Update on LAHRGHDT Day

Last fall, I posted a plea for help with redecorating my deck, Let’s All Help Robin Get Her Deck Together Day. Many of you offered great ideas, and though it has taken me a few months to pull it together, I think I”m done for now.

Here’s what it looked like when I first asked for your help:

I needed the gazebo to feel more incorporated into the space, and I needed it to be more cozy.

First, I added curtains, which helped a lot. I painted a small table white, added white impatiens in a container that was my color inspiration, and found a rattan covered chair at the goodwill that I turned into a white footstool. I stuck with those changes for a while, sitting in it mornings and evenings to feel what else it needed. I soon realized it needed a space-defining rug to help connect all the different legs from gazebo, chairs, table and footstool.

I priced outdoor rugs in the size I needed, and determined that wasn’t in my budget right now. With the unexpected surprise of Colorado Summertime weather this past week, I took advantage of the cool air to paint a faux rug onto the deck.

First, I removed everything and taped off the area.

In keeping with my beach theme, I decided to paint beachy-stripes. That was also the easiest design – to just follow the deck strips. I had outdoor paint colors in my storage closet already, from past projects. (I’m a project queen; I always have to have a project going on or I’m bored out of my head).  Here’s where I started:

Okay, I liked it so far. When I removed the tape, though, I realized it needed an edge to define it. I opted for “faux fringe”. It’s my first attempt and it looks okay. Not great, but I can live with it. If I had had some stencils  on hand, I think a stencil-patterned edge would look better. Here’s what I had done after about three hours:

A closer look at the fringe:

I decided, as long as I had the paint out and I was covered in it, to paint a few pots to tie in throughout the yard with my color scheme:

So here’s the final product. Since the chairs are a bit too big for the space, I either need new chairs or I need to use a stencil to extend a pattern beyond the stripes so that the chairs’ back legs will all fit onto the “rug”.

And from the other side:

This entire gazebo project was very low budget, and I’m quite happy with it right now. I used regular indoor polyester curtains from KMart that were $5 each. We’ll see how they stand up to the summer heat and sun. If they last a year, then I’ve gotten my money’s worth.

It’s calm, serene and I love sitting out there with my morning coffee and watching the sunset. Flash the Wonder Cat approves, since he considers it to be his anyway.

Thanks, everyone, for your ideas.

Deck makeover; LAHRGHDT day in Austin

LAHRGHDT day has arrived! “Let’s All Help Robin Get Her Deck Together” day is hopefully not going to be an annual holiday; more like a once in a decade occasion.

I wish I could say that I had a covered porch, I covet those who have that. (Yes, covet, okay?) Or, to tell the truth, actually I covet those who have a screened porch with a ceiling fan. But since I don’t currently have that, I want my existing deck to be as pretty as possible. And while I’m in the truth-telling mode, I admit that I love the pictures in all the decorating books, and on HGTV and DIY and all those other ridiculous stations that I watch too much of. I want a fantasy deck!

While I normally get a vision for what I want indoors and create it, I just can’t seem to accomplish that with the deck. I have a moderate-sized deck space, but a majority of it is pass-through or pathway areas. I have a grill that must be there (I use it easily 3-4 times a week), and my outdoor “closet” that contains all my gardening supplies.

The grill against the house

tall, light blue storage closet opposite the french doors from the grill

For my birthday, I got this gorgeous gazebo from Breed’s Hardware that I had been jonesin’ for. I hung a chandelier in the top that is gorgeous at night. I like the gazebo’s small coziness, and a larger one would have encroached on the walking areas of the deck. Last spring, I added the new cobalt blue cushions to my existing patio chairs to replace the tattered ugly ones that were there for years. Woohoo! (By the way, it is not really teetering at an angle like this picture shows. I took the pics before I had solidly stabilized it to the deck.)

view from side nearest deck edge

Chandelier in top of gazebo

My vision is to create a shabby chic, beach cottagey, southern-style inviting deck. A place that seduces you into sitting out there for no reason at all but to sit. But my brain is spitting sparks, rather than getting new ideas. So far, here is what I have considered:

1. paint the metal on the outdoor chairs off-white
2. add sheer off-white curtains to the support poles on the gazebo
3. put hanging baskets (of what?) on 2 or 3 of the sides of the 7 sided gazebo
4. I considered painting subtle blue stripes (two boards wide per stripe) on the off-white deck
5. I considered stenciling a “rug” pattern on the deck where the chairs are (though that sounds more ambitious than I usually might undertake!)

