Food Garden Friday - Springing The Heat

This week's feature in my food garden is this large container. There are a few purple viola on either side in the front and some yellow and purple snapdragons on either side in the rear, the cost of these flowers were less than a $1 since I purchased them in 6 packs at Lowe's. There is also cilantro, Ancho Pepper and radish which, when paired with tomatoes and onions that I'm growing elsewhere in my garden, will make up a very nice salsa.

These little sprouts are the radish making their way up. They're so cute when they're young. The grass clippings are here to hopefully keep the moisture in. Spring has just begun, but here in California, when the sun is out, it gets hot pretty quick.

These three characters are taking a trip down the lazy river in their make-shift leaf boats. I wonder if they're training for anything? I know last Summer they had a race - I wonder if they're up for it again this year?

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Garden A Day Challenge - Day 29, Money Don't Grow on Trees

In the background you can see red periwinkle purple viola and to the left and right are an array of colorful alyssum. The large green leaves are from my Lily of the Nile, another favorite plant of mine. The unique looking live plant inside this container garden is a Pachira aquatica. 

According to apartmenttherapy.com, this braided trunk coupled with long leaves has long been a symbol for luck and financial success, hence it's nickname, the "money tree". It can grow to be pretty large, space permitting, but is a popular indoor plant, especially for a bathroom since it enjoys high humidity.

This adorable teeter totter arrived in the most recent My Fairy Crate. Assorted moss used to decorate this scene came from my stock. It's always good to have a stock of moss set aside just for photoshoots. One bag of moss will last me anywhere between 6months to a year since I only use it to decorate a scene, take some pictures, and bag them back up.

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Garden A Day Challenge - Day 28, Cabin in the Woods

This cabin was given to me by one of My Fairy Folks last year (click here to read that post). The outhouse, bench and sign were gifted to me this year from two other of My Fairy Folks. That makes this a no cost garden.

There are restrooms inside this Bed & Breakfast, make no mistake, but this outhouse is just a quick relief for guests enjoying the scenery.

The plants in this garden are red and white violas (I'm not sure what the yellow flower is), a favorite flower of mine, all surrounded by jade, one of my favorite succulents. Jade is especially good for filling in an area. This particular cluster was formed from one simple clipping.

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Calla Lily For Spring

Spring brings new greens to my garden. I've put these Calla Lily, asparagus fern and viola together for a container garden.

This arch has pretty flowers on it.

This particular Calla Lily has an attractive feature in it's variegated leaves, giving them a speckled look and the reason for purchasing these plants.

Asparagus fern and violas.

This close up shows some extra coloring in the petal which was also a unique factor that pushed me to this purchase.

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Forest Flame Lily of the Valley

Forest Flame Lily of the Valley

On the first of January I welcomed the new year and a new plant into my garden. I've had Lily of the Valley in my yard before but have not had luck with keeping it alive. I saw this plant during a trip to Home Depot and because it's meant to be a hearty bush, I wanted to give Lily of the Valley and second try. This particular flora is known as a year-round interest which means it's meant to live a long time and constantly change color and appearance. This will grow to be a large bush but I decided to put it in a container first. It will soon be too large to create a fairy container garden, but it will be put in the ground to make a lovely background for a section of my garden (I haven't decided fully where I want to put it yet). Unlike most container gardens that I start in a terra cotta pot, I purchased a self-watering plastic pot to try out. I've had one other experience with a self-watering container in the past, but the flowers I placed in it wound up getting root rot and I never used it again. I saw this pot at Home Depot and figured I'd give it another try, if only for a few months while the Forest Flame gets comfortable. 

Forest Flame Lily of the Valley, Viola and Alyssum were all purchased at Home Depot.

