Gnome garden

This year I decided to branch out from my usual fairy garden.

It was time to let some men of the gnome variety into the mix.

I used one of the hypertufa houses that Mr. Enchanted had made for me, and added in some cute pieces that I found at Hobby Lobby.  I always get such a kick out of looking in the hypertufa houses because chipmonks winter in them and they are always FULL of acorns!  Last year one of the little guys was actually looking out the window at me :)

I used a bag of river rock from The Dollar Tree to make pathways.

And then I added an earth home, or hobbit house, or whatever it is called.  I built a mound of dirt, pressed a door into the front, and then topped it off with some succulents.  

I may replace the succulents with moss - what do you think?

Adding a gnome home makes my gardens EXTRA enchanted!

Sharing with
French Country Cottage Feathered Nest Friday
StoneGable Tutorials Tips and Tidbits
Greenwillow Pond What We Accomplished Wednesdays
The DIY Dreamer
Savvy Southern Style
A Delightsome Life A Return to Loveliness
A Stroll Thru Life Tabletop Tuesday

Yarn for the birds

In case there are any birds in my yard that are into interior design, I leave them some colorful yarn to feather their nests.

In a few weeks the yarn will be gone and their will be some brightly colored nests in my trees.  

I was hoping my container of yarn pieces wasn't going to be lying in snow.  Seriously Mother Nature, enough already!

In other news, I got two incredible pendants from sweet Joane at 

Ivory Pumpkin!  I absolutely love them - thank you so much Joane!  

A fellow Halloween head and a talented artist to boot.

Linking with
StoneGable Tutorials Tips and Tidbits
Fluster Buster Savvy
 Southern Style Wow us Wednesday

Potting bench from salvaged door

So Mr. Enchanted and I were scrounging through an abandoned barn one day this winter (um, don't ask), and I spied an old door.

 I knew IMMEDIATELY what we could turn it into.

By WE I mean Mr. E.  

He is the one with the power tools.

He added a shelf made from scratch lumber, hooks to hang tools and such from, 

AND

a mail box to hold my gardening gloves.

I LOVE it!  

And if this isn't great enough, I saw my first little sproutlings in the mini greenhouse!

So there you have it - an old door, a couple of hooks, a mailbox, and old lumber into a shabby fab potting bench.

Thank you Mr. E!

Oh, I almost forgot - I made what have turned into my ALL TIME FAVORITE cookies this week, and I can't wait to show them to you!

Here is a sneak peak.

Linking with these great parties

Common Ground Inspiration Friday
French Country Cottage Feathered Nest Friday
StoneGable tutorials tips and tidbits
The Trendy Treehouse Primp Junction Savvy Southern Style Wow us Wednesday

Forcing forysthia branches indoors

Do you have a forsythia bush or two?

Are you tired of winter?

Do you have a brown thumb?

Would you like a fabulous floral arrangement for free?  

Goooooood.  You are in the right place!

Go outside and cut some branches off of your bush.  

Split the bottom of the stems, so the branches can take up extra water.  Use a knife or pruners.

Fill a vase with water, and plunk your stems in.

Now wait a week or two (changing and adding water as needed), and suddenly you will have a spectacular vase of bright yellow flowers.  

LIKE THIS!

I am patiently waiting for mine to bloom.  Right now the buds are starting to swell, and it will probably start to bloom in about a week.  

I love forsythia because it is the first big color that spring brings.  And I also love it left untrimmed - it is so exuberant!  Forsythia left is it's natural growth pattern looks like crazy yellow fireworks, and that is a very good thing.  Please don't trim yours into tidy little boxes or spheres.  Please?

Linking up with

Home Stories A to Z

Inspired Friday at Common Ground

My Romantic Home
Home Sweet Home
Feathered Nest Friday

Mini greenhouse and winter germination

As some of you already know, for me gardening ranks right up there with baking.  This time of year finds me plotting and scheming my flower, herb, and veggie adventures.  I happened upon an article about winter germination that I found to be quite interesting.  After telling Mr. Enchanted all about it, he built me my own mini greenhouse.  How sweet is that?

Using scrap lumber and plastic from Lowes, he came up with this little beauty!

After putting the wood pieces together and stapling 6 mil plastic on it, he moved it to a small secondary deck behind the house.  This deck gets good sun and isn't used very often.

It was then my turn to go to work planting seeds in a variety of containers.  Some went in peat pots and some went in containers that were fished out of recycling (spinach container and apple cider jugs).  For the recycled containers, I punched a few holes in the bottom for drainage.

For the jugs, I cut around the centers leaving a small part attached, so they could hinge open and closed.  

All of my seeds got a gentle misting of water, and then into the greenhouse they went.

The idea behind winter germination, is that the seeds experience the thaw/freeze cycle but still have some protection.  After they germinate, you open the lid on warm days and then close it at night.  For perennials, you can start the seeds in December or January, and for tender annuals you plant in February or March.  

The winter germinated plants are supposed to be stronger and sturdier than seeds started indoors under grow lights.  I know I have killed more than my fair share of seedlings in the hardening off process. 

Total bummer when that happens.

I also think this would be great to use a cold frame next fall!

I am quite excited to see how well the process works!  

I am checking my garden every day to see if my Lenten rose (Hellebore) is coming up, but nothing so far.  For right now I have to be content with planning my veggie garden and misting my greenhouse babies.  

Oh yes, and whilst tramping around my yard I snapped a picture of one of my favorite shrubs, Dwarf Firepower Nandina.

The leaves turn red/orange/coral in the late summer, and stay that way all winter in my zone 6 a-b garden.  The fiery fall color really helps to bring interest to a winter landscape.  They also have bright red berries in fall and winter as well as white flowers in early summer.  