I can’t go crazy with too many potted plants, because they just die in our heat.

view from opposite side

I need your suggestions and ideas, please! I can’t seem to pull this project together so that it seems cohesive with the house. And it needs to be VERY budget friendly, as I’m about to embark on a kitchen remodel (I’ll blog that story during the process, complete with pictures and kvetching, I’m sure.) I want coziness, as this patio from last fall’s Austin Garden Tour exhibits:

Mine if I had more talent!

I know that you gardeners out there are very creative, and many of you have an excellent eye for design. Throw those suggestions into the mix! Don’t hold back, there are no bad ideas in this forum. (I’m a writer, I’m used to being edited. You aren’t going to hurt my feelings if you need to critique something you see or don’t see). I promise to post before and after pics, so you can see just how much you helped create my fantasy.

Silver Lining

I can’t remember ever seeing autumn color like we have had this year in Central Texas, especially in the city limits. This is a Sumac tree directly across the street from me, and I watched it change from a brilliant gold to this incredible combo display of orange and yellow. I suppose the drought and heat must have created this phenomenon, so I’m taking pictures of it because I really don’t want to go through what we went through ever again, even it means this kind of autumn colors. It has been a stunning display, though.

And I completely forgot to put this into my blog previously. I received an awesome birthday present from my SO in October! This is a gazebo I had my eye on all summer long at Breed and Co. Hardware, and was hoping for an end of season sale. At last, I was rewarded with a sale price (not a huge one), and a fabulous birthday gift. Its hexagonal shape fits my space perfectly, as does the diminutive size. I put a chandelier in the peak of the beautiful arch (which you can’t see in this picture) and we’ve had some lovely dinners out there, as well as a glass of wine as the sun set. It really made a big difference to have a shaded area to sit in, even if it is after dark. It creates a coziness that just wasn’t happening before.

I had this indoor chandelier that I immediately decided was really an outdoor chandelier, it just didn’t know it yet. It looks fabulous inside the little gazebo, and the low watt bulbs at night are just outrageously sweet. The tenting of the top of the gazebo glows, and underneath, a warm inviting dim light beckons. Once it warms up again, I’ll get a nighttime shot of my yard for you. With this chandelier on, and the lights on my waterfall and in the oak trees, it’s really pretty.

And lastly, look at this treasure! I asked my dad, before he came to town for Thanksgiving, if he had any old horse feeders or water troughs that he no longer needed on his farm. He thought he might, and when he and his wife arrived on Turkey Day, this was the primary thing in the back of the vehicle! Isn’t it gorgeous? He kept suggesting ways that I could paint it, or straighten it out and make it look new again, and I kept having to insist that I wanted it exactly as is. I don’t think he really understood that, but he was happy that I was happy.

Right now it is in a pretty shady spot; even though it looks good against the fence there (I’m adding a bed along that fence line and it would be inside the bed), I may need to move it so I can fill it with plants that like a little bit of sun. What can you envision in it?

By the way, I know Pam/Digging mentions Callahan Hardware for her troughs; I’ve also seen them at Zinger Hardware on Anderson Lane for a place a bit closer to drive to than Callahans.

New stuff I forgot to post

I have some new Garden Art. Many of you in Austin will know the artist – Dale Whistler. He created most famously the dancing frog band on top of the original and subsequent Whole Foods (the new one just doesn’t have the same soul) and our wonderful Bat Sculpture on Barton Springs Road and Congress, near Congress bridge that houses the largest bat colony in North America.

I am the fortunate recipient of two of his pieces, the dog and cat chasing each other above, which can be reversed to be all purple if I want. It was originally a hanging mobile, but the string broke and I haven’t decided whether to rehang them as a mobile or let them run on the fence.

I have another mobile he created on loan from a friend – it’s one of my favorite pieces, but ridiculously hard to photograph. All the pieces are made from 1/8 thick metal, and painted with metallic auto paint to give them a great shine. It’s my kind of art – whimsical, colorful and fun.

Dale Whistler garden mobile

Okay, stop laughing! I KNOW it’s a horrible picture, and I KNOW you really didn’t want to see my neatly covered outdoor grill, but dangit! it’s the only way I could get it to hold still and have the colors sorta show up. There’s more color, too – the opposite sides have some turquoise, reds and other colors that spin around in the breeze. How awesome is that???

