Summer and Fall Recap

Journal Entry No.7
A long hiatus

I feel perfectly awful neglecting my blog! But to be fair, this past year I spent far less time in my garden and twice as much time trying to do things for the house. Even now I'm "housebound", we're currently faced with a possible leak/condensation problem, and with the prospect of more rain on the horizon I feel my anxiety growing. Usually I take this time to start planning out the new garden goals for the year. I hit none of my goals last year. At all. It's amazing I managed to rake up the leaves in the fall. 

Our personal lives took a hit late last winter, hubs got laid off and things were intense for several months. We are okay right now (touch wood) but our priorities changed. There were fewer leisurely pursuits between us and the focus shifted on that which had to be done versus things that could be deferred to a later date. Oh, how I wish I had done several things in the garden. For starters, not trying to be shady, but I really want a privacy wall built around the deck. Our neighbors had their deck renovated and it now sits above fence level so we have zero privacy. I'm sure it's awkward for them, too, but I find I'm less inclined to spend anytime on my deck because it now feels like a performing arts stage. And their kids are small and want to talk to me when they see me and well, damnit I just like to be left alone sometimes. The backyard is an oasis. A retreat. But last year it felt different. The plan is to erect either a trellis attached to the deck, or a hedge row tall enough to obscure the view of our deck. The hindrance here is that if I do put in some cypress or the like, it will block any sun from reaching one of my only sun beds. There is much problem solving to be done in regards to the deck...Which is aging terribly, hubs did his best to "rejuvenate" it but it already looks like shriveled up driftwood again. I just don't have the funds to replace the deck this year, or probably the next six years.

The other major undertaking was that I was supposed to overhaul the side garden. I have to take out the ninebark, and level off the garden bed, replacing it with a concrete pad. I have a fierce goutweed problem. I'm told the only way out is to tarp it, but half the neighborhood is covered in this crap. We tried tarping for two years and all it takes is one rogue goutweed and it explodes. Last year was truly exceptional, we have never had so much rain before, and apparently it was perfect for the weeds. I tried to get out and weed whack but it was overwhelming. My garden looked atrocious. It really made me long for the flat, empty, uninspired backyard we had in our first rental. One day I'm going to have a blank slate for a garden where I can plant whatever I desire and hopefully won't have to contend with seventy varieties of weed (we live near a naturalized woodlot so a lot of weirdness spills into my garden and it's near impossible to control).

One thing I can say I mastered last year was the memorial garden for my late friend. Honestly, every garden in my backyard is a memorial garden, it's beginning to look more like a cemetery every day! The goth in me is proud. :) I think memorial gardens are a beautiful expression of love and I'm not planning on stopping them anytime soon! It's a great way to focus one's attention, too, you can't ignore a memorial garden! This wasn't a planned project, it just felt like the right time. You see, we had this sad, scraggly little side garden bed that had been long neglected. In fact, I believe when I moved in the only plants in the bed were yellow tulips and I think that might have been due to the squirrels more than anything. I half heartedly transplanted some hostas into the bed in the spring, but it really needed polishing off. I don't know if I needed a reason, but it seemed like the prefect time to close a chapter in my life, I had grieved the loss of a high school friend for over a decade and it was time to let her go and allow her to rest. It was time to dedicate the space to her. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do so I just sort of winged the whole process. Luckily my parents' neighbor was landscaping and pulled out a few dozen really good bricks from their own yard, we repurposed these to build a small retaining wall around the bed. We then filled the bed with gravel. I buried my friend's ashes beneath a rose - I selected the Martin Frobisher rose because it was the only really pretty fragrant rose left at the nursery, and it's named after a privateer, or a pirate. Yep, a pirate rose. For my goth friend who shared my dream of becoming a pirate. I can't make this up lol, it just worked out that way. I hung a pretty medallion on the gate next to it. I often think of her when I see it. It feels like the perfect tribute to her. I also buried her pictures and a few of our shared items in a box with her ashes. It was a proper burial. Apparently not illegal, either. Who knew?

