Enchantment in June-Peony Pride!

If you remember, my word for 2017 is enchantment!
June...and the Peony Garden here at Sweetwater is "bustin' out all over"!
Those pretty, perfect, plump, profuse blooms are where I am finding enchantment right now.
This post is about images.....and very few words.

Enjoy....

Ground Covers Everyone Needs!

Have you seen the price of plants?
Oh My.....
We went to the garden center yesterday.
We were in awe of the folks with carts loaded to overflowing with annuals and perennials.
Our little cart with just a few plants ended up costing almost $50....for like almost nothing!

The gardens at Sweetwater cover a lot of ground.
One thrifty solution if you have a lot of ground to cover.....is....get yourself some ground covers!

ground cov·er

ˈɡround ˈˌkəvər/

noun

noun: ground cover; plural noun: ground covers;

1. low-growing, spreading plants that help to stop weeds from growing.

Here is a round-up of the GOOD ground covers that work around here.

Pachysandra – Another popular shade ground cover is pachysandra. Pachysandra reaches up to a foot in height and has large dark green leaves. These are great as a filler for foundation gardens that include larger bushes. As ground covers for shade go, pachysandra is perfect for these areas because it can cover the ground under the bushes and prevent weeds and other things from growing, giving your foundation garden a neat look.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Learn More About Ground Covers For Shade https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/shade/ground-covers-for-shade.htm

Bugleweed (Ajuga)—The leaves of the Ajuga are such pretty colors. It is a good spreader....sometimes it spreads right into the grass! The purple flowers that appear in late spring to early summer don't last long but they are pretty.  The photo above is the way it looks right now....guess it should be dead headed!


  




Ginger (Asarum)—I love the mounds of Wild Ginger that have cropped up throughout the shadiest parts of the garden.  This is strictly a foliage plant.....it has these cool looking "flowers" at the base of the plants....except you can hardly see them.  The leaves of this plant stand up well in cut flower arrangements.

 

Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla)—This one has such pretty soft-green leaves and forms mounds that spread well. Once established, it is super hardy.  The chartreuse flowers look a little like green Baby's Breath.  They bloom at the same time as my Peonies and are really pretty mixed into those bouquets.  This one does need dead heading and pruning back around the 4th of July around here.  Otherwise the leaves look a little brittle.

1. Lamium (Lamium maculatum)—I have these pretties sprouting up everywhere in the shady woodsy areas of the garden.  I somehow got 3 or 4 different varieties.  The flowers are early bright spots in the garden.  This is a great plant to pull up and plant in pots for early color before you can plant annuals.  I let it bloom then pull it out like weeds over the summer.  It always makes a reappearance.
   
   

1. Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis)—I love this glossy evergreen plant.  It actually stays green all winter....even here in the frozen tundra.  If you can get this to grow....you can cover a lot of ground :). I often use the leaves of pachysandra as the base for floral arrangements. 
   

Stonecrop (sedum)- There are so many of varieties of sedum that make great gound covers.  I am not sure of the name of the variety that grows around in our gardens....but it is certainly a hardy one.  I use this for fill in large planters that will be in full sun.  Love the yellow flowers that will come in a couple of weeks.

Fern-  If you have shade and a lot of space, then ferns are a good ground cover.  Our fern bed started with 3 little ones and now has taken over a pretty big area.  Ferns are a great cover up for things like our compost bin.  I am always careful walking through the ferns this time of year.  Sometimes the mother deer will bed her fawns down under them....a perfect hiding place.  My goodness....in this photo our ferns look more like a jungle than the woodlands!

Creeping Thyme-  This sun lover is often called a steppable.  It grows in a dense mat on top of the rocks here.  I love the purple flowers that are just starting to bloom.  I try to transplant this to other areas and sometimes I am successful.....but if you can plant it in an area that you step on....the smell is amazing.

These are my favorite ground covers....what are yours?
I would love to try some new ones!

Have A Great Day!

