a one year report.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

I thought this might be a good time to report back on the performance of some of the new perennials that I put in last year.

First, for those who don’t know, I garden in a zone 4b, and we had a very snowy winter last year, although not an abnormally cold one.  In fact, according to bringmethenews.com it was 0.4° warmer than average.  So I can’t blame any of my plant losses on worse than normal cold temps for my zone.  Also, for those of you from warmer climates who might think snow is bad, lots of snow cover can actually a good thing for gardens.  It insulates the plants from extreme cold, and as it melts it provides lots of spring moisture.

Speaking of spring, let’s start with the spring bulbs.  I ordered a bunch of bulbs from Longfield Gardens last year (now is the time to order if you want to put some bulbs in this fall).  Despite the deer trying to eat them all, the Darwin Hybrid Pink Impression tulips did amazingly well.

So well in fact that I ordered 100 more to plant this fall.  I also purchased a roll of green wire mesh at a garage sale earlier this summer that I can put around them to deter the deer.

The daffodils that I put in last year did great as well.

Daffodils are deer resistant, so I ordered some more to put in the spot where the deer did the most damage last year.

I didn’t have quite as much luck with some of the allium bulbs.  I planted three different types; Sphaerocephalon Drumstick, Atropurpureum and Nigrum.

The Nigrum and the Atropurpureum performed well enough, but I didn’t really love either one. That’s probably why I neglected to get any photos of them while they were blooming.

The Sphaerocephalon Drumstick was blooming a couple of weeks ago.  I ordered it based on this photo …

Isn’t that pretty?

But here’s what mine looked like …

LOL, seriously, is that pathetic or what?

It could be that they don’t get enough sun, but a little online research brings up a number of people who have commented on how these tend to flop.  I plan to move them to the cutting garden where they will get more sun, and where it won’t matter quite so much if they flop.  I’ll just cut them and use them in floral arrangements.

I admit that last year I was a little obsessed with alliums.  Not only did I plant the bulb type alliums, I also planted a couple of the herbaceous forms.  I planted one called Windy City and three of the Serendipity alliums from Proven Winners.  All are performing really well.   This one is the Windy City …

And here are the Serendipity with some Unplugged Pink salvia planted next to them (on the left).  By the way, the hummingbirds love that salvia.

In May 2022 I planted two types of clematis.  The Jackmanii is what I think of as the quintessential clematis, the basic dark purple clematis that so many people have had in their gardens for ages.  Mine bloomed quite nicely, but is still looking quite spindly.

The Roguchi on the other hand is amazing.  It has completely filled out, and is constantly loaded with flowers.

I also planted those Fire Alarm heuchera in May 2022.

And as I reported earlier this year, they barely came back in spring … and ultimately I dug them up and tossed them.

I also planted a Northern Exposure Black heuchera last year.  It’s the deep purple plant on the right below.

After a slow start in spring, it’s looking amazing right now!  The heucheras in the Northern Exposure line were specifically bred for hardiness, and are considered hardy down to zone 3 so maybe this is the type of heuchera I should stick to.  There is also a lime green version (along with a few more colors) in this series, so I may need to add that to my plant wish list.

I added some Alexander’s Great brunnera to my shade garden last year, and it was gorgeous when it bloomed in the spring.

The flowers are long gone now, but the plants are filling out nicely and I’m looking forward to even more blooms next year.

Proven Winners has a new brunnera out called ‘Queen of Hearts‘ that looks to be quite fab.  I’m thinking of searching that one out and underplanting my Limelight hydrangeas with it.

Now, I know I’ve mentioned this next plant more than once already this year, but I’m just so darn impressed with its performance.

That is a Raspberry Splash lungwort (or pulmonaria) from Monrovia.  Just look at the size of that thing!  OK, it might be hard to tell from the photo, but it’s 2′ across (I measured).  Comically, the tag says it grows to 18″ wide.  Um, mine has exceeded that by quite a bit in just one year.

However, I should also mention that I planted a 2nd one near my large fountain and it didn’t do nearly as well.  Apparently pulmonaria don’t like to be in damp soil, and that fountain does splash quite a bit.  I guess the ‘splash’ in the name isn’t literal.

Anyway, I moved that one away from the fountain and it is recovering nicely, but definitely is not as large yet.

Now for a quick lilac hedge update.  For those of you who might be new here, I have been attempting to create a lilac hedge on our back property line since 2011.  Good grief, that’s 12 years now!  Jeesh!  Do I wish I’d just gone with a Limelight hydrangea hedge?  You bet I do.  Hindsight is always 20/20.

Over the years I’ve eventually pulled out every single lilac I planted originally as they never flourished.  I really never figured out exactly what the problem was, they get plenty of sun.  I blamed it on various things; rabbit pressure in winter, overspray with lawn weed killer, delicate new hybrids, etc.  I replaced some of the plants with old fashioned common lilacs a few years back, and those are now about 10′ tall.

My plan was to do that all the way along the line, but last year I couldn’t find any common lilacs, so I planted three newer varieties on the west end of the hedge, a Yankee Doodle and two Ludwig Spaeths.