The summer was surprisingly cool and oh, how I welcomed that fact. I'm sure the lakes stayed cold. It was too cold to swim. I shed no tears. The fact most of summer felt like autumn was dreamlike and awesome. I will say the foliage in autumn was not as good as it had been the previous year. Our rain and humidity levels were atrociously high and as such we had mass amounts of fungi and molds. The trees were badly damaged as a result and most leaves dropped at the first frost.

Plant wise my new Rose of Sharon - planted where the cherry tree stood - put out its first blooms. They were gorgeous periwinkle flowers but sparse as the plant is quite young. I look forward to it growing proudly in the sun bed and adding a bit of colour at the end of the deck. A few of the coral bell seedlings took root, the pulmonaria on the rocks performed exceptionally and I will now be planting more of them there in the future. Likewise, I'm working on transplanting and expanding the ground cover by the pond using creeping sedum. It looks like moss in the spring, utterly captivating and thankfully likes to choke out all the weeds. My plan is to get it growing all the way around the pond. After some research we found it's unlikely we'll ever get the waterfall going again, so I have to make new decisions regarding that in the future.

I've added a few of my plant successes in the photos below. My highlights of the year that aren't pictured would have to be the impatiens, I plan on buying more impatiens and adding them to the preexisting beds in containers, it fills out beautifully which is a nice treat when other plants fail. Like the daffodils, my double bloomers failed to show themselves due to the warm winter temps. This year proves to be similar thus far so I'm not expecting miracles in the spring. I hope all is well with those who read this!

With kindness.

Happy Gardening!

Spring Tidings

 

Journal Entry No.6
A Joyous Spring

Spring has sprung and it's a bit too quickly for my liking. I remember a few weeks before Easter I had feared my tea party would be snowed in! I couldn't fathom sunshine or green grass much less flowers. And yet, Easter came and went, and with it were crocuses and wood squill, and early daffodils.

Unfortunately just as quickly those blooms have faded and gone to seed.

Easter was a beautiful weekend spent with family. I threw the first annual tea party since before COVID-19 and it was amazing to have both grandmothers in attendance. The kitchen was well decorated in Easter decor with paper banners and decorations. We nibbled on baked goods and hors d'oeuvres and sipped fruity black teas. They regaled us with stories of Easter with their own children, dressed in their Sunday best, with little ribboned bonnets. And the two grans sung Easter parade in a duet, it was a sight to behold. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! 

That was on the Saturday, Easter Sunday was spent catching up with my bestie and strolling through the park. The weather was fabulous. I had no idea it was going to explode into a summer rush of temperatures in the high twenties. Apparently neither did my plants! The siberian squill bloomed and is already fading and going to seed. The much anticipated viburnum, the first plant to bloom and produce scent in the garden has already bloomed and begun dropping in only four days. The crocuses only lived two days. The tulips five. I normally get twice as much time to enjoy my flowers but this year the heat has put the pressure on my plants and caused everything to speed up. I'm very worried the flowering trees will bloom too early, as we're facing freezing temperatures tomorrow. We drop from 28°C to 6°C and then and overnight on Monday of only 1°C. I hesitate to think what our farmers are going through.

This is our plight. Global warming is a real problem. We've already been hit with wildfire warnings and there's a no fire ban. I can't make heads or tails of it, so we decided to at least enjoy ourselves. I sunbathed a little and yesterday we took a day trip out to cottage country to shop and eat by the lake. I dipped my toes into the frigid waters, it was gorgeous! We even visited an apiary where we purchased some honeycomb and ginger honey, and fresh farm eggs. I got to see their chickens at the front of the store pecking and scratching away at the garden. They were bathing in the dirt. It was lovely. And for a time I could've sworn it was already June.

I hope that temperatures stabilize. I hope we have normal, inclement spring weather, and my flowers have time to be appreciated.

So far the viburnum, aconite, wood squill and a small narcissus are the only flowers in the backyard. I have something growing in my memorial bed for Nori, it could be bluebells or a kind of wild tulip, I'm very excited to find out. I'm also nervously awaiting my daffodils, as I've had no indication of any blooms so far. I have planted this year's vegetables, and I'm waiting for the seedlings to take hold.

There will be a lot of work ahead of us, and much to document!

