The slugs have been so abundant this year, I decided this entry deserves a repost.

The slugs have been so abundant this year, I decided this entry deserves a repost.

 

bane of my existence

SLUGS!

Ok...well they may not be the actual bane of my existence, but they come very close!  I can't tell you how frustrating it is to go out to the garden and find half eaten petunias, holey hosta and shredded zinnias.  If you're having this problem the cause is probably a very slimy one...slugs!  Nasty!  Bleh!

Here's the scoop.  Slugs are made up primarily of water and mucous (with a little bumpy skin thrown in).  They thrive in moist conditions and are fairly nocturnal in their eating habits.  They're gross and I despise them!  Left uncontrolled, they can destroy your garden.  I have had to replace many flowers already this year.

So what do you do?  Annihilate them!  Anyway you can.  Be merciless!  I know my gentle organic friends may take offense to my tactics but I spend way too much time and too much money to let some slimy creatures use my gardens as a free buffet. 

How do you do it then?


1.      Salt.  (sort of melts them like the Wicked Witch of the West).  I have friends who go out in the evenings with their salt shakers and take care of their slugs that way.  Downside: you can only kill the ones you see and excessive salt can harm a garden.

2.       Beer.  Yup that's right.  Pour a little Pabst Blue Ribbon (or the ale of your choosing) in a shallow dish and strategically place it in your garden.  The slugs will crawl right in and drown!  They are attracted to the yeast in the beer.  Downside: big garden-lots of dishes and you have to empty that nastiness in the morning.  GROSS!

3.       Molluscicides..   Chemicals.  Slug poison.  Now we're talking!  The most common form is 'Bug-Geta'.  This particular metaldehyde comes in granular or pellet form; just sprinkle a handful of them around your affected plants (or along the entire garden if you're infested) and the slugs will DIE!  Downside:  can be costly, you can't use it in your vegetable garden and it can be harmful to dogs if eaten in large quantities.  This is my solution of choice.

I'm sure there are many, many other ways to control these disgusting creatures - I suggest Google.

Before I forget - they are tenacious and only need a moist surface to crawl over so check your window boxes and containers for them too.  Sneaky, slimy, destructive, disgusting things.

Getting a Grasp on Grass

"Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself."

                                                                                    -Zen Proverb

Yes it does!  And if you don't do something about it, it will grow into a behemoth and ruin your design!  Now I am a lover of ornamental grasses and use them whenever possible.  They are elegant, fairly inexpensive, add height or width (depending upon which grass you choose) and have winter interest.   And while they are low maintenance, NOTHING is no maintenance.  So here is a what you should be doing now that spring is here.

This is a Pampas grass  I planted to hide some electrical stuff that couldn't be buried.  As you can see, it's pretty beaten up and has exhausted its winter beauty.  



 























 To encourage earlier growth, and give it a tidier look, you need to cut it back to about 4-6 inches.  Simple.











 Every few years, you also need to divide your grass.  If you don't, you will have a monster on your hands. Look at this mess (not sure who the dude with the duck bill was).













 
 


Dividing is simple.  Decide how much you want to save, knowing that your grass will grow 1/3 to double every season.  Then slice your shovel right down into it.  Dig down as far as the root and dig it up.  The delightful result of all your sweat is that you now have another beautiful ornamental grass to replant!  







Easy, easy and necessary.  Don't delay, you'll feel like a champ!   Look at all that new growth just waiting to take off!  

Posies, Picture Frames and Plastic Eggs

 “Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”
~Virgil Kraft

Ah...it's springtime and almost Easter.  I love this time of year - so full of possibilities with every day looking a bit greener and fresher than the one before.  After two months of dormancy, I'm a bit crazy with all the fresh air and jobs to do!!

Anyway.  It took awhile, but I finished the project I began last time I posted.  (Yea! That's one down.) And I wanted to show you the final result. 

Of course you've been faithfully following my blog, so you recognize this mantle from seasons past - always a joy to redo.  This Easter, my client requested I make it over for an event she is hosting in this space (stay posted for blog photos to follow).

