Creating a Garden Patio

Hi, all!

  I got my bee picture that I've been working on done, but I haven't taken a picture of it yet.  I will make time for it tomorrow.

  Meanwhile, I worked on creating a patio area off of our porch for those picnicking days of summer to come.

  We have a picnic table that we only seem to use twice a year:
during our annual plant sale where the "cash registering" gets done,

and when the kids suddenly get the urge to have a picnic supper (and I happen to be willing to haul it all out to the middle of the yard).

  I decided the table might be used more if it was closer to the kitchen.

  When I thought on where the best place for that to be was, I turned to this place.

  Location is key when choosing where to have a patio.  I noticed that my kids and I all seem to try to lay claim to the seat toward the end of this porch each morning because the early morning sun comes up on this side and it's warmth is so sweet in the morning.  By afternoon, this space has a gentle shade and by evening, the shade is complete.

  The porch is also right off the kitchen, so hauling foods and utensils wouldn't be too hard to do from this distance.

  So it seemed that this place was the best place for a picnic patio...
which meant removing all the plants that seemed to grow exceptionally well here.

The first thing I felt I needed to do was extend this garden.

  The ground is so good here, so little rock and just thick, brown dirt.  It was very easy to dig and flip off the sod, so I chose to go that route.

  (For many of my other gardens where the ground has been too hard to dig and work with, I just laid a thick layer of newspaper (probably 4-5 pages thick) right on the ground and then shoveled good dirt I have from our rotted manure dirt pile right onto the newspaper.  Once completely covered, I would then top it off with mulch and hose it all down good.  In a few weeks, I found I could plant into it  Of course, I didn't always want to wait that long, so sometimes I made holes in the newspaper where I wanted the plants and planted them right away, but then I had to battle weeds that also poked through around those areas.)

  I used my hose to create a rough line of where I wanted the edge of the garden extension to be.

  (The hens like to keep me company while I dig and overturn the grass and then shake out the sod before removing it because there were plenty of earth worms and grubs to scurry after.)

   The digging of the extension took about 2 days of work, in between dealing with the kids and other normal interruptions.

  I began removing the plants that were in this place, digging each variety up and separating each plant into many plants, potting them up so that I can replant smaller version in new spaces and sell the rest next spring.  They will have time to grow and fill in the pots til then.

  We had a number of old terracotta drain pipes up in one of the cow fields where an old corn bin had been.  It seemed a shame for them to sit out there not being used, so I hauled as many as weren't broken down to the area.

At first, I thought I might use them for edging...

but did not like the way they looked and worried one of us would twist our ankles on them.

I next tried them as a type of dividing wall coming down the garden.

I dug a trench and partly buried them to make them secure.

There were extra, so I moved them the other side of the garden to create a small wall there as well.

The plants all removed and the walls up, I then called in some help to prepare for the table.

(It is always nice to have a helping hand willing to give of his busy day with a happy smile and song on his lips...

okay, I may be stretching it a little,

but his help really was appreciated).

We leveled the ground somewhat, removing dirt to be used elsewhere.

I had two old rugs in the shed that I had saved for a project like this.  They had been used in rooms where the dogs often laid on them (before the dogs were restricted to just the basement den).  They had just gotten to the point of no return.

We laid these out as a type of weed barrier.

The table was moved in, and immediately, I could see that it will have much more use in this space.

With the few extra drain pipe pieces, legs were made for this "bench."

(There is a granite counter top business in town that lets us take some of their broken pieces).

I still need to finish planting everything where I want it, and my daughter wants a little part of this garden for herself.

I can see evidence of her play here.

For now, I hope it will turn out to be worth all the effort.

Here is the before picture:

And here it is at the moment:

I will be by again soon with painting techniques;...
just need to make sure all the dirt is off these hands.


Thanks for stopping by!

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Christmas Home Tour: Home-made Christmas

Hello!

It is the time of year that many bloggers are sharing home-tours of their festive houses for Christmas,

so I thought I would join in.

Welcome to our home.