Until then~

Happy Gardening!

Summer Recap & Other Things

Journal Entry No.5
It's Raining!

You read that correctly, I am sitting in February and it's raining. I love it. I even dreamt that I woke up, ran downstairs and proclaimed to my husband, "It's raining in February! I love it!" Because rain and February are rare instances in Southern Ontario. In fact, the whole winter has been a bit screwy. While we aren't out of the woods yet, we've all been fairly surprised at the lack of winter. But what it lacks in quantity it has certainly made up for in quality. When it has snowed it's been blustery, frigid cold, with heaps and heaps of snow to shovel. I'm not sure what the perfect winter would be. This is like a bizarre trade off where we get several weeks of warm spring like weather in exchange for a few brutal winter ones. I think I can handle that, all we've done is bunker down during the worst of it. Now that temps are rising and there's no longer a -25°C wind chill I've been able to go for my walks again and I'm losing those pesky Christmas weight pounds! And all of this balmy weather has me thinking about the garden, what's to come and what has been. I never did publish a recap on the end of summer so here it is!

My last post was in July, so there are few months to look back on. July was the height of the bloom period for most of my garden. Many plants ran through their cycle and by August others were beginning to take hold. I had struggled with plant loss due to a rather large rodent colony that had taken up residence beneath my deck. As luck would have it my neighbors installed a brand new deck of their own, which lead to a lot of construction noise and vibrations. I wasn't thrilled that I lost the use of my backyard for several weeks (my side garden abuts their yard so I was directly in line with all of the activity), but the noise was a blessing in disguise: I noticed a marked improvement with the rodent activity, it must've scared a number of them off. Better still, after construction halted, I noticed an uptick in predatory birds! Bonus. This created the prefect opportunity for my remaining plants to thrive. I can only hope we enter in the new year with this luck.

Last spring I endeavored to plant annuals by seed. I had no experience with this sort of thing and results were a mixed bag. I struggled with properly thinning plants out, I think I might have over thinned some, where others looked wild and unkempt to the point I couldn't identify which was flower and which was weed, so I left them alone. It's painfully obvious that I struggled with the Candy Tuft and Alyssum. I did not get those magnificent croppings of full bushy growth. For the effort I think it's better to buy those at the nursery instead. Several plants never made it past seedling stage, the Sweet Pea was one of those. The Scented Stock barely made it's presence known. Even my pansies didn't fair very well, although they are somehow still surviving in the garden bed so perhaps this year will be their chance to shine. The most painful experience was when I lost my Teddy Sunflower seedlings to slugs and rodents, even with protective cloches. I did everything to save them. It was disheartening to say the least.

The things that did manage to grow from seed, for the most part, didn't grow in the way that I had envisioned or hoped. I had some Chinese Forget-me-not that bloomed in the late summer into autumn. The flowers were beautiful shades of uniformly soft blue, but they were leggy and falling over top of other plants. By the end of the year they looked a tangled mess. I don't think they received enough sunlight. I might try planting them again this year but further into the sun bed. Likewise my Zinnias produced flowers continuously but the blooms were very small and the stalks long and leggy. I think I'll try planting Zinnias again but perhaps purchase young ones from the nursery. I can't help but feel things lagged due to a combination of our unpredictable weather and the time I chose to directly sow the seeds. I should have started them indoors first. My mother had assured me my Four o'clocks would flourish but results were all over the place. Those in the deepest shade bloomed best and grew to two feet tall. Those that were located in partial and direct sunlight did not grow more than a couple of inches and never bloomed. And to add to that they were not Four o'clocks but more like 9PM to 7AM's, if I got up early enough I might catch them in bloom. As such, I don't think I'll revisit those flowers, their foliage isn't so fancy it makes up for the lack of blooms. 

