bright pink to deep red by fall.

I think the color they are right now is my favorite.

In comparison, Limelight hydrangeas are the latest of the panicle hydrangeas to bloom.  The flowers on mine are only just barely starting to open up.

And they are still the pretty lime color that gives them their name.  They will gradually fade to white, and then start to turn a pretty coppery sort of pink for fall.

I absolutely love the Limelight hydrangea, but when I was deciding what hydrangea to use for my new hedge last year I thought it would be nice to have a hydrangea that blooms a few weeks earlier to extend hydrangea season.

For those of us who garden in a cold climate (I’m in a suburb of St. Paul, MN, zone 4b to 5a), a panicle hydrangea is definitely the way to go.  So far I have found them to be pretty much impervious to a cold winter.  As I’ve mentioned before, our last winter was pretty hard on plants.  We had some days with temps well below zero, but hardly any snow.  We need that snow to protect the plants that are in the ground.  I lost quite a few things in my gardens, but the new hydrangeas came through with flying colors even though I had only planted them in August.

I wish we could get those gorgeously vibrant macrophylla hydrangeas to bloom reliably here.  You know, the ones that are bright pink …

Or blue …

But I’ve never had any luck with them, including the Endless Summer varieties (I took the two photos above at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania).

I’ll just have to settle for the more subtle look of the panicle hydrangeas in my garden.

Earlier this week I decided to try a bit of an experiment to see how well the Quick Fire Fab hydrangeas will hold their color when dried.

So I cut a few and popped them into a bucket with about 2″ of water at the bottom.

Next I’ll put them in a cool, dark, dry location and let them dry out.

It’s possible that it’s too early to successfully dry these, I usually wait until the flowers have started drying out just a bit on their own before cutting them to dry the rest of the way.  But these Quick Fire Fabs will have turned red by then (and of course, I’ll also dry some then), so I hope I can preserve some in this pretty blush pink.

If you’re a fan of dried hydrangeas, you may want to go back and check out my post on how to make a dried hydrangea wreath.

Or for more details on drying hydrangeas, check out this post.

Are you able to grow hydrangeas where you are?  If so, which ones are your favorites?

Leave a comment and let me know.

the blue grass chair.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

It’s time for another do-over project.

Usually I call for a do-over when an item isn’t selling, but in this case I’m making over an item that I originally painted for myself and used for many years.

This is your classic child sized schoolhouse chair.  It started out looking like this …

I used this chair regularly both while painting furniture, and also while taking photos of furniture.  It put me right at the perfect height for both.

Then back in 2017 I decided to give it a paint job using Fusion’s Putty.

That made it more presentable to have around the house when I wasn’t using it.

But that was 8 years ago!  Wow, time flies.  It had gotten pretty beat up, splattered with paint, and just basically dirty since then.  Furthermore, I rarely actually use it these days so it was just collecting dust out in my workshop.

So I decided to give it a fresh look before listing it for sale.

I started by giving it a good cleaning first, then I sanded down the stenciled design on the seat and gave the entire chair a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Blue Grass.

The Blue Grass is from Dixie Belle’s line of chalk style paint, and it went on beautifully over that original Fusion acrylic paint.

Once the paint dried, I sanded the edges of the chair to distress the paint back to that Putty color.

This is always something to keep in mind when you paint over another paint color and you like to distress your pieces.  That original color is going to show.  I think it works on this chair though.

Next up I added a portion of the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer to the seat.

I finished it off with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax, and then I staged some photos in my garden using some vintage books.

This chair is going in the pile of merch that I’m readying for my fall Carriage House sale.  I’m tentatively aiming for the first Saturday in October for the sale, so if you’re local, pencil it in!

But I’ll also list it on my ‘available for local sale‘ page in case any of you locals are interested in it now.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for the products used in this makeover!

assembly line rustification.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

I had a couple of rusty things at my sale last May including a tall planter, some old iron bedsteads, and a small statuette.

And they were among the first things to sell.  I think that must mean that other people love this rusty look as much as I do.  So I’ve been stocking up on stuff to rustify (excuse the made up word) for my next sale.

I’ve been salvaging various planters from my neighbors Ken & Arlene.  Arlene is no longer able to garden and the pots have been sitting around empty for a couple of seasons now.  Ken was just going to toss them, so I saved them from the trash heap.

These will look fabulous with the rusty treatment.