My challenge with this project was scale    - that fireplace is HUGE!  I also wanted to add the colors of spring but have it 'go' with the earthiness of a barn.  As you saw in my last post, I worked on the idea of painting, distressing and moss-ing up some old picture frames.  I loved the finished project, but needed another frame to tie it all together.  So I had the idea of taking another picture frame, putting plywood in it and painting the plywood with chalkboard paint.  This would provide the focal point needed.  I threw some left over grapevine over the top of it, added a few springs of forsythia and surrounded it with the other frames.  And it works!




These adorable votive holders (courtesy of Pottery Barn), gorgeous pot with some colorful spring flowers, and a few eggs thrown around make a nice grouping.

















Another consideration in this fireplace, is the hearth.  I moved the heavier cast iron pot and fire irons to the left in hopes the sunlight streaming through the windows would help to soften their bulk.  On the right, I made this little egg tree.  (Now, I've got to confess, I've never been a big fan of plastic eggs hung in trees; in fact I usually make fun of them.  But these eggs were so beautiful and colorful, I had to eat crow a bit and give it a try; hopefully with a bit of flair.) I found this old milk container at a local antique market (LOVE it!), and used dogwood branches because of their great shape and tiny branches. Great color and unexpected sparkle.






The final piece was this cute little bunny nest.  I found a dusty old wreath, added a few new (clean) vines, moss and feathers to make a nest.  It is large enough to fill this space and hold it's own against the egg tree.

 So there you have it.  A few old picture frames, a couple posies and a smattering of plastic eggs.  Fun, inexpensive and unique. 

 

Picture Perfect

I don't know about you, but I find it way too easy to fall into a rut and do the same things over and over again, even seasonal decorating.  When it is your business, that is unacceptable.  So this spring when a client asked me to re-do the mantle in her barn, I set out to come up with something new and different...and I did.

I started off with some frames I found laying around my garage (we all have those).  I removed whatever was in them, dusted them off, painted them flat white then painted two of them a springy blue and two of them lime green.




          
                                                                                                                                                               

  





 I wanted them to look a bit weathered, so as the frames dried, I gently wiped off some of the paint.  You can see the end result here and how easy it was.  Once they dried, and I played with them a bit on the mantle, I realized they just weren't quite right; they looked too clean and frankly, were a bit boring.  So I decided to give them a bit more character.

  Somehow I came up with the idea of adding moss to them...and it worked!  So I  hot glued the frame and pressed on bits of moss to different spots on each frame, making sure not to put them on the same on each frame. 

 I loved the result!  It gave the frames a unique look and added needed dimension.

But...

 It got to be too much of a good thing, and to do it to all four frames was just too uniform.  So I wrapped twine around two of them and added just a touch of moss to the twine.  On this frame, I glued a plastic egg in the corner.  Too cute.  I'll show you the final result next time. 

So have fun, be creative and see what you come up with on your own!

Let it snow...

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

 - Sammy Cahn

Last week I used a Shakespearean quote about not wanting roses in December and what did I cut and bring inside yesterday??  ROSES!  I live in NORTHeast Pennsylvania for crying out loud and it's balmy and warm outside - puts a damper on my Christmas cheer, I gotta tell ya!

(probably just lost twenty readers due to that little rant - sorry)

Anyway, happy December 6th!  As per request, I'm jotting this down quickly before I head out to decorate a client's home: another little 'How To' - Christmas swags!  







Your first step is to determine the size swag you want.  Mine were going under an outside light, so I didn't want them huge.  Here I chose a solid branch and trimmed it to the size I wanted.













Then I began to wire other like sized branches to the top (please excuse the tired manicure - there are just not enough hours in the day this time of year).  After a few branches are added, you have your swag base.










Next I wire or hot glue the other types of greenery I want in my sway.  For this one, I chose holly, variegated holly and juniper.