My success stories were unexpected. I had planted Moonflowers in the spring, greatly anticipating white dinner plates on my trellis, but instead found Flying Saucer Morning Glories! They certainly were a UFO. I don't know if I was sold the wrong seeds by mistake or some combination of soil acidity caused them to turn this way? It was utterly bizarre but they yielded great blooms. I had also planted Heavenly Blues in the same container and they looked lovey together. They did become quite unruly and began to strangle each other out, so this year I plan on building a larger trellis for them to climb and hopefully plant the right amount so it doesn't go haywire. My other triumph were the Marigolds that I had grown from seed. I had somehow managed to produce several plants with enormous yellow heads which I could see from the back windows. I loved to look out and see them swaying in the wind. They looked fabulous with the purple aster that I had unknowingly nursed back to health after I planted it in my garden for fun. I can envision a whole row of aster wrapping themselves around and supporting the yellow marigolds.

All that being said, I have struggled with my garden. I'm finding some plants will need to be transplanted elsewhere if they do not produce again this year. I've already shifted some into other parts of the bed and I was fortunate enough to get several seedlings of Lungwort, Coralbells, and Columbine to spread out. This year I want my focus to be on mostly store bought annuals. I had a great year with my petunias and impatiens, and I was amazed at how easily they can "fill" the gaps in the beds. Since the neighbor removed the mulberry tree, and we cut down our cherry, the beds will receive different quantities of light. I think it's best I play it safe this year and get a feel for the change before committing to new more permanent plantings. I'll see if I can control my impulses when out shopping! Easier said than done. 

Happy Gardening!

BloomStruck

 

Journal Entry No.4
The Summertime Swing

In my last journal entry I talked about a number of things afflicting my garden. While there have been some improvements, this year still feels like a bizarre unfolding nightmare, and after speaking with my neighbors recently I realized that this isn't my battle alone. This past weekend we flushed a skunk out from underneath our deck which then attempted to take residence under my neighbor's deck. I am awaiting my other neighbors return from their vacation to notify them that they also have yet another skunk living under their shed (which is situated directly beside my courtyard garden, so it's been leaving turds all over the place). Our house is literally flanked by skunks, as you can imagine, I seldom get the opportunity to open my windows anymore. And speaking of our skunk, it was only a few weeks earlier that I had to flush out a groundhog from the same space under my deck! It had dug a large hole beside the extension foundation which is obviously not good. We backfilled it with gravel and reassembled the deck on a very hot afternoon. I was not pleased. Which reminds me...a few months earlier than that we had to racoon proof our roof after one squeezed into the extension! The wildlife has gone, for lack of a better description, ape shit. Perfectly ape shit. I don't know where any of our natural predators have gone. We once had a number of very large predatory birds nesting in the area and I have not seen one in ages. My husband theorizes that the construction has scared them off, and has allowed our rodent population to proliferate, which explains the incessantly increasing number of chipmunks, squirrels, moles, voles, shrews and what have you.

We did set up a number of snap traps. Now, where I live it is illegal to trap and remove animals from one environment to another. I think this has something to do with maintaining eco-systems. Some people believe it renders the animal "homeless" and causes it to die a slow and painful death because it can't adapt to its new surroundings. Either way, I don't want to get fined, so we endeavored to use snap traps and we have experienced some success with them. Unfortunately it's both time consuming and gross. I'm at a point where I go out every few days, set them up and empty them a few times that day, and then I take a break from it. I'll have a few days where I see no rodents scurrying about, then they appear to forget all about the traps and come back. It comes and goes in waves but when I manage to get the numbers down I see improvements in spades. Less holes dug, less destruction, more flowers! I still have to drape my rose bush in netting, though, and it looks awful. I sincerely hope next year we see an upsurge in predatory birds and things go back to normal. 

Some good news is that my hydrangeas are mostly performing well. Namely the Wee Bit Grumpy and the Bloomstruck I planted last year (photo above). Also my Invincibelle Limetta looks quite lacey and contrasts beautifully with the variegated hostas and the magenta and fuchsia flowers I've planted nearby. I'm sad to say that my Princess Diana daylily was beheaded so I won't be seeing any blooms this year. My pink astilbe, which promised several heads of blooms for whatever reason flopped over and dried up (despite the foliage being okay?). I also have doubts my Visions in Red will bloom, either. The forming buds have dried or stopped growing entirely. My back garden beds look sadly sparse. The balloon flowers on the other hand are full and blooming in excess! They bring a lovely touch of periwinkle to the back garden which matches my patio rug. I will be buying more of them and filling in the spaces where nothing seems to grow. The daylilies that came with the house are also blooming nicely this year. After we take the cherry tree down I imagine this will only improve with the amount of sunlight they receive.

