Deck the Deck with Color

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Saturday afternoon I went to Country Way, my garden center of choice, just a mile or so from my house. I am continuing to downsize my gardening ventures, largely because I pretty much spend every waking moment on my beloved Pine Tree Designs. Life changes.

Last year and this spring, I have given up two good sized garden beds. Last year we removed the timber borders around the back bed and Steve mowed it down (mostly weeds at that point). It was our first year with our riding lawn mower and I was watching him out my studio window. He was too far away to see clearly, but I swear there was glee in his eyes, pedal to the metal, running roughshod over this area instead of trying to maneuver around it. Cracked me up.

This spring I had Simon and his cousin move about 75 rocks from around the perennial bed in the front yard, over to Gretchen's house. That bed was in place when we bought the house 8 years ago so the front yard is really going to look different without it. Gretchen is going to come over and rescue a few plants, then Steve can have at this one too.

This year I also removed the double shepherd's hook from outside my studio window. Last year I hung a lush fern on one side and a thistle sock feeder on the other side. I really loved the way it looked but they were both a little bit of a pain to water and fill. Again, Steve's happy about having one less thing to mow around.

I usually have this plastic saucer on top of an overturned plastic terra cotta looking pot, serving as a bird bath. I had that outside my studio window too. But I used the pot for a cutting I planted to take to work where I'm trying to fill the top of a bank of filing cabinets with plants. And sticking with my new plan of situating every gardening-related thing on the deck, here's the new birdbath variation. (I saw a couple of beauuutiful tall, hand thrown pottery birdbaths at The Wizard of Clay on Saturday. $225 for a birdbath is a skosh out of my budget however.)

I bought 2 hanging baskets this year - down from 3. I love these combination pots that Country Way sells. That's sweet potato vine in this pot with the purple flowers above - always a good grower.

I usually have this kettle (with the now warped bottom) on the lower deck but I moved it up to the bigger deck area. For the last several years I've planted a spike with 2 sweet potato vines - one green, one purple. This year I planted one green sweet potato vine, a pink geranium, some purple thing I can't recall and a spike, for height.

I think I need more plants in here. I love the colors of this coleus with the light green sweet potato vine. (Sensing a theme here??) I had some cosmos do spectacularly here last year so I think I'll buy some of those again.

This is a heavy planter we bought last year specifically to sit on this board that has warped and keeps sticking up just enough to be a nuisance. No amount of nailing (should try screws, now that I think about it) would hold it down so we gave this a shot. It bugs me a tiny bit because it's kind of in an odd place, but it bugs me less than that stupid misbehaving board. Anyway, it's a cute rabbit and these little yellow flowers make me happy.

This is from last year. You can see the bird bath there and how I tried to build this little area around that bunny so it didn't look like it was out in the middle for no reason. This year - I just don't care so much how it looks. You can see the hummingbird feeder up there too, another thing I'm not doing this year. Love the hummers but you have to change the liquid fairly often so I hung the thistle sock feeder there this year.

I've applied to some pretty big craft shows this year so I really want to make every effort to do my very best. Downsizing the garden heads me in that direction.

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