Answering Readers’ Questions about Our New House Garden

Since I posted pictures of our new house, I’ve had a few people email me about the urns on our new porch…

and about how we managed to add a whiskey barrel to our mailbox…

AND… if the beat up old blue bike I plant flowers in will be moving to the new house or staying at the old one!

I should throw in here that since we got the keys in late June… it has been in the mid-90s almost every day and has only rained…and by rained I mean sprinkled… 3 times!!

To add to the agony, one of the many things that the previous owner broke before we moved in was the sprinkler system.

So our yard is fairly crunchy.

And we’ve had a real challenge getting the thistles that were literally 4 FEET TALL pulled from every border in this yard. Seriously. I’ve never seen thistles so tall. They are like trying to pull up a concrete patio with your bare hands…

But enough belly aching! On to answer your questions.

Here’s the Skinny on the New House Yard Questions

Because of the frenzy of getting our house ready to sell, packing, and renovating the new digs, my only greenhouse trip this year was in the spring for pansies.

Boo hoo…

But I couldn’t let the new house be all plain Jane while we are working on it.

So I drug some beat up old urns out of the garage and added a few annual flowers from the grocery store’s clearance section…

I wasn’t at all convinced they would survive, but they were almost free so it was worth a shot.

I have a stock pile of old grapevine wreaths and fun stuff  I’ve used in the center of containers before…like this one I did in the spring.

 

Surprise! Turns out… the front porch sunlight is perfect!

These babies are loving life on our new porch.

Mailbox Flower Planter

Now the mailbox flower planter was a little more work…

Since we had so many people helping work on projects that day, I didn’t capture any photos of the process.

But to answer that question… Here’s the scoop.

My handy Pops cut the bottom out of the whiskey barrel… took the mailbox off the post…slid the barrel over the post and called it a day!

Word to the wise…Don’t try to just cut the bottom off… you actually have to cut it from inside the barrel.

According to Pops, if you slice off the bottom, the slats that are in there will all fall apart.

I filled the barrel with the high quality Miracle Gro potting soil since the bargain flowers were a little on the shaggy side…

And it paid off because here is how it looks just a few weeks later…despite the drought!

As soon as the temperature and humidity drop around here, I’m going to sand and paint the mailbox too.

Just too humid for the paint to dry lately!

I had to giggle a little when pops asked me if I’d need him to cut some greens from the woods behind their house to put in the barrel this winter.

He’s really the best assistant blogger out there isn’t he?

The Old Blue Bike in the Garden

And finally the old blue bike. It’s funny how something like that can be such a hit isn’t it?

People in the old neighborhood loved it!

And stopped to take pictures of it all year around…

The answer is YES! The blue bike made it’s way to the new house.

It’s in need of a little TLC as soon as we get unpacked and settled.

We have to dig out all this stone you see in the borders (ugh, right?) and the random bricks that are scattered EVERYWHERE in this yard.

Our goal is to start that next week. Send a prayer up for us that it won’t be 100 degrees…

See the white door on the side there?

I’m going to have a dutch-door installed!How fun will that be?

Might not happen until next spring but that is the plan…

That’s pretty much it for my containers and garden at the new house this year.

But you can be sure I’m plotting some major garden work for next year!

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XO

Shelley

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