I’ve had several projects going on during this cold snap – only 90 degrees now. But last week, with that lovely north breeze and days in the 80’s, I really did get a lot done.

I finally planted this bed near the infamous outdoor grill. It took a long time for me to get a feel for what I wanted there. It’s completely in the shade, so my options were limited. Several people kept saying “Put ginger there; it’s a great place for some ginger” so after much consternation, research, dream therapy, freudian analysis, prayer to the great Garden Fairy, and reading every shade garden book I could get my hands on, I decided to put Ginger there…with a gaggle of Holly Fern to keep it company.

My Ivy Geranium is certainly enjoying the weather, if I must say so myself.

I saw this planting below at a local retail store, and fell in love with it. It’s so hard to find nice plantings for shade, and this really brightened up a dull corner in an unfinished part of the yard. I already had the empty planter, looking lonely and empty.

So I copied what I saw and put in black and green Sweet Potato Vine, Crotons, and Cordyline, which you can barely see because the one I found wasn’t quite big enough. Assuming I can protect it through the winter, next year its soft spikes should shoot upthrough the middle, giving the planter some much needed height.

And this isn’t a new project, but I haven’t yet posted a picture of it. I found this awesome Garden chair in an antique store in Salado, and snagged it (especially since it was half-price, always a great thing). This corner of my yard needed interest, and my budget wasn’t ready for something permanent. This grouping is very happy under the ancient Cedar Elm (I love the semblance of autumn with the yellow leaves on the ground from the Elm. I’ve actually had years when this huge tree has turned bright yellow and been quite beautiful.) Look at those blooms – I’ve never had that succulent in the chair seat bloom so much, and I’ve had it for 8 years now.

(by the way, I need suggestions as to what I should put behind that chair to cover the fence? An outdoor screen of some sort? What can I do – it’s a totally shaded area in the summer because of the elm, and sunny in the winter once the leaves are gone.)

And get ready to laugh again, but don’t tell me you are laughing cause it might hurt my feelings. My yard has been very green and lush since I bought this place, but without any colorful blooms. I spent so much time and energy working, I never got around to correcting that situation. Finally this year, I’ve had the luxury of time and energy to add blooming plants to my shady garden. So this is the first time I’ve been able to actually have flowers to enjoy, and about a month ago, I was able to create this small vase of flowers all from my garden. I know you have all been doing this for years, but I’m celebrating my first homegrown indoor flower cuttings!

As you can tell, I am a fan of tropicals. I also have planted many natives, which I’ve shown in previous bloom day pictures. Once they get established, I’ll probably let many of the tropicals go, since they are higher maintenance. But they certainly do give me a lot of bang for the buck when it comes to adding color quickly in my green garden. And I am a tropical kind of gal – send me to the blue water anytime and I’ll be happy!

The Day of the Dead, I mean, Bloom Day July 08

I’m a day late with my bloom day images because I was truly uninspired to get out in the 105 – yes that’s a one-hundred-five degrees to take pictures. Needless to say, there isn’t much to take pictures of. A lot of my plants are new this year, so they withered a month ago. The ones that are established are hanging in there, but not in a very pretty way. So here’s my favorite bloom right now:

I’ve decided to let you enjoy some of my favorite Garden Art, since it is the most colorful thing in the yard right now, and will be until the fall.

Wait, I forgot! The Crape Myrtles are sort-of blooming, but I didn’t get a picture of them. They are 30 years old, and just don’t bloom a lot anymore. But I do love the trunks, summer and winter.

Here are some “bugs” that have landed amongst the greenery:

And here is one of the new beds this year, showing the Plumbago blooming a bit, the Esperanza green but no blooms, and the Hibiscus covered with buds that never open, just fall off without blooming… sigh. Another good reason for me to move into more succulents. I don’t think I’m a good enough, or caretaking enough gardener to worry with tropicals, as much as I like them.

I suppose this must be an AFGE (You know what those are, right? “Another ….. learning experience.” I seem to have lots of those.

The Bicolor Iris still has a handful of blooms, but even my lantana is green with no blooms. The Flowering Senna isn’t. Daylilies have abandoned all hope. The Bulbine occasionally sends up a little yellow and orange, but it’s so minor I hardly can see it.

Hmm, sounds more like Whining Day than Bloom Day…