So far, so good.  They are about 4′ tall and have remained nice and full, however, they did not bloom this year.  Fingers crossed that they continue to do well because this year I planted an Albert E. Holden and a Charles Joly at the other end of the line.  I’m dreaming of the day when we have a solid 10′ hedge of lilacs back there!

Another plant that was new to me last year was Stachys moneiri ‘Hummelo‘, or you may know it as betony.

The flowers were already a little bit spent when I took that photo unfortunately.  I’d seen this plant on The Impatient Gardener’s Instagram and had to have it.  Fortuitously, my neighbor nnK had it growing in her garden and gave me a couple of chunks of it last year.  I liked it so much that I bought two more and added them this year.

Here’s a photo that I grabbed online that gives you a better idea of what the flowers look like.

I planted a few Proven Winners plants last August with mixed results.  The Pugster Amethyst butterfly bush did not come back at all.  The Magic Show Purple Illusion veronica is looking OK, but didn’t put on much of a show so far.  It may not get enough sun in my garden.

I am totally babying the Fire Light Tidbit hydrangea that I put in last year.  It struggled to get established last summer, and I’ve had to water the heck out of it this summer to keep it from wilting.  It’s starting to put on a little bit of growth, but is still really small.  Like, I’m lucky if it’s 8″ tall, small.

I seriously considered just pulling it out and getting a new one for that spot, but in the end I didn’t have the heart to do that.  So I planted some annuals around it to fill in and am hoping it will continue to perk up.

Lastly, I planted a Golden Shadows Pagoda Dogwood, also from Proven Winners, in the fern garden.

It might be a few years before it does the job I planted it for.  I want an understory tree to fill in the area under my huge maple tree, but above the ferns.  It should grow 10′ to 12′ tall and have strong horizontal branching.  It has put on a lot of new growth this year, but hasn’t gotten more than a foot or so taller.  I’m still waiting for it to pop its head out of the ferns.  Fingers crossed for next year.

So, overall I’ve had mixed results from new plants I added last year.  Some winners, some losers.  How about you?  Did you put in anything new that is really spectacular?  Leave a comment and let me know.

in a barbie world.

Published on by Quandie32 Comments

Is that Barbie movie being marketed like crazy or what?  You’d have to be living in a cave not to have noticed.  I haven’t seen the movie, mainly because I don’t go to the theatre anymore.  I’ll wait until I can stream it (and drink wine while still wearing painting clothes when watching).

I was definitely a Barbie girl growing up though.  Malibu Barbie was a favorite, I loved her tan and her long, straight hair that was so much prettier than my frizzy curls.

But Live Action Barbie definitely had my favorite outfit.

How many of you remember that one?  That outfit was awesome.

I have actually hung onto one of my Barbie’s outfits.

My grandmother knitted that for me.  It’s far more classy than the psychedelic number on Live Action Barbie.  That’s probably why it’s still in such good shape, Malibu Barbie rarely actually wore it.

But today’s post isn’t actually about Barbie, it’s a furniture makeover post.

Hallelujah, I have completed another piece of furniture!  Four more to go before the snow flies.

I picked up that hutch at a garage sale earlier this summer.  I thought it looked a bit outdated in that wood tone, with those aged brass knobs.  I knew it would be fun to give it a new lease on life.

Well, I’m not sure ‘fun’ is the right word.  These sorts of pieces can be so much work.  Especially if you’re opting to paint both the inside and the outside.  I started with removing those knobs and the decorative metal back plates behind them.  I then used some of Dixie Belle’s Mud to fill some tiny nail holes left behind by the back plates.  Then I cleaned the piece, followed by a light sanding overall, followed by a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. (again, an ounce of prevention for bleed-thru).

Then I got to work painting.  I painted the outside and the upper inside with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry I sanded lightly to distress.

I know that not everyone is a fan of distressing these days, but I still love the way it brings out the detail in something like this.  I also like that you’re not quite so worried about wear showing over time, because it’s meant to look a little worn.

And here’s where this hutch joins the Barbie world, I painted the inside of the lower portion in Dixie Belle’s Prickly Pear.

Wowza, now that is a pop of Barbie pink!

And why not have a vibrant pop of color inside?  No one will know it’s there unless they open the cabinet.

Sidebar note; our new fence is earning its keep in that photo (right side of above photo), it’s blocking the neighbor’s pickup truck from view.  It was worth every bit of blood, sweat and tears that went into putting it up.

I added re.design with prima’s Flower Collector transfer in gold inside the top portion of the cabinet.

I like that it’s very subtle in the gold on white (it also comes in black), and I know most of it will get covered up if the cabinet is full of stuff, but as I’ve learned from my own glass fronted cabinet, you can artfully arrange things to allow that background to peek through.  Especially if you’re a fan of the ‘less is more’ approach.

As you may have noticed in that photo, the shelves in this piece are adjustable.

