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.

Through the Garden Gate, Monday

Cindy, at My Corner of Katy, suggested to me that we start a tradition of posting a picture each Monday of a panoramic view of our garden, typically from the same vantage point each week. I love the idea, so I can see how my baby-garden progresses and grows. We would love for everyone to join in that wants to, so that we can all share in the seasonal changes and growth habits of our outdoor worlds.

Cindy has been doing this for several weeks now, and I’m just now joining in. And a day late, at that. I did take the photos Sunday evening, but didn’t get a chance to process pictures until Monday night. So here is my garden, standing at my gate, with my Path of Choices. You can see that it is filled in a bit more from when I did the hardscaping and added a new bed a month ago.

I’ve been wondering why my plants seem to be behind in growth compared to other Austin gardens. I know of one reason – lack of sunshine. Because of the nature of the trees and houses around me, my southside backyard doesn’t get much direct sun until the sun climbs higher into the sky nearer to summer. Usually in May I can claim one area of the yard to have almost 6 hours total sun off and on throughout the day, which qualifies as a sunny bed. Plants that really enjoy the sunshine just won’t work here, but I can coax blooms from Esperanza and Hibiscus, even if they aren’t as prolific as they might be in more sun. Other parts of my yard will get about 4 hours per day – qualifying as partial shade. But prior to May, I just don’t get that much direct sun, so the plants are slow to get started.

I also end up sometimes overwatering, despite my desire to conserve. Because so many of my plants are new and our drought is so severe, I have to water enough to keep those shallow baby roots growing. But then the clay underneath absorbs all that moisture, and my older plants with deeper roots don’t like the constant wetness. It’s a balancing act right now. And again with the drought, the plants are being watered with city water instead of rain, which doesn’t help the nutrition levels. Last year I lost several plants – some to drying out and some to drowning. You can tell I’m not so good with that balancing act just yet.

However, things are looking a bit chlorotic, so I decided to do a home soil test. Despite compost, seaweed and fish emulsion, my soil is nitrogen depleted. It is clay, after all, with lots of mulch. Both of these things suck the nitrogen out of the soil. And then suck the life out of the plants.

I went to Natural Gardener and picked up John’s Recipe in the liquid form. I’ll spray once a week until things get more established, then back off to every 2-3 weeks. Next season I’m going to have to break down and remove the mulch and put John’s Recipe in the pellet form directly into the soil to keep the soil fertile. And by then, hopefully the plants will have a bit better root system and I can water a bit less frequently.

It will be interesting for me to watch the progress as my soil improves, the sun gets higher in the sky and my plants get older. Won’t you join us?

If you build it, it will come

Previously, I mentioned this new bed that was calling out to be created once I moved my fenceline last year. As the vision came together finally this spring, the hardscape was completed with much digging of grass, removing of rocks, amending of dirt, and adding Benda-board edging.

I’m letting the bed tell me what it wants. I’ve done this same process with all my planting beds so far; each one has its own personality and color scheme, and each one was created as a blank canvas germinating inspiration.

While far from complete, the color scheme is underway with warm pinks and creams contrasting sweetly with the greens and purples of the leaves.

Warm pink is a color I adore but for some unknown reason haven’t yet put anywhere else in the yard. With the unexpected purchase of the Canna Lilly Pink Sunburst and a few gorgeous pink/cream Tropical Sage (Salvia Coccinea) for shade, I was off and running.

Canna Lily Pink Sunburst

Tropical Sage (Salvia Coccinea) Coral Nymph

I found this little Ivy Geranium (a tender perennial) with blooms that are cream with warm pink edges.  The purple in the leaves also echoes the color in the Canna leaves.

Since I’ve fallen in love with my other lavender Ivy Geranium, I thought this was a good addition that I will enjoy. However, I put this one in the ground while my lavender version is in a container that gets protected in the winter. Perhaps I’ll uproot this one and pot it for the cold weather as well.

Two white Salvia Greggii blend easily in the small part of the bed that gets a bit more sun. I’ll see as the year goes on if they get enough hours of sunshine to be happy or will need to be moved to a sunnier location.

