Let's Plant Something!

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow." 

- Audrey Hepburn 

My morning quote and picture that I shared on Facebook today spoke of gardening and later in the day, I just happened to find myself at the garden center!! Two actually! 

So we had to come home and officially kick off the spring 2020 gardening season! I recorded a live Facebook video planting some succulents in upcyced containers. Hope you enjoy and get inspired to get outside and plant something this spring! 

Spring in the Gazebo!

Grab a cup of coffee or ice tea, if you please and pull up a chair - It's time for the spring gazebo tour! You know we are all about the rust and repurposing vintage items. If you are new here, our gazebo was literally pulled from a trash ditch a few years back and we have had fun with the makeover project and decorating it each season. The first spring we had the gazebo, I decided that I would no longer have visible plastic or store bought containers in my yard, so everything is rescued and given a new purpose!

We have lots of galvanized goodness in our yard! 

You can catch the video and my tips and tricks for planting in vintage washtubs here.

As I said, we rescue and repurpose buckets, even if they don't have a bottom. This bucket has a rusted out bottom, but I still turn it into a hanging basket! (You can find the original post on planting in bottomless buckets here.) 

I had this piece of grapevine laying around after we changed our booth up last month, so I decided to drape it over the doorway and I like how it looks. If it's laying around, its apt to find a place decorating the gazebo. 

When we first planted the 3 bushes around the gazebo, they were small and the bicycle really stood out. Now it's hiding in the bushes! I have lights on the bike and at night you can see the outline better. A gym locker basket has been wired to the handles of the bike and holds an assortment of clay pots. 

In the back of the gazebo, a metal pig feeder is a pedestal for a vintage chicken feeder with flowers. 

It's pretty and it's pink! I fell in love with this ceramic dish at the thrift store and immediately knew succulents belonged in it. 

 A fern sits in an old crock.

 Sweet potato vines and dianthus are nestled in this old water cooler.

 Evenings in the springtime are my favorite and the light is almost magical!

The birdcage with herbs and the itty, bittiest little fern you ever saw hangs on the left side of the entrance. I use trampoline springs to adjust the height of the planters. We were cleaning out an old barn one time and came home with a wooden tool box of oddities - included was the trampoline springs. (I shared my birdcage planting video here.)

 Fresh herbs from the yard are the best!

Some have commented in the past about why was the door in the back of the gazebo? Well, it has a few purposes. 

1. Block the view of the storage building behind it. 

2. The door serves as a backdrop for me to photograph items like wreaths and shirts for my shop. 

 3. I get to hang funky, junky wreaths or hang plants on the door. 

I was digging through some of my junk the other day and decided to make a new wreath. I found a grapevine wreath in the greenhouse, then tied on a license plate, made a star with a folding ruler, a very rusty handle from a shovel, a chicken feeder, and a piece from a roll of barbed wire. 

To me, the four loops from the barbed wire spool looked like a flower outline. The chicken waterer thingamajig  (a mason jar can screw into it) formed the center of the flower.  

 That little blue piece was a tag on the barbed wire spool and added just a touch of color to the wreath. A scrap of burlap ribbon made a bow, along with raffia and jute twine used to tie everything to the wreath. 

You might be wondering about the rectangle frame - Angea ask me about it recently and wondered where I found it. Well, way back when I first started gardening, we had a wheelbarrow planted with flowers. Over several years time, it finally rusted out and broke apart. The frame above is actually the old rim of the broken down wheelbarrow! I hung the wreath and frame together on the door with a wreath hanger. Now see, that's a good reason to have a door there, right?!?

The undercarriage of the wheelbarrow found a home in a flower bed, protecting a few plants from the dogs making a home on top of them. Nothing goes to waste! 

So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed the tour. 

As I stated in one of the videos, the gazebo and plantings are ever changing and evolving, so stay tuned to see how things progress through the seasons. 