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A Morning Cup of Joe

Pachysandra – Another popular shade ground cover is pachysandra. Pachysandra reaches up to a foot in height and has large dark green leaves. These are great as a filler for foundation gardens that include larger bushes. As ground covers for shade go, pachysandra is perfect for these areas because it can cover the ground under the bushes and prevent weeds and other things from growing, giving your foundation garden a neat look.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Learn More About Ground Covers For Shade https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/shade/ground-covers-for-shade.htm

Pachysandra – Another popular shade ground cover is pachysandra. Pachysandra reaches up to a foot in height and has large dark green leaves. These are great as a filler for foundation gardens that include larger bushes. As ground covers for shade go, pachysandra is perfect for these areas because it can cover the ground under the bushes and prevent weeds and other things from growing, giving your foundation garden a neat look.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Learn More About Ground Covers For Shade https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/shade/ground-covers-for-shade.htm

Pachysandra is a favorite ground cover plant in hard-to-plant areas such as under trees, or in shady areas with poor or acidic soil. Unlike other plants, pachysandra ground cover does not mind competing for its nutrients, and growing pachysandra plants is easy if you have an abundance of shade in your landscape

Read more at Gardening Know How: Growing Pachysandra Plants – How To Plant Pachysandra Ground Cover https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/groundcover/pachysandra/pachysandra-ground-cover.htm

A Cover Up at Sweetwater!

Don't worry.....I am not going to go all political on you!

The cover up at Sweetwater is NOT scandalous!

It is simply the way that I "used what I had" to cover up some old plastic planters!

Mr. S is always trying to get me to throw away all the old pots around here.

They are stacked up behind the garage in an unsightly pile.

I just can't bring myself to buy new ones.....because they still are "good enough" to use.

A couple of the old pots got used to plant some dark red geraniums and some zebra grass.  

(you know me....why spend money on an accent plant when you have way too many "accents" growing in the garden)

Well....you can see that the old plastic terra cotta colored planter was maybe....NOT good enough!

It was pretty faded and a little dirty....

I thought about using spray paint.....but it still would have that plastic look.

Then I remembered my fabric stash!

I have a lot of burlap.....remember when burlap was all the rage?

That burlap turned out to be just the cover up that was needed to pretty up the faded old pot.

How I did it:

I cut a large square of fabric.

I trim the corners to create a circle.

I gathered up the edges and tied it with a burlap ribbon.

I tucked the edges of the burlap up inside the planter and secured them with some picks.

Pretty darn simple.

I know that the burlap is porous enough to let the water drain....

If you do this with fabric that is not loosely woven, be sure to cut some drainage holes.

HMMMM....this might be a good trick to use to cover up a basic store pot when you give a plant as a gift.

HMMMM....what else could I use for my cover ups....off to the internets and look at the ideas I found!

I guess Mr. S had better resign himself to the unsightly pile of pots behind the garage!

I have projects in mind.....so watch out!

Have a Great Day!

 

Blog Parties

Sunny Simple Life 

How Sweet the Sound 

Share it one more time. 

A Dedicated House 

Eclectic Red Barn

Summer Decorating on a Budget-Part 2

Part 2 of Summer Decorating on a Budget can really be summed up by the following:

I admit freely to being a "fabric"holic!

 

The summer look for the lower level family room has been the same for a long time.

The navy "monster" couch and navy carpet seemed to lend themselves to a red, white and blue theme.

I was quite simply "over it".

The natural place to go to solve the problem was the fabric store.

I wasn't sure what I was looking for......

I needed to "immerse" myself in all the pretties....

These are the fabrics that called to me and made sense with the blue carpet and white walls.

Best of all....I happened to be there on a day when all decorator fabric was $3.99 a yard.

Be still my heart!

Too funny....when I look at these 3 fabrics lined up in the photos....I have to say I was a bit of a risk taker.

You might be saying in true Minnesota nice language....."well those are different"!

But look how the redo turned out using these unlikely pairings.

I have always loved chinoiserie fabric.

Vocabulary lesson: 

chinoiserie  chi·noi·se·rie

SHēnˌwäzəˈrē,ˌSHēnˈwäz(ə)rē/

noun

noun:  the imitation or evocation of Chinese motifs and techniques in Western art, furniture, and architecture, especially in the 18th century. 

