Earth Day Inspiration

Yesterday was Earth Day. That means that everybody was supposed to be a little more conscious of their surrounding world and that they are supposed to start a new chapter in their life in regards to how they impact the planet.

For me, this meant running. It's free, it's in the open, you get to see the scenery without any barrier (like a car window) and there is fresh air rushing past my face. I enjoyed my run so much that I am going to make the effort to do this three days each week...in place of the electricity-wasting exercise equipment.


Besides the exercise factor of running, I really enjoyed being out and about in my neighborhood, not just in my yard. There are so many trees and gardens in bloom right now that as I run, it kind of feels like I'm trekking through an impressionist painting. You know how impressionism can be quite blurry, but you know what it is and you know that it's beautiful? That is what I see when I run. I don't think that my brain can process images at the lightning speed that I move (very slow lightning).

Anyways, my Earth Day running experience was really inspiring and encouraging. I hope I can keep this up. I'll let you know how it goes.


PS: I know that this isn't related to sprucing up your garden or home, but it's about self improvement too.

Repurposing the chimney

With so much remodeling and new construction replacing old, people are throwing out all kinds of amazing things. If you watch craigslist, you'll no doubt see in the "free" area listing after listing for old bricks and concrete blocks. Often the old bricks still have small chunks of mortar on them and the blocks are cracked or broken. You know how the old adage goes: one man's junk is another man's treasure.

I've taken advantage of this situation and been able to create some wonderful structures and organization in my small space. By lining my beds with borders of old brick, I've been able to add some visual interest as well as separate my ground cover from individual plants.

Where this is most useful and most evident is in my wildflower bed. I built up the soil a bit before laying the bricks in a "b" shaped pattern which gave the illusion of a slightly raised bed. Once built, I scattered wild flower seeds and let them do their thing. I told myself, I said "Self, if you see something growing outside of that patch, you know you can pull it because it's not supposed to be there" and that's just what I've done. I sound weird, but having this clear border has allowed me to keep the surrounding area weed-free without the fear of pulling something that I'd planted the prior year.

I've also been able to use the brick bordering technique to keep my ground covers under control. I've currently got some Northwestern strawberries mixed between two mysterious flowering rugs and all three groups are staying contained. It looks great how they just spill onto the brick. I can't wait to see them fill their designated areas.

The last thing that I've used the old brick for has been to edge off my small plot of lawn. Grass is one of those things in life that you can fight with and think that you're winning, but then it'll turn around and show you who's boss. I would love for the middle of my lawn to be perfect and beautiful, but the grass prefers to spread outward and be extra super green at the edge of the garden...where it then thinks that it has eminent domain. I solved that problem though and the hostile grass is now tamed. I dug a shallow, narrow ditch around the yard and laid brick in it. It has made a difficult border for the grass to cross and has had the bonus feature of keeping the soil in my garden berms from eroding into the yard. I love multi-functional design!

All in all, brick and blocks can have their place anywhere. Next time you see somebody getting rid of some, take 'em, see how they can improve your space, and keep them from being put in a landfill.

Shock the monkey, not the plant

I love having a positive outlook on life and everything that I do. My garden is right up there; it makes me happy and I get to see the results of my hard work. I'll be honest though, there is something that gets me down.

Transplanting often times shocks plants and they look very sad and often dying for a few days or even a few weeks. There are a couple of ways to prevent this though.

1.) When digging up and moving:

The root or root ball is where the nutrients and water are going to be pulled into most plants. When you're digging up that bush or flower, be sure to know how wide around it you should be entering the soil.

For example: I was gifted a euphorbia from my neighbor who is putting in a vegetable garden where her flowers all were. The plants around the base were pretty dense, so I tried to get as close to where I imagined the root ball stopping as possible. As luck would have it, I trimmed the roots a tad bit too much. I transplanted it to my garden to the perfect spot, watered it well, made sure it was secure, and then watched the leaves and flowers slump, whither and fall of the stalks. Not awesome. Some out of season pruning, a little extra rich soil added to the base and some love and attention have turned it around. There is new growth and the euphorbia is coming back to life slowly, but surely.

2.) When re potting:

If you've ever lived in a house and then moved into an apartment, it's tough to adjust, right? Well, it's the same concept for plants. While there are some plants out there that like to be root-bound, most that you'll be moving from pot to pot or ground to pot do better with a little more room to grow. Also, some plants do better with soggy soil and some need it to be more dry, so take than into account.

For example: I had an unfortunate accident with some potted violets that were struggling. A windstorm happened and knocked the smallest of the pots off the ledge and it shattered in the driveway. While this sucked, I took the sad little violet and put it in a larger pot...and watched it take off. The new pot didn't drain as quickly and it had room for growth. Today, it's a crazy li'l violet and is rockin' the suburbs!