I have much to do in the garden but our primary focus right now is finishing our basement. It's been a massive undertaking spanning two years. This is okay because we are in the midst of a heat wave and I spend less time outside when it's unbearably hot. Today we're facing humidex temperatures of 40°C. It wasn't so bad this morning but once the sun rises the cool humidity becomes thick and unbreathable. Thankfully it rained yesterday so no need to water the plants. We had a terrible dry spell recently, I shudder to think about our bills lol.

For now I am awaiting the blooms of my Mango Salsa OsoEasy shrub rose, and a bushel of Chinese Forget-me-not which looks so lovely in its uniform periwinkle blue. Also, the morning glories I have planted throughout the garden are starting to produce. It took longer than I thought but I'm thrilled to see them! They are one of my favorite flowers. I'm trying Moonflowers this year and I'm positively excited to see what they look like. There are still adventures to be had in the garden! Not much longer now and it will be autumn, so I take my wins where I can get them. 

Happy Gardening!

Beauty Bush

Journal Entry No.3
Beauty Bush: An Evening Stroll

The above photograph was taken while out for an evening stroll a week or so ago. My parents own a beauty bush, so I instantly recognized this flowering shrub cascading over the walkway. It was in full bloom, resplendent and sumptuous! And the scent was intoxicating. Unfortunately beauty bushes are just one of those plants that are so ephemeral they end before the begin, much like tulip magnolias. I could already spot the blanket of confetti forming beneath it, but this does not undermine its beauty, it only adds to the shrub's ephemeral, delicate quality. 

I have had a trying few weeks since my last journal entry. There have been triumphs and absolute disappointments. Let's start with the good before descending into the bad. For one, I am thrilled to see the return of my dianthus. Last year our neighbor took the initiative and began cutting down the invading white mulberry. It is about two thirds of the way complete but I have significantly more sunshine in my bed than ever before. As such, I've seen a renewed life in many of my previous plantings. The lush magenta blooms of the dianthus are plentiful and eye catching. I have decided, as such, that I will be adding more dianthus to this bed next year when the time for revision arrives. And revision is inevitable. I have planted far too many plants too close together, again. I tend to make this mistake in the spring because I underestimate the growth rate of the pre-existing plants. I plan on bumping back and dividing the hostas, pulling the dianthus forwards, and not planting so much along the fence line. I used to think dianthus was a rather boring plant but now that I've seen what it can do I can envision a long and full crop of them bursting with colour. Most of these changes will begin in the fall. 

I have plans to change out the pavers in the courtyard garden, which will give it a refreshed aesthetic but it will also allow me to correct drainage problems and create the clean edging that I've been craving. Over time our pavers have sunk and shifted, and the flower bed is now too high which causes the unsightly mulch to migrate onto the patio stones. I had planned to undertake this project in the spring but we have the gas company coming in to replace the lines so I'll have to wait until fall. I'm going to recycle the old pavers onto the other side of the house where there is an atrocious amount of weed growth. Grass doesn't grow there, only clover, so I'm hoping that by laying down the pavers and some substrate it might correct this problem. My husband and I have also discussed at length the possible benefits of pouring a cement slab by the driveway gate, it would address the overgrowth problem while providing us with extra storage for a small trailer hitch or another shed for garden tools. We currently use our only shed in a mixed way, we use it to store both seasonal décor as well as tools and it's getting quite crowded. With the inevitable creation of more garden art I will need additional storage space.

