Food Garden Friday - Bed For Berries

This was a recent project I started for my food garden. I cleaned up the area and created a raised bed with cinder block borders to plant my favored Golden Berries and a tomato variety. I haven't decided yet what to plant in the holes of the cinder blocks, but that will be figured out in the future.

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Fairy Garden Class - Garden Under $10, Part 3

Continuing with our Garden Under $10 series, Week 3 begins as many spruce-up projects do. This container was a themed-garden I did back in February that lost it's flair. I removed all the decorations and pulled the scruffy-looking annual plants up front and kept the two perennials in the back. Annual flowers are very good at adding a pop of color to your garden but only last for a few months.

My shopping list for this garden was:

3 small annual flowers $1.25

1 English Moss $4.95

1 small Fern $2.95

TOTAL: $9.15

After all the dead and discolored plants were cleaned out, I put a fresh layer of soil and arranged my new plants around the existing perennials (the pink flowers and the large green leaf). I finished it off with the saucer base, fairy house, a white picket fence and pebble coverage. This Spring garden turned out so cute, I think I'll keep it this way for a while, and because there is no holiday theme attached to it, as long as these plants are alive, it can remain in my yard.

You may also notice a black tubular item between the fairy house and fern. I recently had sprinklers installed in my yard and decided to also create a drip system for all my fairy gardens. Sprinklers keep my yard green but may not be able to reach all of the containers I have. A drip system is a reliable way to keep your containers watered but initially they need to be monitored to make sure your garden isn't getting too much water. It's been about a month and I love them. My gardens are noticeably more vibrant already.

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Fairy Garden Class - Garden Under $10, Part 2

For this week's "Garden Under $10" segment, I had some help from my youngest granddaughter, Lily. Among other projects we've been working on (which I will reveal later this year), we decided to choose this existing container garden as the base for a new spruce up project.

As you can see, it's pretty disheveled but the Dusty Miller and Viola have survived quite nicely. Accents include a white picket fence and a saucer (it's under all the rubble, I promise). All of this and the terra cotta pot are not factored into the final cost of this spruce up.

With all the junk out of the way, I put a small layer of new soil. When sprucing up any container garden, it isn't necessary to replace all the soil but it is a good idea to put a fresh top layer. This will allow fresh nutrients to permeate down through the existing soil. I began to place some new flowers from Home Depot that I got as part of a six pack.

My shopping list includes: 

Six pack of flowers - $2.50

English Moss  - $4.95

Three Garden Gnomes - $1.00

Mushroom House - $1.00

The gnomes and mushroom house were from the Dollar Tree and the flowers and moss were from Home Depot. The ground cover (green pebbles) was gifted to me and can be found at any pet store because they're aquarium pebbles. If you know of any friends who are getting rid of an aquarium, tell them to re-home the pebbles to you!

Once all the flowers and moss were planted, the saucer was placed and then the house on top of that. The pebbles were spread out and then the gnomes were placed. Fairy gardens are a great, low-cost way to spend time with children. It allows them to be creative and get involved with hands-on projects while at the same time teaching them a little bit about the living world around us.

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Fairy Garden Class - Garden Under $10, Part 1

This month I'll be doing something a little different with the fairy garden class. Not only is the theme "Garden Under $10" (which is a loose definition because they're made with items I already have from previous fairy gardens that simply need a spruce up), but I'm also going to spread them out to four different posts so I can focus on one garden each week. My granddaughter thinks this is just a ploy to allow me to post more pictures of each fairy garden. I neither confirm or deny this.

This is what I started with; a container garden that I used as a Winter scene.  I redo most of my fairy gardens once or twice a year to try and stay in season and, if the scene calls for it, to replace dead plants or ones that have become "too big for their britches." Since it's not Winter anymore and the spider plants are getting too big to be managed, I am going to relocate them and remove the white "snow" pebbles to start.

I took out the mushroom house as well and put an overturned saucer that will offer a flat, raised platform.

I nestled in a cluster of white and lavender alyssum in place of the spider plant here to add some more color that the Winter scene was lacking.

Irish Moss is a much better option for ground coverage than "snow" pebbles for a lively Spring or Summer scene.

The Dollar Tree is a great store and if there isn't one in your area, try thrift stores. I found these three fairies for a total of $1 and the house was $1 (the gate was something I got at a yard sale years ago which I ended up using behind the house to prop up the plant behind it). The Irish moss was $4.95 and the alyssum was .80, bringing the total spruce up cost to $7.75.

I borrowed pebbles and small rocks from other fairy gardens around my yard to fill in the space the moss does not cover and I think it turned out very cute. It only takes a few dollars to liven up an out-of-season fairy garden.

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