This stepping stone is beautiful. While it is heartbreaking to break a treasured tea cup from your collection, all is not lost!
Click here to go to the tutorial.
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Tea Cup Mosaic Stepping Stone
This stepping stone is beautiful. While it is heartbreaking to break a treasured tea cup from your collection, all is not lost!
Click here to go to the tutorial.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Awesome Succulent Ideas
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Inspiration from Brenda's Patio
It has been years and years since I've followed Brenda's life adventures through her blog, Cozy Little House. She and her precious dogs went from a large house in Texas with a gorgeous yard with babbling brooks and waterfalls, to a small house in Oklahoma and finally has settled in her tiny apartment in Oklahoma.
The photo is from her latest blog post about entertaining outdoors. Click here to go to the post and get a look at the rest of her impressive patio garden.
Her patio garden is a run of the mill apartment concrete patio. She has used her imagination and turned it into a very impressive, peaceful place. She takes container gardening to a new dimension. I want that gazebo!
Hope you draw some inspiration from Brenda! If she can create a paradise from a concrete floor, those of us with a real yard can create a beautiful and peaceful place too :) Check out the rest of her blog for great home dec ideas for indoors too.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
The Summer Garden
Summer gardening can be totally overwhelming!
Experienced gardeners have come up with many tips and tricks to make it less overwhelming and more enjoyable. One of those tips is setting aside 15 minutes a day . . . a concept I like to use for any task. I've found that once you get in the habit of doing something every day, it becomes routine and actually extends beyond the 15 minutes.
One gardening blog, Tenth Acre Farm, has laid out an excellent plan as a guide to June gardening which most tasks are also good for the whole summer. Check it out here. Awesome blog!
Happy Gardening!
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Flowering Perennials
Bursts of color all over the garden can be a spectacular and soothing sight. One of my favorite things to do is color-coordinate sections.
Click here for an article on Flowering Perennials from Better Homes and Gardens. Plan for continuous color by mixing perennials and annuals. It is fun to experiment!
Happy Gardening!
More Gardening Tips and Tricks
One of the things that I love about the internet is gardening benefits through other gardeners sharing their tips and tricks through their blogs.
Today I ran across an excellent article with some great photos for vegetable gardening inspiration, along with tips and tricks that you may find useful.
Click here for the article from Live, Laugh, Farm.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Sago Palm Outdoor Care
The photo is from my paradise before a few harsh winters wiped out the landscape. My beloved sago palm is at the bottom left of the photo. It was killed by an infestation that hit Florida hard. Love sago palms!
Click here for a excellent article on the sago palm that grows in zones 8 through 10.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Upcycled Container Gardens, Planters and Vases
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Quick Gardening Tips
Tomato Plants: 10 Gardener Mistakes
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Natural Ways to Combat Aphids
Finding an infestation of aphids on one of your favorite plants is not something you want to see in the garden.
One of the tricks I learned to combat aphids is to keep the leaves clean, even if it is just a routine spray of water. Once you experience aphids, you don't want to go there again.
Frugal Family Home has an excellent post on aphids that is very informative on all aspects of these pests. Click here to go to the article.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Prune tomato plants for a healthy productive crop
Friday, June 10, 2016
DIY Concrete Countertop For Your Outdoor Kitchen
Concrete is a durable and inexpensive solution to your outdoor kitchen countertops.
I've worked with concrete on many outdoor projects for decades and many of them are still intact and functional. In addition, concrete was fun to work with and once I started, it was so addicting that I kept thinking of new projects to work on. Try it!
Click here for an excellent article on creating a concrete countertop for your outdoor kitchen.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Beginners Guide to Succulents
Succulents seem to be all the rage . . . I'm seeing them everywhere! I've always loved hens and chicks, but I have not had luck growing them.
They are perfect plants for container gardening and so cute.
Click here for a beginners guide to growing these little beauties. I'll be updating this post as I find more links.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Blue Plumbago: How to grow
Before an unusually brutal winter wiped out most of my paradise, my blue plumbago stood out like a shining gem. It was started from a cutting from my mother-in-law's garden, like most of my other plants. The cutting grew into a beautiful bush that always had butterflies hovering around it.