On a pleasant note, my hydrangeas are  developing blooms in spades. The Annabelle I planted last autumn is producing copious bloom clusters, my mother warned me that it would, she has one that's about six feet wide and four feet tall. Mine is easily twice the size it was last year. It doesn't like the afternoon sun, though, which is a shame because it's the only sun it gets. When it's not wilting under the sun's rays it perks up nicely and makes for a good full shrub. Baba's hydrangea is starting to turn colour (photo left), I will post photos when it changes completely. This is a new hydrangea cultivar and I'm excited to see it in person for the first time. For now it has only slight kisses of fuchsia. I love the contrast of the variegated hostas with the hot pinks in this part of the garden, and I'm really hopeful that the shrub clematis produces many dark purple blooms this year given it's already three times the size it used to be. The spring blooms in my garden have all but dropped which leaves my Nori memorial bed looking somewhat barren at the moment. I have a lovely pink lily coming up, I did have three but...they were eaten.

Which leads me to the bad news. It's as if some horrible storm is brewing in the garden this year. Pests abound. Sun and rain have created perfect weed growing conditions but somehow it's also been a breeding ground for animal pests. I don't know what tipped the scale in this direction but the garden is overrun with snails, bugs, voles, chipmunks, and squirrels. The only thing that hasn't shown up, knock on wood, is mildew and disease. But it has taken a devastating and literal toll on my health. Every day I come out and something has been destroyed. The chipmunks have eaten many of my plants; they chewed the buds off my rosebush so that it never blooms, killed the only viable teddy sunflower I had - which was beneath a cloche, dug up and eaten all of my spring bulbs, dug up and killed various plants by damaging their root systems. It has been an outright nightmare. They, and possibly the birds, have eaten the several thousand cherries I had growing on my tree, and I find that odd because it didn't happen last year. After that painful discovery the only hope I had left was my peach tree which is now dropping peaches left right and center. I tried to protect it with a bird net which has helped keep the pests largely at bay but my peaches began oozing a clear gel and now I find them dropped and scattered about, rotting at the bottom of the net.

It has been a slew of disappointments and I can't help but take it personally. Every time I come outside something that I was greatly anticipating to see ends up beheaded or killed. I've lost a good chunk of change on it, too, which coming from a single income household that's not a very nice thing to go through. I don't want to fork out a few hundred bucks every year to feed the wildlife. We're taking what some may view as rather extreme measures, but we will be setting out not so nice traps. At this point if it's a rodent I don't feel like treating it any differently than the mice in our extension that we've been killing for so long. Chipmunks have destroyed the water fall feature, are destroying my shed, and chewing on the outdoor electrical features. They've got to go. All touchy feelings aside... When the stress landed me in the hospital this last weekend, I promised myself I wouldn't let it go any further. 

Hopefully once we can get their numbers down I might reclaim my garden and stop hemorrhaging money. There are times when I go to bed worrying that they're going to dig up my cats' ashes, or ruin the memorial plantings or destroy my garden art. What was a soothing and productive pastime has been a great source of anxiety for me. I am not going to abandon my garden of course but while we eradicate the rodents I think I might take a break, turn inwards for awhile, focus on self care and just accept defeat this year on some things. It's not how I envisioned 2022 coming in.

How are you dealing with garden pests? Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated.

Book Review: Creating Garden Accents

A Book About Garden Art

My husband must think I'm curating my own little library with the number of books I've ordered or purchased second hand within the last few weeks. I tend to have a lot of spare time when the summer starts up, not for any reason related to summer scheduling, though. I'm a disabled woman who mostly keeps the house while her husband works so my free time is as ample as I allow it to be. The reason I find myself with more time on my hands is exclusively because of how hot it gets. If it's too humid all my house reno work grinds to a halt. We're in the midst of painting, the basement is too humid to paint right now, plus the AC kicks up a lot of cat hair. As such I have some free time on my hands, and today is unbearably hot. There is nothing else I'd rather be doing when it's too hot to go outside than hole up indoors reading a book in the cool embrace of air conditioning. Unlike lazing around watching TV, reading feels more rewarding and like I've actually accomplished something. I read all kinds of different books, some fictional novels, and sometimes non-fictional instructional or inspirational books, like the one I'm reviewing today, Creating Garden Accents by Jerri Farris and Tim Himsel (published in 2002).