Then I tie a ribbon around the top, making sure to tie it over the wires to cover them.  Once that is done, I cut off the excess branches at the top and trim the overall piece to make sure it looks good.

Then hang and enjoy!  Good luck with this one - I'd love to see pictures of some you have made.

Where to begin

"At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth; 

~ William Shakespear

It is officially Christmas time (at least it is in my book and because I'm the author of this blog, I guess that is that)!  I spent the last five days decking the halls (and lobbies and atriums and meeting rooms) of various hotels which was fun and interesting.  But today I got to begin decorating my residential clients' houses...ahhh....such love cannot be described.   I have had several requests for tutorials on what I do - which is a bit puzzling to me because nothing I do is so spectacular that anyone couldn't do it - but I decided to be bold and expose myself...don't go there.
 

Here I have a 'mixed green' wreath with a few pine cones thrown in for good measure that I purchased at a local greenhouse.  It's nice...just...nice.  But it's a good base.

I'm not wild about the placement or size of these pine cones - in my opinion, they lack signfigance placed this way.  So I cut them off the wreath and put them aside for later.

Although this is a mixed green wreath, it's not mixed enough for me.  So I popped out to my back yard and cut off a few bits of boxwood and cyprus, made some bundles then glued them into my wreath.

Note:  many people prefer to wire everything to their wreaths.  I find this limits exact placement and angle and takes forever.

And viola!  A very mixed greens wreath!

I took one and a half of these awesome silver picks, cut them up and strategically placed (hot glued) them around to give the wreath an icy, blingy kind of look. 











The finished product:  I added back the pine cones, tied on a bow, glued on a gold, glass pine cone ornament and a few more silver twigs to tie it all together.  Pretty easy.  You can add you own colors, twigs, greens and bows to make it reflect you - it's very, very easy.

The last lovely smile...

“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”

William Cullen Bryant

...and also my favorite time of year (although if you live on the US East Coast, it's been a pretty soggy,dreary autumn).  However, as much as I want to draw out the color and fragrance and delicious vibe of the season, I have to move on to the next.  So today's blog will be my last, lovely salute to this lovely smile.

This is a centerpiece I threw together for an outside table. As you can see, there is a myriad of different gourds which provide color, texture and visual interest ( I LOVE the bumpy green one!), some mini mums and cabbages which I popped into small pots and bittersweet vine. To give the height and structure needed for this space, I used my client's cake stand as a prop. Add some tall fall candles and it's balanced, colorful and cozy.





I took the same theme inside to the home's fireplace mantle. It is amazing the difference a few well placed and well colored gourds make. Again, I used the bittersweet and grapevine to add a pop of color and substance.











I wanted to hang something at the kitchen entrance to dress it up, so I made this from hydrangea (grown on the property), bittersweet, grapevine, feathers and ribbon. Simple and pretty.

























One of my favorite things to do at the end of summer is to remove all the tired flowers from the containers and window boxes and reinvent them for fall. Here I used this gorgeous purple cabbage as the focal point then surrounded it with peppers, miniature mums, small white cabbages, and bittersweet vine. To give it a bit more height and fun, I put the lighted twigs in the back. So this arrangement looks good during the day and has a lovely, soft glow at night




Last, but certainly not least, are the fabulous cornstalk pillars. I LOVED making these (although they were physically pain to do). I put them at the entrance to the property and they were really welcoming. For smaller properties, one would work, but here, three was just right. Part of the fun was getting all the tiny pumpkins to encircle the pillars - a local boy had grown them to make money for his college fund: I bought him out so it was doubly good.






This is just a sampling of what you can do to celebrate Autumn. I had such fun with every project.

Back in the Saddle

Hello, Hello, Hello, my blogging friends!  I am back from my annual Field Hockey Mom break.  The season is over, the girls are alive and I have a bit more of my life back.  I hope I haven't lost everyone in the interim!