A Mardi Gras dwarf Abelia was in another bed and not doing well, and I realized its pink-edged leaves would work in the new bed, so up it came and changed neighborhoods to the warm pink zone.

Pink Turk’s Cap went into the shady areas, of which there are many. An aggressive grower, it should flourish and cover many of the shady spots fairly quickly.

A few annual pink-blooming begonias fill in the bare spots while I wait for the perennials to grow. Bamboo Muhly is getting started in a part shade location for background interest.

Evergreen shrubs are next on my list, and again, I’m waiting for the bed to talk to me. So far, I’m loving this one a lot. It has been fun, and the color is soothing and exciting all at once.

What do you suggest adding to this bed? I need shade-loving evergreens of varying heights, and perhaps some new warm pink blooming plants that I don’t know about? I’m considering adding a Rose Mallow. What would you use for contrast? I would love some winter-blooming warm pinks, but I can’t think of any. This bed is under deciduous Cedar Elms, so winter plants would get full sun, while spring and summer plants are morning sun or shade only. Suggestions please, everyone?

Purple, Lavender and Amethyst

Pam/Digging assured me this Amethyst Flame Iris was a hardy producer when she passed it along to me last fall. I anxiously awaited the spring to find out if there really is enough sunshine for blooms in my newly planted bulb bed.

Apparently, there is enough!

So far, my variegated Souvenir de Bonn Abutilon purchased along with Diana, Sharing Nature’s Garden, at Barton Springs nursery, is blooming happily away. Lori, Gardener of Good and Evil, tells me she’s heard the variegated form isn’t so hardy, so I suppose I’ll soon find out how it handles our Austin weather extremes. (And aren’t I feeling like the name dropper…the other day, when I was having lunch with Michele, you know – Obama – she mentioned how much she loves the Austin Garden Bloggers. Oh yeah, I’m totally full of it.)

It seems that this Ivy Geranium was really happy in my tiny portable greenhouse through the winter, and began blooming last week. I set it out this past weekend to get some air in the 80 degree temps we’ve been getting, uncharacteristically, in March.

And just in case I was continuing to worry about not having enough sun in the bulb bed for hardy blooms, the Iris is showing me signs of things to come soon. So many buds for her first year in my garden!

And this Purple Heart bloom, along with unpictured Oxalis, lavender Trailing Lantana and Spring Starflower, is hitting hard that all early spring blooms in my garden are all some shade of lavender to purple. Note to self: enough already, add some yellow for contrast (Narcissus and Daffodils) and some pinks for softness during our next planting season, next fall.

I spent many hours in the sunshine on Saturday doing jobs other than planting and enjoying the garden. I put 80 feet of new edging in all around using Benda Board (recycled plastic that is easily molded to curves), and recycled the recently removed kitchen tiles as step stones into the recycled glass mulch obtained free from the city of Austin.

And I can’t help it; I have to end with one more look at the Amethyst Flame!

Is Spring happening yet in your garden? What colors do you notice the most of in your early spring blooms? And what do you wish you had more of?

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.

Glass Mulch rocks!

I’ve been waiting for cooler weather to finish a path in my garden with recycled glass mulch free from the city. Then a gardener friend told me that she could get a yard of it for $10 at Eco Depot, scooped with a loader into the back of her truck! It was totally worth that to me to avoid having to go shovel it into buckets and get it to my home. She brought it over and we wheelbarrowed it into my awaiting weed-blocked pathway. My garden now has a little bling that I love.

The mulch is mostly beer bottles that have been crushed and tumbled in sand to smooth the edges. I’ve walked on it in bare feet with no problems, though I probably wouldn’t let small children around it. Mostly clear, green and brown, this close up shows a little blue occasionally as well.





I’ve never been to Eco Depot myself, but my friend tells me it has rocks, flagstones and other hardscaping materials. Located near the city of Bee Cave, I need to take a trip and see it for myself.

I love my new path, but my kitty cutely refuses to walk on it, choosing instead to walk along the bricks that line it.

Update: A new picture of how I modified this path to look even better is posted. I never liked the bricks lining the sides of the path after I put it in, and changed it to have a cleaner edge, as well as added some stepstones.