Handpainted bird houses.....

Gardening is a fairly new interest to me....I am still learning by my mistakes! Mostly I can keep plants alive now but they don't always grow how I imagined they would. My mother tells me the Latin names and if they like sun or shade etc. Often this doesn't help as my garden is north facing and seems to have a bit of both. She has given me some beautiful books which I love to read but either I can't find the plants in the garden centre or they cost too much. Gradually over time I am getting to know what likes my boggy clay soil which is rock hard in the summer.

 

 I am trying to make my garden into outside rooms decorated with found items...mirrors...painted objects....hanging things and anything else I can make that will withstand the weather...

 

 

I bought this bird house in the pound shop and painted it with acrylic paint....I gave it a coat of varnish and it still looks pretty after two years.....

 

 

The left hand bird house above was in a sale in Sainsburys a year ago....It was already white so I just added a pattern. The right hand one was from our local charity shop which cost £1. It has a nice texture but was painted with a tacky design. Firstly I painted it with left over garden paint which had been used on my bench....then I rubbed a little pale blue acrylic over it to show up the texture. A little bit of pattern on the roof and around the hole added enough extra interest for me. A quick varnish does help protect painted items but they are still affected and weather.  I don't want the pain of putting my things away so they are left to mellow and have been out all winter.

 

Longing to be out in the garden again....x

 

Growing Clematis...

 

I love Clematis....I constructed a trellis from canes lashed together to hopefully form a screen at the top of my garden. The Clematis were planted two years ago.....they grew and grew until they went around the corner of my garden. I had bought the little wire little fences some time before as they were so pretty with gems threaded on the wires. At last I had a use for them and used garden wire to secure them to the fence....to my delight the flowers wove their way between the wire arches...my

 only regret was that I had not bought more....

 

 

 

 

These Clematis were planted at the left side of my shed many years ago, there were a few flowers each year....then suddenly they off they went covering the fence and growning across the shed. I doubled some cotton yarn ( the only string type of thing I could find) and secred it around the shed roof entwining the plant around the yarn. A beautiful garland of flowers hung around my shed all summer long....

 

Flowers make me so happy... x

 

 



Better late than never.....

I am so sorry I have not been on here for months....I had quite a bad accident...I fell down the stairs. 

I am still having physiotherapy and walking in a very strange way. I have been feeling down as normally I am very active. Never mind...I don't want to go into it all, I just thought a brief explanation was due.  I have so many photos to put on and thought I would start more or less where I left off....

 

 

 

 

These pink flowers were amazing all summer into Autumn. I can't remember the name...it was a cutting my mum took from my auntie's garden. She gave it to me last spring when all that could be seen were a couple of inches of stalks. This is probably my favourite plant now. I had to dead head it every day which was a bit of a pain. In the end I sat in the sun with a pair of scissors and a bucket and made the most of a dull job....it just kept flowering and flowering. Mum said I can divide it this spring, I just hope she comes and does it for me as I would probably do something horrid to it!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just hope spring hurries up! x