Once the transfer was in place, I added a topcoat of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over all of the Drop Cloth and over the transfer.  The Prickly Pear interior didn’t need a topcoat since it’s the Dixie Belle Silk paint with a built in primer and top coat.

Finally, I added replacement pulls from Hobby Lobby.

I wanted something a little more updated, and a lot more gold.  Although these pulls came in ‘gold’, they weren’t quite gold enough for me.  So I added some of Dixie Belle’s Gold Gilding Wax to them to brighten them up even a bit more.

Although you could use this hutch in the traditional way, filled with china or knick knacks, I think there are so many other ways to put one of these to use.  You could use it as a linen closet, filling it with stacks of pretty towels.  You could use it as a small library, filled with books.  You could use it in the potting shed, filled with clay pots and other gardening items.  You could use it in your craft room, filled with all of your crafting supplies.  Or in the end, you could fill it up with one of your non-collections, like my matte white pottery!  The possibilities are endless.

What do you think of the transformation?

And I have to ask, do any of you have ‘I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world’ stuck in your head now?  Or it is just me?

This hutch is for sale locally, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing their products used in this makeover.

more sweet boxes.

Published on by Quandie28 Comments

I’m back with the remaining two metal boxes that I promised from last week.

As a reminder, here is the stack of boxes that my friend, opK, gave me.

I shared the end result of the largest box on the bottom of the stack last Friday (and it is sold, fyi).

Now let’s look at the middle sized box.  I have no idea what this box was originally intended for.  It has built in dividers inside that would have worked for holding a screwdriver and screws, or maybe some other sort of hardware and/or tools.  Who knows?

I have to say that initially I wasn’t sure I even wanted to bother with it because of those dividers.  They sort of limit what you can keep in the box.  But then again, they also provide a way to keep some bits and bobs organized, don’t they?

Rather than trying to paint a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. inside those little cubbies, I opted to spray paint it.  I find that spray paint also does a pretty good job of blocking stains.  I didn’t have a color of spray paint that I liked though, so after the blue spray paint was dry, I brushed over it with a custom mix of Dixie Belle’s Silk paint.

I mixed up this color a while back for another project.  I was trying to match Annie Sloan’s Scandinavian Pink, and I think I did a fairly decent job.

The outside of the box did get an initial coat of B.O.S.S. followed by two coats of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.  Then I added a few random scraps of transfers from my stash.

The florals are from the I.O.D. Floral Anthology transfer, and the wording is from their Label Ephemera transfer.

I especially love the little blue and white daisies that I put on the front of the box.

I also really like the way that this one distressed.

I think it has a very authentically aged feel.

As for the smaller box, I did give that a coat of B.O.S.S. inside and out.  Then I painted the inside in one of the colors from Dixie Belle’s new Cottage Core Collection called Cottage Door.

Isn’t that a gorgeous warm coral pink?  I love it.

After adding the bee transfer from re.design with prima’s French Labels set …

I protected the interior with a coat of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.

Next I painted the outside of the box in my favorite Drop Cloth, and then added some florals that are also from I.O.D.’s Floral Anthology transfer.

I love the way the Cottage Door color works with the those Floral Anthology blooms.

As for the top of the box, I went with a scrap of wording from an old re.design with prima transfer called Paris Valley.

The little “No. 1483” on the lid is from a Tim Holtz transfer.

This box is really a little bit wonky.  You can shut the lid, and you can maneuver the little handles up over the top, but it does take a bit of finagling.

That being said, I think I’d be tempted to just leave it ajar.

Cuz it’s awfully cute.

So … boxes before and after …

Which one is your favorite?

the August slump.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Before I get into this morning’s post, I wanted to share some disappointing garden news.

Do any of you recall the beautiful row of trees on my neighbor’s property line that I shared last fall?

I’m talking about the brilliantly colored orange/red trees (I believe they are some kind of maple) in the background of that photo (not the yellow foreground tree).  There was a line of five or six of them all the way down the property line.  And they were simply stunning in the fall.  I mentioned how much I loved seeing their fall color in a post last year.

Well, yesterday we spent the day listening to chain saws and the occasional crash as each tree came down.  And now all but one of the trees are gone.  Such a bummer.

The property they were planted on is a double-wide lot, and it was sold recently.  Apparently the empty lot itself was split off and now someone is going to build on it.

Unfortunately, this is how things can go when you don’t own 20 acres or so immediately surrounding your property.  Neighboring home owners can remove trees at will, and lots can be split up and built on if there’s room.

The loss of those trees coincides with what I like to call the August slump.  I always start to lose steam in the garden about now.  By mid-August, lots of things are starting to look a bit tired out.  The peonies are getting powdery mildew, the lawn is dried out, the trailing verbena is getting leggy and those darn Japanese beetles are going full throttle.

I’ve been attempting to grow hollyhocks successfully for years, and this was the first year that I got one to actually bloom.

It looked great last month, but little did I know that Japanese beetles LOVE hollyhocks!

I have had to go out and knock dozens of beetles off the plant into a bucket of soapy water in the last couple of weeks.  I finally gave up the other day and just pulled out the entire plant.  I’ve decided the hollyhocks just aren’t going to work for me.

