Swartburg Beauty Iceplant

The colors are ridiculously bright! It's practically neon.

Sprouting Onions

So apparently the tip that I got on planting onion bottoms has been validated. Here's one sprouting up, and the rest look promising even if they don't make for a good photo.

Pansy in Homemade Pot

Just a tin can that's been drilled for drainage holes and spray painted. The pansy is surviving from November despite all the neglect.

Greek Pattern Plant

Western Back Plot

New Side Plot

Flowering Rose

Arborsculpting the Eve's Necklace

Country Home Ending

Country Home Magazine sent me their final issue. The magazine is shutting down which makes me rather sad because the aesthetic is lovely. Sigh.

BUSY WEEKEND!

Phew, it was a busy weekend, but only because I made it busy... damn.

Friday evening, I was outside and decided I'd finally had enough of the side plot next to my slab patio. The slab has obviously shifted over the years and is now slanted into the slope of the yard. This causes some flooding at that corner and makes the whole thing a bit of a wreck. I started digging and trenching and then digging and trenching some more. Soon I was close to having a garden plot. Saturday, I went out for some plants. I bought even more liriope, some cyclomen, some Swedish Ivy, a sage, and a Japanese Maple... I'm holding my breath that the Japanese Maple makes it. The plot is on the north side of the house, gets good morning sun, and is generally temperate as compared to other parts. When I got back home, I finished digging and started planting. My bf thought it was the best plot we'd done so far. I got down the decomposed granite for drainage, some compost for the plants, weed barrier, and mulch. The whole thing probably took me about 14 hours total. I also painted an old pot holder (not sure what to call it) and potted some cilantro and basil yesterday. That took nearly no time, so I'm not counting it.

Most of yesterday was devoted to cleaning, errands, and the lawn. I went through with my new garden fork (love it!) and aerated the front lawn. I poured the second round of nematodes, scattered Buffalo Grass and Blue Grama seeds, laid on a bit of compost, and watered. That took maybe 3 hours or so.

Other random stuff:
-Potted up a viola and a creeping jenny
-Made more "pots" from tin cans
-Made a terrarium
-Added labels to my gardening scrapbook
-Reorganized the pots
-Pulled some weeds
-Shuffled plants from out to in and in to out due to risk of frost
-Pinched the sage, lambs ear, and chrysanthemum

There's always so much to do though. I need to stop making projects.

Tree Shaping

I'm slowly shaping a tree (Eve's Necklace). Right now I'm just getting the trunks to space apart properly, and I'm using modern technological advancements such as rocks, twine, and knots. Here's the Wikipedia article on the art.

I also want an espalier citrus tree. REAL BAD!

Pics to come of tree in place.

It's Been Raining

and veg love rain. My kohlrabi has doubled in size in the past couple of weeks.

BF Weeding the Veg

Convert a Birdbath into a Planter

Problem 1: I have a birdbath which is just about the worst birdbath ever - it leaks because it's unsealed cement. I can fill it with water, and in an hour the water has drained out.

Problem 2: I have some sedum ogdum that's never looked very good where I put it, and having had some in a hanging basket, it really looks best when cascading.

Solution: Put sedum in birdbath.

This sedum has shallow roots and will grow according to the container it's in. It can take a heavy rain and drought.

So I dug up the two sedum and basically smashed them together into the birdbath. I'd already dug up the rest and put them in a large shallow glazed pot with some oxalis, so these were the last two awaiting a home. Thankfully, they both fit into the birdbath with an attractive amount of overflow.

They even have some new growth!

Kitschy Cacti Kit

Oof, a few days ago I bought a cacti starter kit, and it's quite kitsch but looks like such fun! I'm actually quite excited about starting some.

Make a Bog for Your Carnivorous Plant

I made a bog for my Venus Fly Trap yesterday. I reused a bulk food container and some river rock.

1. Fill clear outer container (e.g., bulk food container) until pot is at the same height as the outer container.

2. Place cup on pot. These typically come with the carnivorous plant and aren't recommended to remain on.

3. Fill space between pot and outer container with river rock. By keeping the cup on the pot, rocks won't spill into the delicate plant and ruin it.

4. Fill outer container with water until about 1" of the pot is submerged.

Done!

Painted Pots

Huge Lowe's Sale of Plants

My local Lowe's got a bunch of plants in, and so there were a lot of the older plants at 50% off. I bought up. 36 Pixie Lilies, 2 Eunonymous, 2 Green Cloud Sage Bushes, 40 Liriope (20 giant and 20 silver tipped?), 6 Nandinas, and 2 shrubs that I forgot the name of but they're going in the back shade garden. The lilies are going in the front garden. The Eunonymous, Nandinas, and Sage are going in the western side garden. The rest are for the back shade garden.

I planted a lot of lilies today. I also planted my paper whites, erlicheer, Black Knight gladiolas, and assorted cannas. Phew.

