Thursday, June 2, 2016

More Room To Grow and Garden Inspirations

 Hi Friends,
We've been tackling big projects the past couple weeks.  
Thankfully; the hardest parts are over for the most part.  
The photo above shows a struggling row of red tip Photinia bushes. 
I planted them years ago and for a long time they did really well.
They became a privacy screen to my garden but for the last two years they've been so sick.  
In Spring they start to leaf out and then turn  all spotted  and drop their leaves, then try to grow, ..then drop their leaves and only the one on the far end remained a screen; the rest you could see through and two others completely died.  I talked to a professional and was told it was a nasty fungus.  He said he figured before long they'd all finally die.  Well that was two years ago and he was right... they were a mess.  We knew we wanted to pull them all out and do something different.  So Myguy brought the backhoe home recetently and by the end of the evening...  
 It looked like this.  We hauled all the bushes one by one to our burnpile in the back pasture.  
Our donkeys and horse ran out there and thankfully I thought to google these plants  and ..
they're poisonous to horses.  The rest of the evening we spent catching  them and locked them out  in a separate pasture.  Myguy had to fix the  fence and while he did that I found a stock tank and got that fixed up for them.  It's always something isn't it?  It's just the way it goes.  
Anyways we knew we wanted to put a new privacy fence up.  Had to ponder this  a few days 
and figure out where to put it exactly.  
Then we had to make a trip to town for  posts.   
 All the holes went in good but the last two.  
Ohmyword.  We chipped and chipped away at the rock but.. finally called it good enough!
Yall would not believe how RANK the ground smelled in this area.  It smelled like sewer dirt- yet 
there is nothing out there.  Our lateral lines and everything go off the other side of the house.  
The only thing we could think of was those nasty leaves that rotted in the ground year after year with those bushes?  Strange!!!  
This is how it looked once they were all concreted in.  
I was so glad we didn't have to move the 48 chevy because the sunflowers growing
in the bed are almost to the top now.  It's all staying put.  

The rain has  kept this area a muddy mess.  
We'll probably haul in a little dirt soon.  Once it dries up a little more;
Myguy said he'd put the blade on the tractor and level it out better and see what we end up with. 
In amongst all this time period, I've stayed busy gardening and cleaning up around here.
Our old picnic table is rotting badly but with this coat of paint hopefully it will last out the rest of the  season at least.  I think the next one needs to  be out of cedar.  
 Myguy cut a circle hole in the middle of it for me and we 
set an umbrella in there.  It really shades it nicely and already we've enjoyed supper under it.  

 Over Memorial day weekend we got the panels up.  
Was not sure I was going to beable to lift them with Myguy but we managed.  
They're heavier than you'd ever think- 
You can just make out the edge of the garden in this picture and see all the extra room we now have to do something new with?!   I'm so excited.     
 My olde sketch book started filling pretty quickly of new little nooks and garden crannies.
Can hardly wait to get started. 
 The other day on Facebook, a friend of mine shared this pinterest photo.
I loved it so much and wanted to make one in our garden as well.  I'm sharing it here in case
you are inspired by it as I was.  I showed it to Myguy and the other day when he came home from work he had a surprise for me.   

Campfire stakes!  
With stars no less. 
(For those of you who don't know; that's our last name.)
 On our next adventure to get trailer axels in nearby town,
we stopped at a new flea market/antique shop and picked up this olde pot.  
Then I dug out a circle of sod and got the ground all hoed up.  Was so glad we still had a roll of weed barrier left.  I laid that on top and cut x's for the marigolds to be planted in.  Then added a little potting soil on top of that and found rocks we'd brought home out Jeeping.  
 This was the instagram photo I shared of it.  
Can't wait to see how the marigolds grow and every time I glance over at it; I'm kind of  amazed how much it really  does look like a camp fire.  
 Other than that; the other two chairs got planted. 
This one still sits inside the greenhouse. 
In case any of you are thinking of planting a chair and have not ever made one- 
I wanted to share a tip I learned doing these last ones that will help me alot in the future.
The last ones I made; I used chicken wire and stapled that  in the shape of a basket underneath the chair to hold the coconut basket?  These two; ... I used screen instead and man was that ever easier.  You can just use a scissors on screen and it staples  so easily too.  From now on any project like this I'll definitely use screen instead.  
 And this is one of my next projects.  
My sweet friend Shirley messaged me out of the blue and asked if I'd want an old tub she wasn't using anymore.  I can't even tell you how excited I was!!  
Ohmygosh... what a gift her friendship is!!  
God is awesome like that- connecting our dots to other people dots.  
You know how I met her?  We just sorta bumped into eachother at a second hand shop one day.  
We got to talking and exchanged info right there in the shop.  
She's the treasure I found that day!!!!

Well, I have so much more to share but will leave you today with
 a scripture picture:  
Just this morning I turned on the television while making our bed, and listened to a wonderful sermon
on HOPE.  
My hope's in You Lord!  

God's good- yall!
love, Leaon Mary

7 comments:

Joy said...

Your 'fire pits' are awesome! When I saw the photo, I said out loud, "Oh, that is soooo cute!" Great idea! Another thought, maybe there is something in the ground killing the bushes, instead of the leaves making the ground stink, but who knows. Doesn't matter now cause you have a wonderful privacy fence up and more room for your creative gardening. When we installed a privacy fence (just like yours) at our house many moons ago, I had my husband put the 'nice' side facing our yard. I figured, who cares what the neighbor gets to look at and it made our yard look so much prettier. Besides, we only ran the fence along the property line between us and the neighbor, it wasn't like it was seen by someone driving along the street. At any rate, looks like you are super productive and I admire you for that!

Joy said...

oh, and your picnic table looks great! I'm scraping a wood porch swing and repainting to get another year out of it too.

rebecca said...

That was HARD work! The fence looks amazing, Lea.
I count you among my most creative and inspiring blogging friends!
I'm kind of jealous of that friend you met randomly at a thrift store. :)
Can't wait to see what you do with the tub.

Terra said...

This is a great post full of goodies; your campfire pot full of plants does look like a campfire, and your yard is looking good. We got an umbrella for our patio table this year too; they are useful aren't they. You emailed me about books and I am thinking of some.

Anonymous said...

I always enjoy visiting the Potting Shed but oh my what a lot of work is involved in the upkeep of a garden. I love your turquoise parasol and would enjoy sitting there in the shade with some iced tea but that would not be fair watching you do all the work. The marigold campfire is so cute I love it. I can't wait to see what ideas you come up with for the newest are of the garden.....the fun part is planning isn't it.

It is soooo warm here in Scotland. Our temperatures have been up in the 70's which is hot for us. I usually stay out of the sun at the hottest time of the day.

Thank you for sharing ALL your hard work. I pray you have a blessed day.

Sunflower love to you all!!!

Deborah Nolan said...

Dear Leaon Mary. .. you have certainly been busy with all your projects. Love your campfire look. Just beautiful. Hope you are having a blessed day.

Attic Clutter said...

Hi Lea
Oh love all the things u do..fun fun..
such a lovely spirit :) you are..
see u on fb..
hugs,pattycakes