That has pretty much been my strategy for dealing with Japanese beetles, pull out the plants they love.  So far I’ve pulled Virginia creeper, roses, and a wild grapevine out of my garden, and now a hollyhock.  I’m just hoping they won’t go for my crab apple next.

I’m sure some of you have also experienced a garden slump now and then, and one way to motivate yourself to get back out there is to get inspired by others.  So as requested by a couple of you, here’s a list of some of my favorite garden vloggers on YouTube.

First up, of course, is Garden Answer.  Seeing as they have 1.78 million (yes, million!) subscribers, I’m guessing that many of you have already heard of this one.

Without a doubt, this is the vlog I watch the most.  Probably because they post a new video every day!  When you have 1.78 million viewers, and your vlog is the full time job of husband and wife, and several full or part-time employees, you can pump out enough content to post every day.

I really enjoy Laura’s vlogging style, and her gardening style.  I learn a lot about new varieties of plants from watching this vlog.  I also get ideas for plant combinations that might work for me.  I do admit that watching the massive, and very pricey, projects they undertake may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  They recently added a gorgeous pond to their property that would cost at least $80,000 or more (although it sounds like most of the parts and labor were gifted to them).  And I can’t even imagine how much their Hartley greenhouse cost.   Even some of their ‘smaller’ projects, like adding a row of gorgeous concrete urns that probably cost around $1,000 each are out of reach for most of us.

So if you can’t look past that sort of thing, this might not be the right garden vlog for you.

Instead I’d like to recommend the next garden vlog on my list, The Impatient Gardener.

Erin’s garden is much more realistic for most of us, as is her lifestyle.  She has a day job, she does all of her gardening herself on evenings and weekends with only occasional help from her husband, or as she likes to call him “Mr. Much More Patient”, and while she does get some promotional items free, most of her garden projects would be within the realm of possibility for the average person.  I also like that she is in Wisconsin in a zone 5b, not quite my own zone 4b, but not too far off.

That brings me to my next vlog, Wyse Guide.

Kaleb has taken over his grandparent’s farmhouse where he gardens right next to cornfields in Iowa.  In addition to gardening, he also includes baking, cooking and other lifestyle content on his vlog.  As you may know, I don’t really cook, but I’m tempted to try some of his simple recipes.

I also like that he gardens on what is a much more realistic level for most of us.  His garden style leans a little bit more modern (think succulents, agave, and native plantings) than mine, but he also focuses more on foliage than flowers, which I can relate to.

I would consider those my top three garden vlogs, but there are a couple of others that I watch on occasion starting with Gardening with Creekside.

Jenny and her husband own a garden center in North Carolina.  Probably the main reason I don’t watch her as much as some of the others is because she grows quite a few things that won’t grow in my zone.  That being said, she gives lots of practical advice.  I learned what a hori hori garden knife is from her, and now it’s one of my most used garden tools.

I also occasionally check in with The Southerner’s Northern Garden, mainly because he loves hydrangeas as much as I do.

I have to chuckle a little bit over this one because he calls his a ‘northern garden’, but he gardens in southwest Ohio in zone 6 … so not quite as northern as my own garden.

He recently moved to a new house and left behind his established garden, so he is starting over from scratch.  I think it will be interesting to watch his progress and see what he does with a blank slate.

So, if you feel like you’re in a bit of an August garden slump, check out a few of these vloggers and see if they can’t motivate you to get back out there.

And if you have some favorite gardening channels on YouTube, please share them in a comment.  I could use some more inspiration to help get me out of the August slump myself!

everything’s coming up roses.

Published on by Quandie13 Comments

Recently my friend, opK (that’s oar painting Karen) offered me a stack of metal boxes.

Before I got started making them pretty, I gave them all a good cleaning with some Dawn dish soap and the garden hose.  Then I let them dry in the sun, and followed that up with a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. inside and out.  I like to use the B.O.S.S. to reduce the chances that any rusty spots will seep through my paint job.

I decided to paint them all in different colors, which required the use of a lot of paint stir sticks and brushes.  At one point I had six different paint brushes going, lucky I have a lot of brushes.

I started with the largest box.  I painted the inside in Dixie Belle’s Silk Paint in Fiery Sky.

Then I painted the outside in DB’s Sawmill Gravy.  I’d used this combo on a toolbox once before and really liked it, so I thought I’d do it again.

I also already knew I wanted to use I.O.D.’s Redouté II transfer on the outside, so the Fiery Sky was going to be the perfect compliment.

In case you aren’t familiar, Pierre-Joseph Redouté was very famous for botanical paintings, especially those of roses.  I bet that back in the 90’s quite a few of us shabby chic lovers had a Redouté print or two hanging on the wall, I know I did.

I picked up this transfer recently at a brick and mortar shop that’s not terribly far from me called Liza Jane Designs (in Afton, MN).  I thought I’d share her info for any of my local readers who use I.O.D. products because she had a pretty much complete inventory of everything (which I think can be rare in a brick and mortar); transfers, paint inlays, molds, stamps and ink .