Using just a bit for the seat cushions on the game table was a great way to have some that doesn't over power the room.
Would you believe that I just used the glue gun to attach the fabric on these?
Why?  Because I want to be able to take the summery look away and use the red pattern underneath in the winter.  If I used the staple gun....removal would have been a huge pain!













The cushions on the cedar chest "window seat" got my famous almost no-sew box cushion treatment!
Here is a link to the original post....http://sweetwaterstyle.blogspot.com/2011/08/almost-no-sew-box-cushions.html
I got a big laugh when I looked at the statistics for this post and saw that it has gotten almost 10,000 since it was published 5 years ago.  I guess that means that this is something worth doing? :)

Big fabric envelopes made from the floral fabric were an easy way to switch out the couch cushions.

The ikat fabric is a fun look for the ottoman.  

Yes....you can easily cover an ottoman with just a couple of seams on the sewing machine. Here is the post that shows you the steps.                   EASY ALMOST NO SEW OTTOMAN                                                            I left the red and blue underneath so the new fabric can easily lift off.

I still need to do a bit of "red removal" and shop the house for things that will fit the new colors.

but even though the temps are back in the 50's around here....I know that it soon will warm up and now.....

Link Parties
Eclectic Red Barn
Nifty Thrifty Things 
Inspiration Galore Party 
I DIYed That

Summer Decorating on a Budget! Part One!

Source

Time for summer decorating....bright, fresh, and airy are words that come to mind.


Lightening up the look of the family room was the first step in the summer transformation here at Sweetwater.

When we got the new oatmeal colored couch, I no longer need to slipcover the cushions with summer weight fabric.

(Read about how I used to do this with the dark colored couch using stretch twill for cushion covers that are almost no sew)







The color scheme in the family room was pretty autumnal with all the browns and copper.

Pretty.... but definitely NOT bright, fresh and airy!

Tank Tops on the Cheap!

TANK TOPS! I know, how… boring. While tank tops might be boring they really are an essential.  This piece  is the first layer in many outfits. A tank top is often necessary under a see through top or one with a low neck.  I think the fashion stylists call it layering....but what do I know? Don't you always feel more put together when you have a tank or camisole pulling "everything" together?

So we agree.  We all need boring old tank tops and lots of them.
You are probably working on your summer wardrobe...maybe even going to a retail (gasp) store to find some pretty things.

DO NOT.....I repeat DO NOT get sucked in to buying a tank top in one of those spendy places.

No Cost Early Planters

Ahhh....Spring in Minnesota!
One day it is sunny and 75 degrees.
The next day it is cloudy with snow!
The garden store is calling....come buy plants.
BUT...it is at least three weeks before those tender little plants can be planted outdoors.

The pots in the front of the house were looking sooooo bare and empty.
What to do?

Here is a simple and FREE way to fill a planter before they can be planted with flowering annuals.

Tea Towel Wall Art-

We took a quick trip to Florida last week.  Visiting with Mom and two of my brothers was nice.  We also took a little side trip to Clearwater Beach and Dunedin.  The weather was perfect for a heat lover. 80 degrees and sunny.  A taste of summer in April.

I am not much for buying obvious souvenirs when we travel. I like to buy something that reminds me of our trip but doesn't scream...."I bought this on my trip!"

 

I was recently asked to review FotoJet which is an online application that lets you create custom collages, graphic designs, and even enhance photos right on the website.  There are many amazing templates for photo cards, social media graphics, posters, etc. There is a built in photo editor that makes it easy to adapt your pictures to the project you are working on.  Best of all....it's FREE!

I want to share some of the things I have learned about 
FotoJet and sprinkle in some of the designs I "whipped" up in a pretty short time.

April Enchantment

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. ― Benjamin Franklin

You may (or may not) have noticed the absence of new posts on this blog.
Here is my list of good excuses!
We have been traveling....20 days in Mexico...poor us!
I have been busy catching up for all the missed time with the Sweetwater Grandboy!
I just didn't feel like writing!!!!

In keeping with "MY ONE WORD" challenge it is time to share the things I have found enchanting in the past few weeks.