To say that I love our 1850 stone farm house is to say that I actually never dreamed I would live in something like it.  The story of how we came to own it is a host of answered prayers.
I need to write it down sometime, especially for the kids.

Of course, having all these animals wandering about is just icing on the cake:
such sweet feathered friends

(well, maybe not so much in the summer when they scratch the mulch from my flower beds).

 The quaintness and quirks of old houses seem to go hand-in-hand.

The thick outside walls and the fireplaces (which were built inside the home to help make the house warmer) uses up more inside space, making this living room smaller.

Of course, this also makes those wonderful deep window sills.

 This room has become a variety of things:
living room, wall cupboard full of school/art supplies,
music room,
and there is a little table on the other side of the piano for my daughter to do her schoolwork.






Isn't it funny that when young, we have ideas of how we will do things.

I remember thinking that someday I would have beautiful store-bought Christmas decorations,
leaving behind the colorful home-made creations we'd made to cover our tree as kids.


Then I grew up and found that I prefer the home-made ornaments over those that are either too fancy or too plastic.

This year, my 11 year old daughter helped me make the snowflake garland out of heavy paper, glue, and glitter: we'll wrap them carefully when Christmas passes and see if they can be used again in coming years.

The red horse bookends were picked up at a charity store: their gold color had chipped paint,
exposing the plaster they are made of.

(I mixed up some red paint with plaster-of-Paris to cover the slight gauges and painted them a cheerful red.)

  For the Christmas season, they put on some old greenery I had from a broken candle garland.

I painted the slate for the craft sale this year and hung it here when it didn't sell.
It is painted from an old image I found in one of my vintage books.

(I will post the image in a few days for others to use: it is too pretty not to share).

The white trees on the mantel are made of cereal boxes.

 

They were cut and pasted, painted with several coats of a thick mixture of white paint and plaster-of-Paris,

allowed dry for about a week, and then painted with glue and doused with glitter.

They were last year's craft.

The green pine trees in the old silver sugar and creamer are artificial moss covered cardboard cones.

I didn't want to part with the sugar and creamer, so they were salvaged for these trees.

The grapevine star was decorated with a rusty canning jar lid,

rimmed with red paint.

The stars are made from toilet paper roll cardboard.

I sliced them, painted them red, crinkled them into star shapes,

painted glue on them, and then covered them with clear glitter.

(I hope to post how to fold these star shapes easily in the coming days.)

We got our tree from my sister who planted about 100 of them a few years back.

I left it unpruned, opting for the natural, wild look

(If I admit that it just slipped my mind until I saw these pictures,

does that count as wanting the natural look?)

The kids helped me decorate the tree with our 'colorful' variety of ornaments.

There is an assortment of canning jar lid ornaments.

Because we can so much of our food, it is hard to just throw away all those little discs when I pop them off the jars.  Some of them usually end up getting made into something.

(I hope to share a post in the coming days of my canning jar lid ornaments...

for any of you out there who are as much of a pack-rat.

I am sure many of the same ideas could be used for regular jar lids).

(The striped table in the center of the room was one I found for free by the side of the road and painted up.  The rocking chair was my husband's grandfather's chair.)

The snowman painted cupboard door was another craft sale unsold item that my daughter claimed.

It sits on the window by her school table.

The old frontier house was created by my husband's grandfather.

These silver trees are made from something recycled.  Can you guess?

 I have a visual step by step I hope to post sometime soon for these as well. 

The snowman was made from a styrofoam ball covered with newspaper papier mache'

and then painted.

These music-box carolers are in the window near my daughter's school area.

I got them somewhere and the head was broken off of the child.

I crafted a new head as well as the baby in the mother's arm from some clay a few years back

so that they would better fit our family size.

 They were a gift to my daughter who likes musical decorations.

(Don't look too closely: it was my first attempt at crafting with that clay and it is a bit rough.  She liked it, so we keep it).

 This little dresser was one a friend gave to me to refinish.

The sled is from a yardsale and I filled it with some greenery.
The older lady I bought it from said her son had made it for her.
I love that it was home-made.

Let's go in the room that gets the most use.