I own several other books by Farris and Himsel, I didn't even know until recently! They paired up with Black and Decker to produce a handful of home improvement books. Most of their books revolve around the garden or patios, decks and fences and sometimes home decor. And that's how I found out about Creating Garden Accents, it was suggested in the back catalogue of another Farris and Himsel book. I have personally found garden art to be one of the hardest subjects to get information on. Pinterest used to be a good resource, maybe back in 2010 when it was bustling with users and creativity abounded, but when I try to use it now I often get the same pins recycled in my feed over and over again. I thought perhaps a community of garden artists might exist somewhere online but I've yet to find it. Instead I'm blazing the path, hoping someone will find me here and we can share ideas and inspire one another. And that's why I bought this book, so I could have someone else's creativity ignite my own and maybe make some cool new garden décor.

This book is not short on ideas, there are twenty-two step by step projects inside, all in colour photographs. Not every step is shown in photographs, some are written only, and some of the final projects are merely illustrated. I suspect they had difficulty photographing the rabbit trellis or the turtle ornament, or maybe they just wanted to include their artistic drawings which in themselves are well executed. I didn't get a preview of what would be in the book before buying, but there are several of the projects included on the front and back cover. Namely the bench, the chandelier, the bird bath and the rabbit trellis. It was enough to spark my interest and I thought I'd take a chance and find out what other goodies awaited me in the pages of this now vintage book.

First, let's talk difficulty level. There is no specific skill set required to make garden art, each piece is a reflection of the artist, art is subjective and artistic mediums vary substantially! You may recycle plastic, or weld junk metal together, or glue glass beads into your fence. The only rule is there are no rules! I'm a visual art grad so I have experience meddling with most mediums, but even I felt some of the projects in this book bordered on the more difficult side. I'd say an easy garden project might be something like the homemade bird feeders we made in elementary school, where you smear peanut butter on a pinecone and dunk it in seeds (I don't recommend doing this as I've since learned it is bad for the birds). If it requires few materials and it's not complicated to make then I'd call it "easy". If it requires some degree of knowledge in tools and materials and takes more than two hours to put together I'd classify it as "medium" difficulty. If it's more niche, requires buying a specific tool that's not already in my collection and takes a variety of materials or the materials are expensive then I classify it as "hard" difficulty. This book skirts between medium and hard difficulty, and I would not recommend it for beginners. If you've never touched a power tool before, this book probably isn't for you.

That being said, the projects are plentiful and interesting. Some notable ones are pictured here in my post. I like the carved stone, the upcycled "door spring bug", the yin-yang fountain, and the copper sprinkler. They are all things I hope to try in the future. There are a few wood working projects for benches, a swing, and a decorative bird house, too, but I'm not much into wood work. Then there are all of the copper projects; candelabras, a miniature bed frame, a gate, a weather vane, and a trellis (they call it a bean cage). If you have the opportunity to read more of Farris and Himsel's books you will quickly realize their obsession with copper. And I mean obsession. Copper projects make up almost half of the projects in this book, and while I find copper whimsical and beautiful to look at, I don't imagine it's altogether easy to work with or even affordable at this point. Copper might have been fairly cheap back in 2002, but I priced out the copper chandelier - not including the cost for all the tools that I don't yet have - and it came up to $200 CAD. In fact one of the listed supplies was only a guess on my part because they no longer carry whatever it is the book is referring to (that's not too surprising given that US hardware stores carry significantly more than our Canadian counterparts, so it's probably a specialty item in these parts).

The cost of the copper isn't the only prohibitive aspect, the copper and several other projects in the book use a blow torch! I've never touched one before, even if it was a small torch I really don't have the set up for it. I read in another book that they advise you use a sheet of galvanized metal as a kind of work bench to protect your space from catching on fire. Well, I don't have a work room or a garage so I guess I'm SOL. I'd really love to try the copper sprinkler, it's something I've always wanted, but I'm not sure I could even find the supplies or the space to make it in! It really makes me wish that my city had a creative hub center where I could rent tools and workspace by the hour. Oh well!

I recommend this book if you like more challenging projects that have a real wow factor, but I do wish they had sectioned it off and included more beginner friendly items and didn't go all in on the copper. There are certainly many exquisite looking pieces that I'd love to own but couldn't possibly afford to make! Still, I do feel inspired to maybe find my own way of making something special with a little bit of copper, sans blow torch.