I’ve also got a pile of random stuff like the ‘statues’ that I bought at a garage sale this summer …

And I also have some faux pumpkins to make rusty for fall.

Since I have so many things to make rusty, I decided to tackle it assembly line style.  Basically I put out a variety of worktables, line everything up and then work my way down the row with each step of the process.

Step 1:  Wash everything using the garden hose and some Dawn dish soap.

Step 2:  Spray everything with flat black primer.

I’ve found this to be the quickest and easiest way to do a lot of items at once.  I have also used the red spray primer, which is closer to a rust color, but either one will work.  Dixie Belle also makes a primer specifically for use with the patina paints, and it’s also that rusty red color.  But it goes on with a brush, and when I’m working with this many pieces at once, spraying saves a lot of time.

Step 3:  After mixing it well, I stipple on Dixie Belle’s Iron patina paint using their Oval Medium brush.

Of course, you don’t have to use this brush.  You can use pretty much any brush, but the job goes much quicker with a larger brush that holds more paint.

 Today’s q tip:  applying the Patina paint with a stippling motion rather than a brushing motion prevents brush strokes.  The activating spray (which is the next step) tends to pool in brush strokes making them more obvious, which doesn’t look natural on a rusty item.

Step 4:  After the first coat of Iron paint is dry, stipple on a 2nd coat and while it’s still wet, spray it with the Green Patina Spray.

Step 5:  Wait.

I find that out of all of the various patina paint/spray combos this rusty look takes the longest to develop.  If you use the Copper or Bronze paint, the verdigris appears almost immediately.  For example, I painted the pumpkin stems with the Bronze paint, added the green spray, and an hour or two later they looked like this.

But the rust takes a bit more time.  As in days, rather than just minutes or hours.

Here are the pots after 2 days.

They aren’t quite rusty enough yet, but they’ll get there.

I have found that leaving the item out in the rain will really get the rust going.  When the weather doesn’t cooperate, I spray the item with tap water using the Dixie Belle Continuous Fine Mist Spray Bottle and that will help too, just not as much as rain water.

Step 6:  You have a few options for the final step.  The easiest is to simply skip using any sort of topcoat over your rusty item.  That’s my choice for anything that’s going in the garden.

Those items aren’t going to be handled a lot, so no worries about rust getting onto someone’s hands or clothing.  I’m also not worried about these items continuing to rust over time.

For the most part I have found that this finish holds up quite well outdoors without a top coat on most items with plaster items being the exception.  I’ve had to touch up that plaster pedestal shown above after a year spent outside.  I haven’t top-coated any of the items in my own garden including this bench and they’ve held up for multiple years now despite our harsh Minnesota climate.

However, I purposely placed the bench in a garden bed so that no one will be tempted to sit on it.

If it were going to be used for seating, I would add a top coat.  You have a couple of options.  First, you could use Dixie Belle’s Patina Guard.

This product will stop the “rusting” process and protect your patina finish (and also your pants when you sit on a rusty bench).

However, it will also darken the color a bit and add some sheen.

Here is a rusty pedestal I painted before adding Patina Guard.

And here it is after.

So just keep that in mind if you plan to use the Patina Guard.

If you don’t like that look, another option is to use a spray matte sealer over a rusty finish.  I like to do that with items that are going to be handled more frequently.

I hope the info in today’s post has been helpful, or has inspired you to try the Patina Paint.  Or maybe you’ve already tried it?

If so, be sure to leave a comment and let me know.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the Patina Paint products used in my assembly line rustification process.

this year’s pots, 2025 edition.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

Good morning from the garden.

Today I thought I’d share how my container plants have turned out this year.  Quite honestly, I really mostly write this blog post for myself each year.  It’s an easy way for me to go back and see what I did in previous years, what I liked and disliked.  But I hope some of you will find it interesting, or maybe get inspired for your own pots for next year.

So let’s get started with the two pairs of pots on our deck.  There is a taller pair that flank the stairs, and a shorter pair that sit on either side of the door.

Some of you may remember that last year I put Alberta Spruce spirals in these pots …

I was hoping to be able to overwinter those in place, but that didn’t work out.

So I pulled them out and replaced them with Eugenia pyramids underplanted with more variegated ivy.  I also added some creeping wooly thyme alternating with the ivy.

I have a couple of other Eugenia topiaries that I’ve saved over several winters now by bringing them inside as a house plant …

so I plan to do the same with these pyramids.