Christmas in the Gazebo

Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair for a tour of our gazebo decorated for Christmas!

Once again, everything is rustic, rescued, and repurposed. 

The decor took on a very natural / garden / flea market style theme this year. 

If you have a few minutes, you can watch my video, as I show you around the gazebo or you can scroll down to see more pictures. I attempted to do a live Facebook video, but the lighting just didn't work out correctly. Wish I could have chatted with everyone as I was videoing...

 

 I used objects that were all found or taken from nature. I gathered pine, cedar, twigs, berries, and pine cones from the farm. I trimmed limbs that stuck out in the paths (as in nearly scratch the truck as you drove through the gates) and added them to a artificial tree and adorned many other objects with the fresh greens. After Christmas, I'll add all the branches to the compost bin.

A twiggy tree top! Instead of glittery ting and branches like some use, I preferred to use sticks and berries for a nature theme. 

 After we got the gazebo, I purchased 3 bushes in small, one gallon containers (because I was on an extreme budget.)  It's hard to believe just how big those little bushes have grown! The bicycle used to sit way out in front of them - now the bush grows through the bike. The lily that is in front of the bike was gifted to me by my mail lady. 

Now for a few daylight pictures, so you can see some different details.

When I was delivering Thanksgiving flowers, one of my sweet friends gifted me some fresh grapevine they had trimmed from their yard. I decided to hang it on the door and then nestled in the Christmas tin sign.

I found this candle stand while out junkin' recently and decided it would go on the gazebo for the time being. 

I loved this metal scroll work fixture for a long time and decided to hang it up this summer. 

For the Birds...

Now, if you recall, last year I had an upside down Christmas tree hanging where that rustic fixture is now and I had a cardinal the would stay in the tree every night. (click the link to read about it.) The red bird family went on to raise babies in the bush beside the gazebo. That's their little nest tucked in the Christmas tree! I've had the red burlap birds for several years and decided they should go on this years tree.

The handy hauler has a load of fresh Christmas greens and berries.

The bottomless rusty bucket - it still has the original flower pot wired inside it from when I did the how to post several years ago. There's still some herbs left in the pot from this summer and I just added the cut branches into the potting soil. 

My rusty, junky wreath from years past returned again and graces the front of the bicycle.

So there you have a tour of our rustic gazebo. 

What is your favorite part? 

P.S. Stay tuned, as I plan to share another video and details from my glamper Christmas! 

Rustic Summer Garden Tour

 I'm a fan of golden hour, sun setting through the trees, and enjoying the fiddling around in the yard in the evenings. Come on over and take a walk around the yard with me! 

The gazebo has several rusty buckets hanging from springs. 

 You may remember that these two hanging baskets are "bottomless buckets". Plastic pots are liners inside the galvanized buckets and serve as a focal point when walking up to the gazebo. The herbs are going crazy in these two baskets!

 Hens and Chicks are overflowing the wheelbarrow.

My garden is full of Roots and Wings! Many of the roots in my yard have been shared by friends and family and tells a story and of course I love watching my feathers friends.

I haven't planted anything in these buckets...yet! I'm telling myself these buckets are water troughs for the little critters in the yard.

 A rusty chicken feeder of rose moss sits on the front steps.

 Moss rose in a vintage chicken feeder on the front steps.

The yuccas are blooming along the front fence and they have really multiplied in the past few years, nearly taking over the brick patio, so I must divide them up soon and find more place to plant them.

 Pale pink crepe myrtle blooms along the path to the gazebo.

 Mexican heather finds a home in a turquoise tool box.

I love taking close ups (macros) of the flowers, particularly the small little blooms.  

 A little succulent in a old tea tin - I mean, the tea tin even has the word planter on it!

 Dianthus

 Periwinkle

 Million Bells (mini petunia like flowers.)

 Sun flares on the plants... ♥♥♥

Thanks for stopping by the rustic garden tour, this evening. Tell me, what was your favorite part?