This particular transfer is an older release from 2021, but I’d never used it before.  It comes with 8 full pages of roses, so I’m sure I’ll get a number of projects out of it.

I added a small Tim Holtz number transfer to the latch on the front of the toolbox.

I love adding small details like that, and like the bee under the handle (from re.design with prima’s French Labels transfer, which has plenty of bees, FYI).

As per usual, I wrapped the roses around the sides of the toolbox too.

And speaking of wrapping, I’m just wrapping up the finishing touches on the other two boxes and I’ll be sharing those next week.  So be sure to stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, how do you like this rosy makeover?

This toolbox is available for sale locally (details can be found here).

Thank you Dixie Belle Paint Co. for providing the B.O.S.S., paint and flat clear coat used on this project.

far from faultless.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

I suspect that not too many of us actually enjoy doing laundry, am I right?

Sorting, shoving things into the machines, realizing after washing that you left a kleenex in a pocket, drying, folding and then putting away.  Not exactly fun times.

But I have to admit that I actually do enjoy the process of laundering vintage linens.

They are so lovely to handle, and there’s something so satisfying about a crisp stack of freshly laundered and pressed white linens.

You may remember that I purchased a few vintage pillowcases at the Fridley garage sales earlier this summer.

After I took them out of the ziploc bags that they came in and inspected them a bit more closely, I found that they needed to be whitened up, and a couple of them also needed a bit of mending.  So I thought I’d share that process with you.

The first step for me is to soak them in some OxiClean, or in this case, a generic oxi-based cleaner from Target.

I usually soak them for at least a few hours, or even overnight.

Then, after removing them from their oxi bath, I wash them on the gentle setting in my washing machine.  Except for the more fragile ones, those just get rinsed by hand in the sink.

Next, I hang them on the line in the sun for a full day to get a little natural, non-chemical bleaching.

I have an ancient clothesline that is attached to the carriage house on one end with some serious looking hooks.

  It has probably been there forever, it was there when we moved in 34 years ago.  I wonder how many generations of laundry have been hung out to dry on that line?

Once they’ve had their day in the sun, I like to press old linens using starch.

I have a sneaking suspicion that very few people iron with starch anymore.  The last time I ran out I had a difficult time even finding it in the shops.  Comically enough, I came across two full cans of Faultless premium starch at an estate sale a while back for $1 each, so I snatched them up.  I’m fairly certain they’d never even been used.

You get a fabulously crisp result using starch.  In fact, I suspect that these vintage linens were originally meant to be starched.

I wish I could say that I press my linens outside in the garden on a pretty wooden ironing board while bluebirds sing in the trees nearby …

But that’s just for photo shoots.

I actually iron in my creepy, spidery, damp, very much non-blog worthy basement.  Maybe I need to rethink that?  Now I’m regretting all of the fabulous vintage wooden ironing boards that I’ve sold over the years.

The next time I see one I should snag it and then keep it handy in the carriage house, or maybe even the potting shed, for outdoor ironing.

Anyway, back to the starching.  This is usually the step where I find out that my vintage linens are far from faultless.  As I’m laying them out on the ironing board and pressing out each wrinkle, I find all of the flaws that I didn’t notice before.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m not much of a seamstress, despite my mom’s best efforts at teaching me to sew.  But I can manage a little simple mending with a needle and thread.

Does the fact that the needle packaging says “West Germany” give you an idea of how old those needles are?  I’m sure I purchased those at a garage/estate sale too.

This repair didn’t take much effort, and was easily accomplished while watching my favorite gardeners on YouTube.

My repair job isn’t quite faultless either, but it will do the job.

The amount of work that went into some of these pillowcases is quite amazing.

Sadly, some of them are just too far gone for my simple mending skills though.

Such is the case with the pillow case that I was using on the wicker chaise that used to be my front porch.

The work on this one is so beautiful, just check out the detailed embroidery on that monogram …

and that floral border.  And the cutwork is painstakingly detailed.

Living on the three-season porch for over a decade had really done a number on it though.  The fabric itself was deteriorating and basically shredding in some spots.

And unfortunately, even just a gentle soak weakened the fabric so much that when I hung it on the line it totally fell apart.

So sad.  I did get years of enjoyment out of it before this happened though, so I’ll console myself by remembering that.

If any of you locals are looking for some lovely vintage pillowcases, I took a few of these in to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater last week.

I priced them low, ranging from $12/pair to $18/pair for the prettiest ones, so be sure to head down there soon!

 

the shade garden.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

We had a bit of rain last week, and when it stopped and the sun came out in the evening, the shade garden was looking particularly lush.  So I thought it would be the perfect time to get some pictures to put together a little tour of this area for you guys.

Let me explain the layout a little bit.  Our gravel driveway runs along the east side of our house and goes to the carriage house which is all the way back at the southeast corner of our lot.  The shade garden sits between the driveway and the house, and pretty much runs the entire length of the house.