In our kitchen, I used real evergreens pieces.
It's funny because the lady who used to own our farm just sent a Christmas card today.
She mentioned that they used to cut a tree from the farm every year for their Christmas tree,
but that they were probably too big now to use for that.

Yes, they are about 20 feet tall now,
but I trim some of the branches for use in here, so they still make it inside to spread their cheer.

By the time Christmas gets here,
they may need to be replaced or their cheer may be shedding needles,
but I have found it is just as easy to clean up the mess and throw it outside
than to store it all in the attic.

I have to admit also that I am usually so busy trying to get things done for Christmas,

I don't dust all these high places before I put up the boughs.

It will get done after Christmas because the dried boughs will make it happen.

The kitchen windows are so sunny in this house.

I love the kitchen.

I sewed the curtains from an old torn table cloth that was my grandmother's.

Isn't the color of old cobalt blue pottery stunning?

 I made the trees by the blue pitcher below as well.

Perhaps I will get that tutorial on here before this season is passed.

The red cereal cupboard is topped with old pieces from several relatives.

I change the plant piece in the old bottle

as well as the picture in the glass canning jar lid depending on the season.

I found this sweet candy cane image from the Graphics fairy,

printed it on tan paper, cut it into the circle shape,
and then crinkled and finished it by tea-staining it.

The top part of this cupboard was one my aunt found

 and gave me.  My husband found recycled cupboard doors that fit and attached them for me,

and then I painted it.

The bottom half was purchased at a yard sale.

(The top surface was badly chipped veneer,
so we pulled it up

and I painted a slate look on it with some slight images of birds and vines.)

Off of the other side of the kitchen is the office.

Two of the pictures on the wall are silhouettes of our children painted on the glass of old frames purchased at a yard sale.

I put just a few things in the bathroom to make it festive:
a gift from my father.






The house was a gift from my daughter when she was nine.
Her hard earned dollars were used to buy it,
and I think it is sweet next to a vintage tree.


(The dragon verse on the chalkboard hopefully will be changed before Christmas.
It was put on there for my son...one of his favorite subjects right now.
I hear him reading it every time he goes in there, so I hate to change it yet.)




The window in the office looks back on what used to be the back porch,
but it is now enclosed and our real "living" room.

(This small white tree was rescued from the charity store and put into a pot with some plaster-of-Paris to give it a new base.
I consider it my tree: I decorate it with some simple ornaments we made that have more of a the vintage look that I like.)

The back porch is big and sunny;
 It is my favorite room.

This table is where I teach school
and is most often graced with books and crafts.

We do clear it off and have holiday meals out here;
the table gets turned long-ways to fit more people.

 

The view is so peaceful.
 




I remember everyday for a month or more coming out here when we first moved in and pinching myself to see if it was real.





I don't decorate much out here except this corner
and the table when it is set for Christmas dinner.

My sewing machine sits in front if this window looking into the office.


I wanted snowflakes to hang here.
The plastic snowflakes looked too...
well, plastic,
so I made these from the cardboard in paper towel rolls.
I sliced and then curled them like quilling;
glued and painted;
then painted glue and dipped them in clear glitter.







Thank you for stopping by.

This was a long post:
I'm hoping it showed that even the simplest things can be turned into cozy creations for the home,
or at least personalized decorations...

all to suit your own style.

I love the things we have made and the home God has allowed us to live in.
The challenge of using little to create it has been rewarding...
and fun.

If you don't come by again,
I hope you have a joyous, Merry Christmas!





Sharing this tour at these blog parties:
Jenniferrizzo.com: Show-us-your-holiday-home-linky-party
Thehappyhousie.com
Abowlfulloflemons.net
Thenester.com: Welcome-to-the-2013-christmas-tour-of-homes
Thegraphicsfairy.com
Wearethatfamily.com
Betweennapsontheporch.net
Theprairiehomestead.com
Savvysouthernstyle.net
Homestoriesatoz.com
Nominimalisthere.blogspot.com
Missmustardseed.com
kellyskornerblog
Craftberrybush.com
Bystephanielynn.com
DIYshowoff.com
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