When we get our paradise beautiful and thriving again, the blue plumbago for sure will be prominent in the garden again.
I highly recommend this beautiful bush for your landscape.
Click here for an excellent article from Plant Care Today on growing these beauties.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Homemade Mosaic Planter
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Grow a Lemon Tree in a Container
Want to know the secrets of one gardener who grows lemon trees in containers? Click here.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Start lettuce from seed
Every year I say I'd like to grow my own lettuce from seed, but never get around to it. I was reminded again by an article on the Birds and Blooms website.
Growing from seed really takes little effort. You just need the right place to get them going
Click here for the article from Birds and Blooms . . . the photo source is from that article.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Creative Ways to Grow Herbs
I love growing herbs close to the kitchen. In fact, they are beautiful grown indoors.
Container gardening is my preferred method of gardening since the plants are portable and can be moved from outdoors to indoors.
Click here to go to an article from The Empress of Dirt on being creative growing those herbs.
Photo source is also The Empress of Dirt.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Christmas Cactus Care
It has been years since I have tried to successfully grow a Christmas Cactus. Back in my first days of growing houseplants when I first moved out on my own, I didn't bother to do my research. I'd just buy a Christmas Cactus and eventually kill it. I treated it the same as all of my other houseplants.
When I found the following articles, they peaked my interest in trying to grow Christmas Cactus again. If you are also an amateur at growing these beautiful plants, check out the following articles.
Click here for the article from WikiHow, How to Care for a Christmas Cactus.
Click here for Secrets to Getting Your Christmas Cactus to Bloom.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Common Gardening Mistakes
Mistakes . . . we all make them! We are not aware of some mistakes.
I ran across an excellent article on common gardening mistakes that all gardeners should read. Some I was not aware of and through the years, I have done a ton of gardening research. You never stop learning!
Click here to go to the very informative article 15 Common Gardening Mistakes Everyone Makes.
Some things to keep in mind . . .
Through my years of gardening in moderate zone 9 climate, the "rules" for winter depend on the weather. It is not a bad idea to push the limits and experiment in certain climates. For example, my best success in propagating hibiscus was during the winter when the temperatures were consistently in the 70s. For one thing, I broke the cardinal rule of not hard pruning during the winter months.
The experiment was a monumental success and I had a record number of hibiscus ready to plant in the spring and had enough to give away to other gardeners who were happy to share cuttings and surpluses of their own. You never know unless you push the limits.
The photo is a version of my garden back in 2000.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Discover Hypertufa Plant Containers
Hypertufa plant containers are so cute!
I've made lots of concrete plant containers and have heard of hypertufa, but have not yet made any. The great feature of hypertufa is less weight than concrete. I love my concrete containers, but huge containers are almost impossible to move around.
Fine Gardening (photo source) has an excellent article on hypertufa, including Peg's secrets, whose containers are shown in the photo.
Click here to go to the article.
Click here for an excellent guide to concrete and hypertufa recipes . . . great information!
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Those pesky weeds!
October is a perfect time to take care of those pests since we are out there doing seasonal maintenance. Actually, anytime is a good time to avoid the over-population of the pesky weeds.
The secret is to not let the weeds set seed. Pull them out or kill them before they have a chance to seed.
Anytime I am walking around the garden, I make sure to go out with a plastic grocery bag and pull weeds here and there as I encounter them. It is so much easier to keep them under control if you routinely pull them out as you are just wandering around.
Want to identify the weeds that grow on your property? What Weed Is It is an excellent article for starters. It includes links to other articles and publications.
Weed Management Guide for Florida Lawns is another resource for Florida gardeners as well as gardeners in all zones since it includes some great information about weeds in general.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Fabulous Stepping Stone Inspiration
Stepping stones are a quick way to add color and sometimes functionality to an area of your garden.
My favorites are the colorful mosaics like the ones in the photo.
Making your own stepping stones can be a fun experience the whole family can participate in.
Click here for an article that features 23 stepping stone projects!
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