OK, now the basics.  I garden in zone 4b in the Twin Cities (for those who don’t already know).  This garden ranges from part shade on either end to full shade in the middle.  It’s shaded by two huge maple trees on the other side of the driveway, and a couple of ancient pine trees down the middle of the garden.

This particular garden is definitely the one that gets the most attention from me.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  First of all, I much prefer working in the shade over working in the hot sun.  It’s so much cooler.  So I find myself wanting to spend more time weeding there.  Second, it’s very visible from inside the house.  Most of our windows look out to this side of the house including our large picture window in the piano room.

So we get to enjoy this garden from inside the house as well as outside.

We never could get grass to grow in the area between the shade garden and the house, although we tried for years.  It’s a fairly high traffic area because our spigot is just next to where you see the watering can on the chair on the left.  We eventually gave up on grass and put in the flagstone.  Ironically, when we started digging up what grass was there, we found a layer of sand under it.  So at some point in the past, this area must have been paved in some fashion.  No wonder we couldn’t get any grass to grow!

I’ve always wanted to extend the flagstone all the way down, and then create a path to the front door as well, but um, yeah, that’s probably never going to happen.  There are too many other things ahead of that on the wish list.

The fountain that you can see down at the end has been located in a couple of different spots since we purchased it, but I like this one the best.

My garage sale statue, Cossetta, sits in the middle of the shade garden.

She’s actually quite tall, but so are the plants surrounding her.  There is a fern around her base, and some fairy candles (a.k.a. Black Cohosh, Black Snakeroot, Black Bugbane or Cimicifuga racemosa) behind her.  Those fairy candle flowers are taller than me.  I think the way Cossetta emerges from the foliage looks rather magical.

This garden is full of shade loving plants.  Some of my favorites (other than hostas, which are a given) include tiarella, or foam flower …

Japanese painted fern …

Maidenhair fern …

Canadian wild ginger …

and fernleaf bleeding heart (this one continues to bloom for most of the season, and doesn’t start dying back this time of year like the other bleeding hearts).

All of these make great companions for hostas.

Speaking of hostas, my neighbor nnK’s mom, Judy, gave me three Curly Fries hostas as a thank you for helping in her garden earlier this summer.  I planted them in a triangle in front of the wrought iron bench that came from handyman Ken and his wife, Arlene.

Aren’t they fun?  Their texture contrasts perfectly with the large blue hosta behind them.

I’m trying to follow a new rule in my garden, and that is to plant at least three, if not five, of a single type of plant.  Planting in groupings of odd numbers like this feels more natural and harmonious than having lots of single specimen plants dotted around.

I have definitely not always followed this rule!  I mean, let’s face it, it’s 3x more expensive to buy three of a particular plant rather than just one.  But, I’ve been working on dividing existing plants into groupings, and whenever I add something new I try to add more than one.

That being said, I definitely still have some single specimen plants like these hostas.

That is a Guacamole on the left, and a Lakeside Dragonfly on the right.

The Sun Power hosta packs a big punch with it’s bright color, so I think it can stand alone as well.

It’s flanked by two June hostas, and that yellow blooming plant in front is a freely self-seeding Corydalis lutea.  It pops up all over the place, but it’s also quite easy to pull out if it shows up somewhere that you don’t want it.

Something that I’ve been experimenting with a bit more this year is interspersing some annuals in with my perennials, usually to fill in a space where a neighboring perennial won’t reach full size for a couple of years.  I pulled out some bleeding heart last year and after popping in three of the budget heuchera ($5 each!) that I found in the clearance aisle at my local nursery this spring, I also added in some King coleus to fill up the space.

It has created a gorgeous swath of colorful foliage.

Another good way to fill up some empty space is to place pots right in the garden.

My ‘Sun King’ aralia will eventually fill in this whole corner, but in the meantime a couple of my rusty pots filled with caladium look pretty here.

By the way, have I mentioned that I prefer my gardens to be jam packed with plants?  It really cuts down on weeding.

There can be some issues with plants that are crowded in like this, they are competing for water and nutrients and there is a greater risk of disease and insect pressure.  But personally, I think it’s worth the risk.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my shade garden.  If you have any questions about particular plants, be sure to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.  Otherwise, I’m heading out to enjoy a cup of coffee in the shade garden!

both moral and intellectual gratification.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

My neighbor nnK spotted this headboard at the curb with a ‘free’ sign on it sometime last summer.

She came and picked me up, and we went back for it (she couldn’t load it by herself).

I had initially hoped that my handyman Ken would be willing to turn it into a bench for me, but he wasn’t up for it this time around.  If there had been a matching footboard to cut in half and use to create the arms, he would have done it.  But without the footboard, he just didn’t want to tackle the project.

So, it sat in my carriage house all fall, and winter, and spring … and I finally pulled it out to get started on it the other day.

At first I was planning to just simply paint it black.  After all, I’ve done a couple of these spoon carved beds in the past in black …

and they were pretty quick sales.