DIY Garden Chandelier

A Garden Chandelier Upcycle

A few months ago I was out for a walk in my neighborhood when I spotted an old rusty chimenea at the curbside. There was something captivating about it but I didn't have a clue what I was drawn to, so I kept on walking. Half a block later and I was struck with an inspiration, I swung back around and picked up the lid and took it home with me. I kept it tucked under my arm because I didn't want to seem like a complete lunatic carrying around a large chimenea lid. Admittedly, it even felt a bit weird taking it in the first place! But I knew exactly what I was going to do with it: I wanted to take this innocuous, rusty chimenea lid and turn it into a glamorous chandelier.

Ever since we bought our house I have wanted a garden chandelier. Unfortunately I could never find one that was affordable or looked the way that I had envisioned. I wanted glamour but what I found was more akin to kid's bedroom décor or something you should be able to buy at the dollar store. The prices were outlandish too, $150 CAD for a 10" garden chandelier made with plastic beads. Yikes! I knew I would have to make my own eventually but I never had a concrete plan on how I was going to accomplish it. That's where the chimenea lid came in. I have seen some chandeliers on Pinterest (in fact you can see a few examples on my garden diy board). They're usually made from upcycled lamp components, often ones that already had holes for chandelier crystals. In the case of my chimenea lid, I knew I would have to make the holes myself and source the chandelier beads and crystals online.

This was my departure point. I started bookmarking several Amazon listings for replacement beaded chandelier chains and crystals. Prices varied considerably based on length and quality. Most listings are actually acrylic and cost a lot of money. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I found one claiming to be glass and for significantly less cost. I didn't know exactly how many I would need so I went for the most footage I could find, knowing I'd rather have excess and left over materials than run short. I ended up buying something like 25 feet of chain, which came with teardrop cyrstals, for under $25 CAD.

After ordering my chandelier making supplies, I started to prep my chimenea lid. It was in fairly good condition minus some rust spots. I went over the lid using a fine steel wool to remove rust and dislodge any yucky build up. Before I moved on to painting the lid, I needed to map out and mark my chandelier holes. I had divided the circumference of the lid into an even number because this is the easiest way to design the chandelier (my crystals came in multiples of four) there were sixteen holes in total. Because the chimenea lid is thin metal, I used a metal drill bit to drill the holes into the lip. Do not use anything but the appropriate drill bit for projects! A good once over with the steel wool cleans excess metal shavings after drilling. Once this was complete I could move on to painting the lid. I spray painted it using a heat resistant spray paint by Rustoleum - the only reason I did this is because I already had the paint and it matched the lid given it was, after all, apart of a fireplace. I then chose to seal it using a gloss enamel varnish to hopefully prevent it from rusting any further and making it a little easier to wipe clean.

The chandelier design itself was the hardest part. My initial idea was to create a kind of cascading spiral motif like this chandelier but on a smaller and simplified scale. It turned out my beaded chains weren't close enough together to create the proper effect, so I had to start over and restring a completely new design. Surprisingly, I made it all up as I went. I started by hanging a first row of swag beginning and ending on every fourth hole. I then overlapped it by a smaller swag in between the previous row. Then I added an additional swag row beneath that, and a column down the center of the chandelier. I then attached my teardrop crystals. It's difficult to see the design completely in the photos since there's so much competing light, but it looks gorgeous in person. It isn't hard to make either, maybe a little time consuming to put together so set aside a couple of hours if you want to try your hand at making your own. You can really make any design that pleases your eye but of course symmetry usually is the best foundation.

The effect is, as you can see, pretty spectacular. These glass crystals shine beautifully and cast rainbow prisms in the sunlight (unfortunately they came scratched and chipped but that's difficult to see and it is after all only a garden ornament). I have hung it form a shephard's hook in my sun bed and it absolutely radiates. Every time I step into the garden I'm entranced by it. Who would've thought something so seemingly useless as an abandoned chimenea lid could turn into something so opulent?

If you make one of your own I'd love to see it, hit me up on Pinterest! And if you have any questions feel free to use my contact form in the side bar (or below on mobile).

Happy Gardening!