And I discovered my Oriental Lilies that I purchased in December/January are returning. This will be the first I've seen them in their proper glory:A full flat of Giant Liriope:To be placed in this garden:

I finally trellesed my roses:
And they're even budding!

Continuance of Sidewalk Garden

So today is further work on the sidewalk garden. My boyfriend and I went to the nursery and bought some more garden soil and some decomposed granite. We yanked out the logs and cut them down.

Yanked out logs:

How to Recover a Cane Chair

This is great! I have a cane recliner, and it badly needs to be recovered.

Unknown Houseplant

I have a seriously cool houseplant, but I have no idea what it is. It has variegated patty-like leaves on red stems, and it sends out small bunches of mini plants on thin strings. Anyone know?

My Cacti Are Sick :(((

I think I'll attempt a treatment with a mild vinegar solution. Apparently my grandmother cured everything with Windex, so it's tempting to try a mild ammonia solution too.

A River Runs Through It (i.e., my new sidewalk garden)

The recent rains have been very welcome, but I would have preferred if they hadn't come all at once. A lot of the rain has created a small dry river bed (formally wet) in my garden, and it sucks. Now I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures before the rain, but after a bit of even more dirt, it'll be recovered. It's tempting to fill in with rocks, but everything really needs that dirt for growth. There isn't a whole lot in there.

That's life.

Fortunately, only one side was hard hit. The over side just got a coating of sand in river-shape, but otherwise, the dirt is just underneath.

Some plants in the garden

Purple Sage:Lamb's Ear:
Iceplant (I need to look up the type):
A transplanted Purple Fountain Grass:
Loads of Daylilies (marked by little tombstones... ER! I MEAN! plastic plant markers):

Feminist Blogging

Who knew there was a community and that it was so large? http://www.blogher.com/

Laptop Messenger Bag

Here's a nice simple design for a laptop messenger bag. My boyfriend's been looking for one, and we haven't been able to find one he likes. I like the design in general, but I'd like to add an extra compartment that's larger. I don't think the small pocket would be large enough.

DIY Contest

http://contests.apartmenttherapy.com/2009/jumpstart

Doors Are So Often Forgotten

It's true. Doors get forgotten so easily, but I know for me that I loathe the doors in my house. They're boring, poorly painted, and pretty cheap. They are made from wood, but they are hollow and rather unsubstantial. I just found this on Apartment Therapy through OnePrettyThing. They have some good ideas to jump start a project. I'm think using faux leather fabric and fabric glue would be very nice.

Grocery Tote Completed

I did actually make the tote I wanted to. Pics to come.

Girl Scouts Are Busy Selling!

I've been approached by a number of girl scouts so far, and each time I politely tell them "Not today" or "No thank you" until yesterday. Yesterday I saw a girl scout and her mom pulling a wagon of cookies door-to-door, and of course I was outside busy with the sidewalk garden. I ask my boyfriend for some money, and while he's getting a few bills, the girl scout asks me how many boxes I'd like. I say, "I better only get one or else I'll get really, really fat." And the girl scout says, "Oh my gosh, TELL me about it!" She was probably 8 years old.

Sidewalk Bed Filled!

So after bagging and hauling dirt, putting down weed barrier, dumping dirt, planting, making the pathway, I'm tired. We did this all on a very windy weekend, and now I'm glad because it's raining! Huzzah! I don't have any final pics because the light ran away by the time it was done, but I have some almost done shots.

Further note, out of those 17 pots of daylilies I was able to tease out 6-8 plants on average from each pot, and these puppies needed some help. I found a maggot on one, and there were lots of rotted roots which just made me sad. They all didn't particularly need dividing, but they all badly needed planting. Teasing and planting probably took me 4 hours or so. It was a pretty lengthy process.

Here's the high-tech weed barrier I put down underneath the garden soil:

A mixture of cardboard, junkmail, phone book pages, and shredded office paper. All together I was able to cover the space, but it was difficult with the windy conditions. Phew.

For anyone that wants to do this, I recommend getting a large bucket of water and dunking pages/shreds in it. It isn't totally necessary with heavy cardboard. The shredded paper was perfect for cracks and corners since it can be smashed up to fit any space.

Here are some of the logs stacked side-by-side for the walk-way:

Gopher Plant next to the mailbox:

Spineless Prickly Pear Cactus also by the mailbox:

New Seeds

I love seeds because of the variety. You can find plants that you wouldn't be able to find at the nursery because the plants are either hard to transplant or not popular enough to warrant growing them for transplant. Over the weekend, my boyfriend and I purchased a few seeds and probably would have planted them if it weren't so windy.

I want a slipcover!!

I want a nice slipcover for my oversized sofa (92" long!!). My boyfriend and I picked it up used, and the fabric is understandably worn in places. I've jimmied a temp slipcover on it, but it looks sad. I'd really like to use a nice Waverly Toille (red and white, please), but phew, that's expensive. Cheaper than having it recovered though, and if you fit the slipcover right, it's not such a big deal. With the number of animals in my house, I doubt it would be wise to not use one.