But before I could get started painting it, I needed to sand it.  It had a lot of flaking varnish and I needed to get rid of that first.

As I was sanding it, I seriously considered doing a ‘raw wood’ sort of finish on it.  It really would have been pretty fab with the finish stripped and then a coat of clear wax.  But honestly, I just couldn’t make myself do it.  I’m not a fan of stripping, and after sanding on it for quite some time, I realized it would require the use of a stripper to get all of those spoon carved details clean.

In the end, what I really wanted to do was paint it in Drop Cloth and add I.O.D.’s The Botanist transfer to it.  I was hesitating because I just don’t know if it will sell this way.  But I decided to just go for it.

After cleaning up the dust from sanding it, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. first.  I have definitely learned over the years that it’s so much easier to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to bleed-thru.

Next up, two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

After that had dried for several days (while I painted the back of the house), I applied the transfer.

Isn’t that just pretty as a picture.  So sweet.

Maybe too sweet for some?  That’s what I’m worried about.

But I love it.

After the transfer was in place, I sanded lightly to distress this piece and then finished it with a coat of clear wax.

The transfer may seem like it’s placed too high on the headboard in my photos, but I think once you’ve got a box spring and mattress in front of it, with a nice stack of fluffy pillows, it will be just right.  And your pillows won’t hide the design.

Sidebar comment; just check out the tatting on that pillowcase.

Can you imagine how long it took to do that?

OK, back to the bed.  In case it’s not apparent in the photos so far, I should point out that this headboard is TALL at 6′.  It will definitely make a statement in any room.

As I’ve mentioned a few times before here on the blog, antique beds don’t come in sizes larger than a full.  They didn’t start making queens and kings until after WWII, and they didn’t become popular until the late 50’s to early 60’s.

So this headboard is technically for a full (or double) sized bed.  However, I’ve modified it to also fit a queen mattress.  We did this with our own bed, and it works out great.  You can find all of those details here.

But basically, with Ken’s help I’ve added a 60″ board along the bottom of the headboard.  It is pre-drilled so that one can bolt the metal frame to the board using the brackets on the metal frame.

The metal frame (that will be included with the bed) can be adjusted for a queen, full or twin sized box spring and mattress.

One could easily switch this back to a double sized bed by removing the board (it’s held on with screws) and bolting the metal frame right to the legs of the headboard.  You could also technically turn this into a twin bed by drilling new holes into that board, but I don’t think it would look quite right with so much ‘extra’ headboard.

When it comes to selling these antique beds, I’m always asked “is it sturdy?”  Well, in this case all of the weight of the box spring, mattress and sleeping people is carried by that modern metal frame.  The headboard is purely decorative.  Attaching it to the metal frame will allow it to stand up, but it won’t completely eliminate any wobble.  For example, if one were to be jumping on the bed (or, um, well, you know what I mean), it will make that headboard bounce.  But it shouldn’t come crashing down or anything, unless you’re some kind of a gymnast, and then all bets are off.

I always try to read the wording on transfers like this one, just to make sure they don’t say anything odd.

I had to laugh when I got to the part about descriptions that were ‘intended to convey both moral and intellectual gratification’.  I’m really wondering what the moral implications of ornamental plants might be.

I don’t know about moral or intellectual, but I definitely got a lot of some kind of gratification out of making over this curbside find.

Not bad for free at the curb, right?

This bed is for sale, so be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page if interested in the details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the B.O.S.S. and the paint used for this makeover.

home improvement.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

Well, shucks.  I’m continuing to work on long overdue maintenance projects at our house, which means that once again this week I don’t have any blog fodder to speak of.

But I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing, just for the heck of it.

First up, I decided to clean up our curb appeal.

We have a small … porch? … stoop? … deck? … step? … not sure what to call it, at the front door of our three season porch.  It’s really just a simple box with decking boards on top that sits on the ground.

To be honest, I’m not sure we’ve ever cleaned the decking.  Surely we must have done it once or twice in the 30+ years we’ve lived here, right?  But I don’t recall when.  Clearly it has been a long time.

  LOL, seriously you guys.  I should probably be embarrassed to even show that.  But just look at the amazing difference a little pressure washing can make!

After a good washing, I repainted the sides in our house color and then added the same sealer to the top that we used on our deck earlier this summer.

So far I’m impressed with the way this is working on the deck, it adds some protection from the weather without changing the natural look of the wood much.  It also soaks into the wood rather than sitting on top of it, so it won’t peel off.

It had rained overnight when I took that photo, so ignore the puddling water on two of the boards.  But truly, I can’t believe what good shape those boards are still in after 35 years.  I’m not sure that you can even get boards that thick and wide anymore.

As you can see, I also painted the front door in my new outdoor green accent color that I’m calling English Green.

Next to the small porch, stoop, step thingie is a Limelight hydrangea that has been there for I suppose about 10 years or so.  It’s really outgrown the space, but I can’t bear to pull it out so instead I give it a massive pruning every spring.  This year I decided to also limb it up from the ground to make it look more like a standard.