AND, they are deer resistant and low maintenance -

SUPERSTARS!

I live in south central Pennsylvania and took these pictures today, Feb. 21, and you can see their color is still going strong. 

For all of their wonderful characteristics, I think they are under utilized.  If you are looking for a small shrub with great fall/winter beauty, this is the one for you! 

Sharing with
Seasonal Sundays
I Heart Naptime
Mockingbird Hill Cottage
Funky Junk Interiors
Saturday Show and Tell
One Artsy Mama
Common Ground Be Inspired Friday French Country Cottage
The Charm of Home

Early fall

Do you know what early fall means in my gardens?

No weeding.

No watering.

No picking or plucking.

It means sitting back and drinking in the beauty.

Add a cup of hot tea, or coffee, or cider and a silly little dog and a snuggling kitty.  

It makes all that work worthwhile.

Stay tuned for some special cookies later this week!

It is beginning to look like fall here

And I actually turned off the air conditioner!  

This is very good news indeed.  

Oh autumn how I love thee.  

I found an old bird cage at a flea market and for a couple of years I used it with it's stand and filled it will trailing flowers.  Really pretty until the wind would come blowing and it would go tipping over.  Tried weighting it down, tried tying it up and it was a 

NO GO.

So I plunked it down in a bed of ivy and surrounded it with pumpkins, gourds, concrete leaves, and vines.  

And for a little extra splash, I added a Dollar Tree crow to the top.

Mr. Crow actually startled Mr. Enchanted because he looked kinda real.  I tried him out first on the little swing inside, but he just didn't show up enough.  

Tomorrow I am back on the cookie train, making some cuties that are headed back to Iowa.  

If you haven't had the chance, I hope you will take the time to read

my last post.  It is something I feel so passionately about.  In fact there was a very good article on yahoo that goes into further detail.  

Thank you sweet friends!

Celebrating the new season with
Seasonal Sundays
Mod Vintage Life

Savvy Southern Style
Lavender Cottage
Stone Gable

No cookies, but a potato barrel

Gardening has been taking up more of my time than baking these days (with the exception of the wedding cookie marathon).  There is a reason for less time in the cookie world, and I am hoping to get myself back in the game soon.  In the mean time, I have been grubbing in the dirt.  

Specifically, I would like to share my potato barrel project.  I have seen a good many of these on Pinterest, and it was time to put one in the enchanted veggie garden.

Step one is to make a barrel shape out of chicken wire or metal fencing (which we already had on hand).  Just cut to size and use wire to hold it in shape.

I also lined the sides with bird netting to keep the soil in.  Lucky me, I had some hanging around in the shed.  I placed a good amount of straw as a bottom layer.  On top of the straw goes a layer of compost.

Next cut up some seed potatoes, making sure there is an eye in each piece.

Place them around the edge of the barrel with the eyes facing outward.

See how they are pointing outward?  That is important because we are going to be adding layers.

Straw on top, then compost, then potato eyes, and repeat till you get to the top.  The top layer can have eyes planted all through the center because they can grow straight up.  Now keep it watered, watch it grow, and when the foliage dies just dump the whole thing over and dig for buried potato treasure.  

At least in theory.

What is orange, red, and white?

The ORANGE would be salvia, lantana, poppy, scotch broom, pansy, snapdragon, daylily, begonia, and thunbergia vine.

The RED is moss rose, begonia, geranium, rose, weigelia, snapdragon, and nandina.

And the WHITE, is Silly Ya Ya climbing the arbor to view his cat domain.

He walks the balance beam,

scratches his face on a post,

watches for enemy cat intruders,

or tasty critters (ewwww),

and enjoys being king of the garden.

Ya Ya's garden tour

Because the garden is so beautiful right now, I set out with apple cider in thermos and camera in hand to take some pictures. You see, Mr. Enchanted has built me something I have always dreamed of.  A little veggie patch surrounded by a fence and entered through an arbor.

Sigh.  Picture it covered in clematis and morning glory.

Sigh again.

After a visit to my favorite plant nursery, 

I planted the front of the new garden with an abundance of marigolds.

After a while it became clear to me that I was going to get help with my photography.

Every time I bent down to take a picture, I got a cat face that wanted to give a kiss.  

Ya Ya loves to give kisses.

I thought maybe I could give him the slip in the veggie garden.

Nope.

He was rather determined to get in every shot.

And he somehow managed to.

Over and over.

My little white prince is 

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (CAT EDITION).

Since I had enough cat head shots, I decided to do a little yoga outside.  Where I live in Pennsylvania, it seems like we go from cold and damp to hot and humid very quickly.  There really aren't all that many days when it is perfectly lovely, and yoga outside is a real treat on a beautiful day.  

After I finished and rolled up my mat, something caught my eye.  There is an area in our yard where we bury our pets.  It is a special place where we plant flowers and have little markers by their graves.  I had recently found a dog statue that looked just like my little spaniel Nellie, and I thought it would be nice to place it in the raised flower bed above the graves.  So what I saw when I looked up, was Nellie lying in the raised bed in the center of the pet cemetery next to the statue that looks like her.

If Nellie sees me looking at her, she typically comes running.  Not this time, though, she stayed by the statue.

We also have a kitty statue, so guess what happened next?

I couldn't believe it!  If I tried all day, I would never be able to coax these two into posing by the statues.

It was such a special moment - a sweet gift.

Some slightly squashed hostas and begonias, but worth it.  

Does anyone else garden with their fur babies?  

Sharing my PINK nosed cat today with Pink Saturday

The Tablescaper

Mod Mix Monday

Tuesday's Garden Party