Here's a plan that I'd like to use.

Cool Pattern Drafting Site

I came across this site through Tipnut.com: Weekend Designer.

This pattern-drafting blog is meant to show anyone that it is not difficult to fabricate fashionable clothing, accessories, and soft home furnishings.

All designs shown on this site are samples culled from the world of fashion and design. In no way am I claiming that they are my own creations but use them as examples of what you can do yourself. Most of the tutorials illustrate basic concepts in pattern-drafting or are patternless designs.

I am particularly drawn to the bags... I might try to make one with the loads and loads of fabric that I have unwittingly stockpiled. Boooo and yaaaay!

Never try to do calculations in your head

The calculations I did yesterday are horribly wrong.

Here's today's attempt. Something is wrong with my angle calculations. I'm not sure what's up with it, so I'm hoping the proportions are right.

Also the large radius of the circle will be Lb which isn't calculated or shown on the pieces of paper. For the calculations, it's 62.4353594.

How to calculate and create a snug cover for a pot

A pot is basically the bottom portion of a cone. To make a pot cover, you must finish the cone in theory to create the dimensions. A cone is also just a portion of a much larger circle. It's important to remember these things so it all makes sense as you're doing the calculations.

I apologize that it isn't easier, but it's not super easy to make something fit well when precision is everything. I made these instructions based on easy to take measurements that would be more accurate than other measurements (e.g., circumference rather than radius and length rather than height). I'll be posting pictures once I've gone through this procedure and have successfully made a pot cover.

Ugh, this problem has been bugging me for a while, but I was too lazy to actually sit down and devise a plan. Now I finally did it, and it seems correct and easy enough to do.

1. Take the circumference of the wider portion, and this will be called Ca.
2. Take the circumference of the narrower portion, and this will be called Cb.
3. To find the radius, use the age old equation of: C = 2πr. Do this for both Ca and Cb to make ra and rb, respectively.
4. Measure the distance along the pot between the wider portion and the narrow portion. This will be called La. This is necessary to get an accurate measure of the height of the theoretical cone.
5. Take the difference ra and rb. This will be called Ba.
6. Using a2 + b2 = c2, you can now calculate the height of the pot. La is the hypotenuse, and Ba is b in the equation. Call this height Aa.
7. Now it’s time to use proportions. The smaller triangle you just calculated is directly proportional to the larger triangle for the theoretical cone. So: ra/Ba = Aa/Ab. Ab is the height of the theoretical cone and is also the radius of a much larger circle as cones are really just a portion of a circle that’s been rolled up.
8. Set a compass or a length of string to the same length as Ab.
9. Mark where you set the compass in the center of a piece of paper and draw a circle using this point as the center of the circle.
10. Subtract La from Ab, and this will be called Lb and will be the radius of a smaller circle to fit exactly within the larger circle.
11. Set a compass or a length of string to the same length as Lb.
12. Draw a circle using the center you drew for the larger circle.
13. Cut this circle out, fold it in half, and cut at the half-way mark.
14. Calculate tan(Ba/Aa) to find the angle. You can plug this into Google to get the calculation if you don’t have a scientific or graphing calculator.
15. Mark the angle on the half circle and connect the points to the larger circle.
16. Cut out this large piece of the pie leaving a little extra on one side. This will extra will become a tab that will be hidden.
17. Cut along the edge of the smaller circle.
18. At an angle, cut tabs off the extra portion so it looks like a trapezoid. This will require only two cuts.
19. Phew! After all that, you’re done. You should have something that will snuggly wrap around your pot.

Aluminum Can Flowers

Here's a craft project I came up with, and it's so easy!

Take a soda can and rinse it with a little water. Let it dry.

Cut off the bottom of the can using a pair of scissors and leave about 1 cm around the rim. Don't worry about jagged edges but try to leave one as much as possible.

Cut the upper half into strips until you reach the lid of the can. Leave the lid intact.

Pull the strips down.

Cut the end of each strip into a soft petal point. This will clean up a lot of those rough edges.

Crimp the middle of each petal and pull the tip of the petal just a little bit down. This will make it look a little more like a petal because flower petals aren't perfect.

For the bottom part of the can, snip every 1/2 cm or so pulling the scissors down as you snip.

Push each section down towards the center of the bottom so now sharp edges are sticking out.

Spray paint the pieces. The bottom of the can will be the center of the flower, and the upper part of the can will be the petals.

Once the spray paint is dry, gently press the bottom of the can into the center of the petals. It will hold just enough, and you can pop it back out with a paperclip or a butter knife.

Make an extra layer of petals for a double blossom or extra depth and more colors.

You can use it as a container which is one of the possibilities I'm considering as favors for my wedding. I was going to make these and fill the space with a little dirt and some seeds. Guests can keep the flower as decoration or recycle it if they don't particularly care for it. Outside of that, I'm creating a giganto bottle tree, and I plan on hanging a bunch of these flowers on it for extra color, depth, and texture.