I love the classic simplicity of this look.  I also love that these pots are super low maintenance.  Since we’ve had plenty of rain so far this summer, I’ve only had to water them a handful of times and otherwise I do nothing with them.

As for the pair of planters flanking the door, this year I decided to fill them with mostly perennials.

On the left is a Blueberry Muffin hosta, at the back is a Rex begonia, in front is a Midnight Rose heuchera, and on the right is the White Licorice helichrysum from Prover Winners (this last one is an annual).

This is also a very low maintenance option for a planter.  I have had to cut back the helichrysum a couple of times to encourage it to fill out a little.  I’ve also had to cut off the hosta flowers when they were spent, but that’s about it.

I plan to move the perennials out into the garden in early September and replace them with a fall combo of some kind.

All four of these planters are on (or near) our deck, which is pretty shady these days.  I had to give up planting flowering annuals that require full sun here because they just don’t perform well for me.

Luckily, I like combinations of plants with interesting foliage like these.

By the way, if you’re noticing a lovely golden glow to my photos, that’s because we’ve been under an air quality warning for most of the past week due to Canadian wild fires.  The air quality is bad for just about everything except it makes for lovely photos.  No need to wait for ‘golden hour’.

Also, FYI, I have painted all four of the pots shown so far using Dixie Belle’s Patina Paint.  I’ve got a post coming up soon with details on this process, so stay tuned if you’re interested in that.

I don’t always go with non-flowering plants in my containers.  I like to attempt to add colorful blooms to some of them, like the ‘window boxes’ made out of old galvanized boilers on my carriage house and potting shed.

This year I planted them with Proven Winner’s Supertunia Mini Vista Indigo, Superbena Cobalt and a short annual salvia that I don’t remember the name of.

They look great in the planter on the carriage house, but the one on the potting shed gets less sun.

Less sun definitely equals less flowers with these plants.  I need to remember this for next year.

I also like to use some flowering plants in the trio of planters that are placed in my shade garden.

Once again, these planters are in what would be considered ‘full shade’ (less than 4 hours of direct sunlight per day).  So I try to choose flowering plants that like the shade.  In this case I’ve used an old favorite, Proven Winners® Double Impatiens Rockapulco Appleblossom.

The flowers look like miniature roses to me, and they are the prettiest delicate shade of pale pink.

I also added some of the Proven Winner’s Diamond Snow euphorbia.

In past years I’ve used the Diamond Frost euphorbia in shade planters and it has performed really well.  But this year I switched to the Diamond Snow because it is supposed to be more compact and not as airy as the Diamond Frost (check out this page for a comparison of the three euphorbias offered by Proven Winners).  Initially that was definitely true, and I really liked the Diamond Snow, but now it has sent out new foliage that is taller than the original plant, and has much fewer flowers.

It really looks rather odd now.  I may try cutting it back and then waiting to see what happens.

I also popped some caladium in these shade planters, but they aren’t performing at all for me this year.

They’ve barely put on any new growth and are hardly even peeking out from behind those impatiens and euphorbia.

One of these days I will realize that we just don’t have the hot, steamy climate here that caladiums love.  Sure, we get a handful of hot, steamy days, but it’s not the norm for us.  This summer in particular has just not been hot enough for the caladium to thrive.

The same can be said for the white caladium that I put in the front window box.

It has been totally overtaken by the Rex begonias.  In fact, when I’m done writing this blog post I’m going to pull them out of there and find another spot for them.

That brings me to the front window box.

It is a monster this year!

I started out by putting the two Rex begonias that I saved over the winter in the center (along with those two caladium that you can’t even see now).

All of the other plants were chosen to play well with the begonias.

I added two dark sweet potato vines at either end.

I then planted an Angel Wings senecio next to those, which created a fantastic contrast.

I filled in between with Icicles licorice plant, and more of the White Licorice helichrysum that I also used in the pots on the deck.

 There are also a couple of coleus in there, and some dark purple oxalis that you can’t see anymore either.

Overall I’m happy with how the front box turned out this year.  I’m definitely going to save the Rex begonia again this winter.  I may change things up next year and put them in the shade garden planters instead, and then come up with something entirely new for the front.

But that’s a long way off, so for now I’m just going to enjoy how it looks this year.

Now, how about you?  Do you have good luck with caladium where you are?  Have you ever tried using perennials in your containers instead of annuals?  And what are your thoughts on choosing plants for their foliage rather than flowers?  Leave a comment and let me  know!