Late Spring in the Garden + Quick Garden Craft Idea

Well friends, the weather is starting to heat up and that must mean it’s time to bring out the cushions, move outdoor furniture around and clean off the patio. Today is $10 on the 10th and this month our theme is Outdoors/Gardens ~ a perfect time to take you on a tour and to make a fun garden craft idea…

Grab a cup of tea or coffee, friends!

Before I begin, I’d like to give a shout-out thank you to Tammy of Patina and Paint for getting this party together for us, thanks Tammy! Now springtime in our North Texas gardens means windy days and rain, lots of it! Under our two backyard oak trees, grass doesn’t grow and we are looking into putting in artificial turf. That’ll hopefully happen next fall. So for now, I deal with wiping off dirt splashed onto every pot whenever it rains.

Actually until just recently we have had our garden furniture stacked quietly on the patio and a couple of outdoor wicker chairs stacked along our garage wall… The above photograph shares our south facing garage wall with all its “finery.” Winter was really cold this year plus Yoda can’t see as well (he is 16 years old +/-), so we need to keep the patio clear for him nowadays.

This post has been a good excuse for me to get outside and move things around, do a little cleaning. The price for all this? Absolutely free!

I was trying to think if I have bought anything new for outdoors recently, and I haven’t. I have bought a lot of garden soil for potting up plants and for in-ground planting this year, though! Each of those bags cost between $2.95 – $10/ bag, depending upon size. Gardening is not an inexpensive hobby, friends!!

The transformation of the backyard will be sooo worth it! We just received approval to move our fence out, so we will beginning that project soon. The cost of lumber has skyrocketed because of the housing boom and people remodeling this year (and not enough supplies), so we may have to reuse most of the fencing that is already here. It’s in okay shape and we could replace it next year as prices come back down (fingers crossed!).

But let’s get back into the backyard garden, shall we? Here’s how it looked when I wrote a post last month called Finding Ladybugs While at an English Spring Tea in the Garden. I finished the last few bricks which needed to be laid and added the mortar sand just afterwards. This side of the garden is now done and I have been planting since late fall (December).

Nepeta or catmint is one of the plants I put in for its full-grown height of 24″. It is busy filling in and enjoying the late spring sunshine!

In the back flowerbed, David Austin rose Sceptre d’Isle is beginning to put out its spring blooms! It has a nice light scent and is so pretty when in full flower.

The petals start out darker pink, like the first photograph, then fade to a pale blush with almost white petals in the outermost layers… Rains at the wrong time as it was in bud caused the discolorations, but it is still beautiful…

Up near the patio, the new orange tree is doing well! Consistent rains and watering (but not too much) is making this a happy tree!

A garden gift-giving craft idea

Recently I got together with three friends (and more of their friends!) whom I knew from when we all lived at Wagon Master RV Park and Alpaca Farm. As a gift, I put together three pots and gave them each a pretty flowering plant so they could each have fun making a mini garden! I thought you might like to do something similar for when you get together with friends whom you may not have seen over this past year due to self-quarantining. This also would be fun to do as a planting party!

Supplies you will need:

• small plastic pots (1 for each person on your list)
• plastic zipper baggies (2 for each pot)
• potting soil
• fertilizer (I gave each of my friends a little Bio-Tone Starter Fertilizer for planting up their plants)
• pretty flowering plant for the current season

Super easy gifting ~ Just fill up two zipper baggies: (#1) with enough potting soil to fill plastic pot, (#2) with a small amount of granular fertilizer, to help the plant establish good roots. Next, just stack your baggies into a pretty plastic pot, then top with your small potted flower. Wrap the pot with cellophane and a pretty ribbon, or set everything into a gift bag!

Basically, I went to Lowe’s and picked up three pretty plastic pots and they cost less than $10 for all three. The potted flowers I already had as well as the other items, so the cost for each potting gift was about $5.00. Such an easy gift to give and fun for the recipient to enjoy!

And that’s my idea for a garden project for this time, everyone! I hope you have enjoyed this tour of my garden and seeing what’s in bloom. I know you will enjoy visiting everyone’s posts and seeing what they have put together for you!!

Patti ~ Pandora’s Box

Cindy ~ Cloches and Lavender

Tammy ~ Patina and Paint

Terrie ~ Decorate and More with Tip

Allyson ~ Southern Sunflowers

Ann ~ Apple Street Cottage

Barbara ~ French Ethereal (you are here!)

Happy springtime,

Barb 🙂