Because of my previous experience with the self-watering container, I decided to put some rocks in a coffee filter and place it at the bottom of the container in hopes of preventing my past mistake. My goal is to prevent the roots from resting at the bottom of the container, soaking up an excess amount of water (it's my assumption that the last container didn't drain properly). Also, because this is a heartier plant than the flowers that were placed in the first self-watering container, I assume it will have a better chance at survival. I also picked up Viola and Alyssum during my visit to Home Depot and decided to include them in the container. I'm hoping this arrangement will remain vibrant as I plan to enter it into a flower show in April (I'll keep you updated). 

The fuchsia stem and dainty bulbs were what caught my eye on this Forest Flame.

Jump forward 5 weeks to this morning when I took the following pictures. Can you believe this is the same plant!? Well, it is, I promise you (I made sure none of the fairies or gnomes were playing tricks on me).

The soft, pink bulbs have outgrown their color and many have begun to blossom. The stems are no longer fuchsia and blend better. The most alarming change is the protrusion of red leaves, standing out amongst the cluster of green leaves. The coloration is this Lily's name sake and in time more will spring up. I'm amazed by how quickly the changes happened. 

This fresh growth of red leaves are a deeper color and resembles a small flame.

These flowers are small and beautiful and perfect for a miniature fairy garden.

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Fairy Garden Class - Valentine-Themed Scene

It's February (wasn't it just New Year's Day, goodness how time flies!) and time for another Fairy Garden Class. This month's theme is, of course, Valentine's Day. These cherubs were found in my house and I thought they'd make a good addition to this month's container garden.

Alyssum, purchased at Home Depot. This 6 pack was under $3.00

Violas, purchased at Home Depot. This 6 pack was also under $3.00

Primrose, purchased at Home Depot. This flower was $1.50

I decided that the Primrose would make a bright, beautiful focal point in my small container garden. Based on that, I made sure to get supporting yellow and white flowers to surround it, settling on the alyssum and viola. 

This metal container is relatively new. I received it during the Christmas break full of candy and it is a beautiful, deep red that I felt would be perfect for this theme. The cherubs and alyssum are a bright white and the viola I used was a soft yellow which helped to make sure that the primrose would be the star of this garden. 

Because this will be a short-lived themed garden, I didn't feel the need to put drainage holes in this container. I don't plan to leave these plants in here for more than two months, and I made sure to keep the Primrose in it's original pot to prevent it's roots from reaching the bottom and risking root rot. If you ever plan to plant in a metal container, you'll need to drill in drainage holes yourself. If you are like me and feel you might want to repurpose the metal container for non-plant things in the future, make sure to re-home your plants within a month or two and not to over water. 

As always, place a good amount of small stones at the bottom of your container. This will help with drainage and is especially important if your container does not have drainage holes. Again, this is only meant to be a short-term home for these plants; any long-term container for plants need drainage holes at the base. These rocks will also prevent the soil from retaining all of the water and causing root rot. Since I kept the primrose in it's pot, I placed a layer of soil over the rocks, placed the primrose in the center and poured the remainder of the soil around that. This also will make extraction easier when I'm ready to move the flower to a more permanent location.

After placing all the flowers where I want them, it's now time to add decor. Here I have the cherubs to fit the theme as well as an 'iron' gate and pebbles for ground cover (purchased at Dollar Tree for $1.00). The pebbles would keep the container bright and cover up the dark soil. I then added the accenting gate and cherubs only to find that the cherubs were blocking the view of my planned main feature! I had to rethink this garden. It was obvious that I had to abandon my plan to have the cherubs and primrose in the same garden. I decided to use a different container and a taller plant so that it wouldn't be blocked by the cherubs. Since I recently brought ferns into my garden, I decided to use that, especially because I know ferns are a tall plant.

Yes, this is much better. The cherubs do not block the fern and this now looks like a quaint little park scene where two cherubs flirt on a park bench with a tall tree behind them. It was unfortunate that I didn't get to use the primrose with the cherubs, however, I'll find another use for them next week. If you have any photos of a container garden that didn't go according to plan, email them to me and a story about what happened and I may share it on the blog. 

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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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