That revealed a bunch of space underneath for a new garden.

I tried to fill it in without having to purchase any new plants.  I divided a Guacamole hosta and a May hosta from other areas and put them in here.  I moved some Chocolate Snakeroot from another garden, and also pulled some heuchera from another spot.  The bright green lamium was already growing under the hydrangea.  The only new plant is the taller hosta in the corner (left in above photo), which is a Krossa Regal.

Here’s the front of the house, all spruced up.

Some of you with eagle eyes may have noticed that I’ve made a change or two to the front window box since I last posted about it.  I pulled out the coral colored begonias and replaced them with a white caladium.  The color of those begonias was all wrong with the rest of the deep pinks in that area, plus they were getting totally swallowed up by the other plants.

The caladium is at least holding its own.

With the front of the house looking pretty good, I turned my attention to the back.

We had a lot of peeling paint on the south facing back side of our house.  Repainting it was on our to-do list last summer and we never got around to it.  So I was determined to make it a priority this year.

As I’m sure many of you know, it’s not the painting itself that’s difficult, it’s the prep work.

Ugh!  There was a fair bit of time spent scraping that peeling paint.

I decided it would be easier to break the job down into sections that wouldn’t be too overwhelming.  So for now, I’ve completed the back wall …

And it looks amazing!  Such an improvement.  It has inspired me to keep going, so I plan to get another section of the house done yet this summer, and possibly also the potting shed.  We’ll see how that goes.

In the meantime, I’m stepping away from home improvement for a bit to finish up not just one, but two pieces of furniture.  So be sure to stay tuned for those!

hosta flowers, yes or no?

Published on by Quandie29 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Today I thought I’d ask you all the question, ‘hosta flowers, yes or no?’

In the past I’ve mentioned that I tend to cut the flowers off my hostas as soon as they appear.  But that’s partly because I have 500 (small exaggeration) of this old variegated variety of hosta in my garden …

and it has tall, spindly flower stalks with tiny lavender flowers on them.  You can see a couple of stragglers that I missed clipping in that photo.

If I just let them go, they look really messy and chaotic to me.  So, I have always trimmed them off.

In fact, in the past I’ve tended to remove the flowers from almost all of the hostas in my garden.

But this year it seems like the flowers on quite a few of them are really looking good.

Rather than having spindly flowers poking out in every direction, they have nice full clumps coming from the center of the plant.

Maybe it’s because they didn’t suffer any hail damage this spring.  Or maybe it’s because I top-dressed a lot of them with compost this year.  Or maybe it’s because I have been very diligent about keeping them watered.  We’ve had a very dry summer so far, currently we are experiencing what is considered a moderate to severe drought, so I’ve been doing a lot of watering.

Or maybe it’s just that I’ve never let them reach their full glory before!

Whatever the reason, this year I’ve decided that some of the hosta flowers deserve a spot in the garden.  In fact, I was standing over at nnK’s house across the street the other evening, and I noticed that from a distance it looks like my garden is full of purple blooms right now, and that’s not a bad thing.

One of the most prolific bloomers at the moment is this one …

This is a hosta that originally came to me from my friend Sue, and I’m fairly sure it’s called Golden Tiara.  Over the years, with lots of splitting here and there, I now have at least a dozen of them.

Another that’s full of flowers right now is this one.

I’ve got it tucked in between some Golden Tiara hostas on the right, and that glorious Raspberry Splash pulmonaria on the left.  I have no idea what this one is called, it’s similar in size to the Golden Tiara but is solid lime green.

Most of my hostas have pale purple flowers, but I do have a couple that get white flowers.

Wouldn’t that be a pretty addition to an all white blooming shade garden?

This next one starts out with pale lavender buds that fade to white as they open.

Not all hostas bloom at the same time.  I have several borders of a plain green hosta (also gifted by my friend Sue) that aren’t showing any signs of blooming yet.

In fact, oddly enough, although I’ve had these for years, I can’t even recall what their flowers even look like.  Clearly I don’t grow this variety for the blooms.  Instead, they make a great edging plant for a perennial border.  In fact, I just dug up two of them, divided the pair into 10 plants (yes, 10!, five each) and replanted them as a border under my Limelight hydrangeas.

They don’t look like much right now, but they will fill in quickly and create a solid border.

And speaking of hostas that aren’t blooming yet, one of my readers, Annie O, gifted me with a Royal Standard hosta that she says gets beautiful, and highly scented, white flowers.  But it’s also one that hasn’t bloomed yet (on left).

As is the Shadowland Autumn Frost hosta to the right of it.

I’ve done a little research and as far as I can tell, it does not harm your hosta in any way to remove the flower stalks before they open.  And you should definitely remove them after the flowers fade to reduce the amount of energy the plant spends on producing seed.  It can then devote that energy to growing more roots and foliage instead.

So I’m curious, do you whack the flowers off your hostas right away?  Or do you leave them until the flowers are done?  Do you have a particular hosta that you grow for its spectacular flowers, or do you pick hostas for their foliage alone?

Leave a comment and let me know.