It's now November, all the fall gorgeousness is beginning to wane and my garden season is pretty much at an end for this year (with the exception of a few things I need to tie up, cut back and rake off).  I always get a bit sad and grumpy about now too, BUT I'm taking lots of Vitamin D and I'm focusing on the fact that it is also holiday staging time!  That always perks me up.

I have a new facebook page for the Cottage Gardener,  The-Cottage-Gardener, where I've been showing my stuff a bit.  I'm actually already posting Christmas pictures, but I will start here with my fall stuff. 

This is the mantle in the barn of one of my clients.  The stone work itself is so gorgeous, I wanted to make sure I wasn't competing with it but complimenting it.  As you can see, it is primarily neutral in tone.  With the exception of the shutter on the left and the live elements (pumpkins, flowers, corn, ect), everything I used in this project was a 'found' object.  I used some beat up old wooded candle sticks, an old window screen, two round cake plates, an old tin and a couple old tool boxes.  The grapevine I took from another project and the bittersweet vine I pulled off the the trees in a forest near my house.

I love the unexpectedness of the blue/green shutter against all the rustic fall color here.

I find the bittersweet vine needs the structure of the grapevine to give it the substance it needs - it can get lost on its own.

And below is a closer look at what I call my pumpkin topiary (although there isn't a pumpkin in the bunch).  I love stacking them to add height, color and texture.  I love this one.

Making things beautiful doesn't have to be expensive.  Dig around your garage or basement and hit your local junk shops for fun things to use.  You'll be surprised at how lovely you can make something.

Enjoy!

My Secret Love

Hydrangea...my secret love (or not so secret if you spend any time listening to me drone on and on about gardening).  There are so many varieties and hybrids with their own charm and allure - I find myself unable to resist them.  This summer, in Northeast PA, our hydrangea have been out of control, so I am going to walk you by a few of my favorites.

 This heart-shaped love is a Nikko Blue.  These bushes do well in partial shade, bloom on 'old wood' so should be pruned as soon as the blooms die.

 

For the novice and/or lazy gardeners, the Endless Summer is a great bet for you.  Depending upon your soil PH, it will bloom blue or pink (or both) and all summer long.  It isn't picky about what kind of wood it will bloom upon the following year, so you can cut away to your heart's content.  I have planted many, many of these and am astonished at the variation in color.  Look how these are shades of both blue and pink on a single flower.  Love these!

Not quite as showy, but very romantic and a nice addition to any garden, is the Oak Leaf hydrangea.  The leaves are shaped like an...oak leaf...and the flowers are similar to the Pee Gee (but smaller) and give a great show of color from white to pink to red to brown. I LOVE using these flowers in my arrangements.  An added bonus is that the leaves of this bush turn a purple to red color in the fall.  How cool is that?

The Annabelle Hydrangea is also a beauty in any garden.  The flowers begin a lime green, mature to white and back to green as the summer progresses.   (Once they've turned their final green, they can be dried and used all winter)  I've used these as hedges and as one single bush in a spot that needed a pick me up.

My Favorite Plant of the Year for 2011 is the gorgeous, unique plant commonly called the Blue Lacecap Variegated Hydrangea.  I planted it everywhere this year!!  The leaves are so unique because of the variegation of color so they stand out among all the other green bushes in the garden.  Don't you just love them!?  The flowers are lacecap so they also add a little something different from the other kids.  It likes shade but can take a bit of sunshine without wilting.

Now for the Queen of the Garden (and my personal all time favorite): the Pee Gee Hydrangea.  I can't say enough about this flower.  You can buy it as a bush or, my personal favorite, as a tree.  I guarantee you will LOVE it.  The huge, cone shaped flowers begin white and gradually mature into a deep rose - at any time you can cut and dry them and they will be gorgeous all winter long (these are the hydrangea you normally see on wreaths and other dried flower arrangements).  The only pruning you need is to cut off all the old flowers and prune the tree for the next season.

This is just a small sampling of this wonderful flower - my garden lover.  I encourage you to buy and plant them; you won't regret it.