3.) When separating from a bunch:

Take a few minutes to do a little research about the plant that you're getting ready to thin out. Some plants love to be separated and thrive with the stimulation. Others show shock, just like euphorbia did. If you can find out a little about the roots of the plant you're going to work with, you may be able to work a little magic and it'll never know that anything happened.

For example: The iris is a great flower because of how well it does in both sun and shade (an really acidic soil). Its rhizomes (think ginger root) are right at the surface and spread horizontally, which makes it really easy to see where to pull up the plant from. You can look at a bunch, see where the narrowest part is, see how deep the off-shooting smaller roots go, and then successfully break it away from the rest of the pack. This is the case with the traditional Purple Iris, but other varieties may be a little more, shall we say, mysterious below the soil. Anyways, once you've been able to separate some irises from the bunch, it's pretty easy to dig a small ditch just deep enough to fit the small roots and the rhizome, and then cover them with soil and pack it down. Keep them good and moist for a few days and they should do just swimmingly. If your irises do shock, just trim back the spear-like leaves and in no time you'll see fresh ones shooting up from between the old ones.

I hope this is helpful. I've had some amazing luck and made some horrible mistakes, so I hope that you can learn from what I've already done.

Dresser Refinishing: mission style accomplised

If you recall from my 04-14-10 posting, I had salvaged an old dresser. This weekend, I was able to complete its restoration (for the most part). I had stripped away the old finish last week, so this weekend's tasks were fun and easy.

Sunday morning, we took a trip to the local hardware hangout to pick out the stain. I'd been waffling about the color for a while. With no help from my readers (remember how I'd asked for suggestions? Yeah, thanks for nothin' folks) I was totally tossed up. I was thinking that a really bright red stain would be great, but then, at the last minute, I decided on honeycomb. It seemed like an amazing, warm orange...not flesh. As luck would have it, it is the same color as my skin after a halfway sunny day: not quite tan, but not pale. That color alone would've been too underwhelming to use on the whole dresser, so I got bold.

I broke out a piece of old wood from the garage and tested two other colored stains against the honeycomb. Sanibel lost. Mustard won. That's right, mustard. I've gotta say, it turned out amazingly. I'd done quite a bit of research into traditional colors within Mission and Hacienda style homes and furniture, and amarillo was the only one that really stood out to me. Magenta was a popular theme too...but not in my world.

I'd mentioned in my last posting about the great old wooden knobs that came on the dresser. It was my intention that I'd sand them down and stain them some incredible color. Yeah, epic fail...or epic "I am too impatient" syndrome. Anyways, I decided to not refinish the knobs and bought some beautiful stainless, beaded knobs. They look amazing, fit perfectly into the Mexican style I was shooting for, and actually compliment some stainless drawer pulls that I'd installed on another piece in the room. All in all, I'm quite happy with the results.

There is only one more step in completing this project: felting the drawers. I'll tell you about that when I get to it, but I think it'll be a few weeks still.

Some tropical advise...half research, half experience

So I got a question from one of my readers in Arizona today. She is worried about her Bird of Paradise (BOP). The problem she's facing is that it seems to be healthy, but it will not produce a flower. Sounds odd, but then hey, did y'all read my sob story turned happy ending concerning my irises? I have done a bit of research and combined it with my own knowledge/experience and have a potential solution...we'll see how it works!
The question:

I don't always have the best luck. Can you help me with my tropical bird of paradise? It will not produce a flower.

Here's my response for Mel in Arizona:

Ooh, that's a tough one. So, here's my idea. BOPs like half sun and half shade. They usually have a really spider-like root ball (depends on the species), so be careful when doing this:

The day before you transplant from the pot, water the BOP really well. Soak it. The next day, go to Starbucks, get some grounds for your garden. Carefully uproot your BOP and find a spot with morning sun, afternoon shade. Mix the grounds into your course/rocky soil and securely plant your BOP. Water it really good just after planting and for the next week. After a few days, it'll show shock, but don't worry. Trim back the gross, withering branches/leaves. It'll take a few weeks, but you'll see some new growth hopefully.

Sound like a good plan? You also need to keep in mind that there are many species that need to be in the same spot for two/three years before producing a bloom. Also, just like how most people get depressed and are pretty low functioning when they live alone and have no friends, Birds of Paradise are the same way. They do best in groups because they'll encourage each other to bloom and to spread. I hope this helps! I can't wait to see what you do. I know that you can turn it around.

If anybody else has questions out there, let me know. If I don't know the answer I am happy to research or check with my other, more experienced garden gnomes!