Garden Art

On our trip to Arizona to see family we stopped in Sedona and visited several Art Galleries.  While wandering around this beautiful, quaint town nestled among the high mountains we found these stepping stones engraved with messages written by children.

Try making some for your garden.

Here is information about making a unique birdbath using Rhubarb leaves
 from an earlier post

this post will explain in detail how easy these are to make

Make several and place strategically in your yard,
Fill with water or birdseed

A Stump Collector?

  

We were parked at the gas pump waiting for the tank to fill.  A big 4 wheel drive, bright red truck pulled up to the pump aside of us. " Look mom, that lady is a stump collector too", my son quipped from the back seat pointing to the gnarled roots of a stump he could see sticking (no pun intended) out from above the side of the truck bed.  "What, do you mean by that?  Are you calling me a stump collector?" I asked.

"Ya mom, any time we go out into the mountains, after a load of wood you say, "We can't cut this stump up , it will look nice in the yard."  I had never thought of myself as a stump collector  before.  Isn't it funny the way your kids perceive you.  A stump collector?  Well, I thought about it, and about all the stumps I have drug home over the years.  Ya, I guess I am a stump collector, but look at the cool things my stumps have become........ 

 

 

 

a bench made from stumps and an old second-hand bed frame

placed on one side of the arbor, a

perfect place to sit after a long day's work

and watch the sun set.

 

 

 

a stump to set an old wooden faerie house on

 

 

When we moved from Nevada I left quite a collection of stumps and

old twisted trunks, I wonder if the new owners cut them up for firewood?

 

Try this:

bury a tree trunk with the roots sticking up and hang bird feeders

or birdhouses from the gnarled roots,

 

or use the roots to hold a large bird bath

and grow a beautiful flowering vine up it,

 

or hollow out the middle cavity and plant flowers in it,

 

or put a trunk out in the garden and put old lamp bulbs on it

my BULB TREE has graced my gardens for many years

 

 

 

use a trunk for a bench around the fire-pit

 

 

 

What ingenious ways have you used old tree trunks or stumps? 

 I know I'm not the only "stump collector"  who drags them home!

 

 

 

 

A Straight Line

 

 

 

 

Everyone knows that the shortest distance from point A to point B is a straight line, that is except for mom (myself) who insisted that her boys walk out the front door, down two steps and turn left.  Now follow the path around the rock garden 

 

 

out through the gate

 

 

 turn right and walk past the hutch, and picnic table to the end of the driveway

 

 

Turn right again and walk along until you come to the lane on your left that goes to the farm. Actually the lane is straight across the lawn from the front door.  So boys being the wonderful boys that they are would head up to the farm to milk, weed, transplant trees, and cheerfully do whatever project mom had on her agenda, but no way were they going to walk all the way around  when they could just go straight across the lawn, hop the fence and be on their way.

 

 

 (mom still can't make a straight line)

 

 

So off we went to get a load of rocks to make a pathway across the trampled lawn,

 but after we made a path it opened a whole new can of worms.

"Let's make an Arbor" said the mother (me). "WE (meaning the boys) can bury cedar posts and cut out dead limbs from the elm trees

 to make a roof and sides, and go get more rocks for a large walkway."

And so the work began.

 

 

Steps were placed in the sand that the wind had blown in

 and the half buried wire fence cut away

 

 

 

post holes were dug and posts planted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (these pictures were taken at the end of the summer last year)

 

 

Nearing completion.........

need more dead limbs for the roof and sides,

and another trip for rocks.

I have a chandelier to hang for lighting,

 and some solar lights by each post would be nice.

I would love to have grapes growing over it, but alas our weather

is to harsh and cold for concord grapes or ivy.

Any suggestions of a vine or perennial what would grow in about

 a zone 4 climate (1a in the western gardening zone) to cover the arbor? 

 

 



Unique Water Fountains Recycled from old lamps

 

I have always been fasionated with the old brass and glass bulb lamps.  About 3o years ago when I first began collecting them they could be found inexpensively, so I would tear them apart and make something else of them.   I would hang the extra large glass bulbs from trees, or stick them atop a cedar fence post in the pasture, and of course add them to my Bulb Tree that stands out in the middle of my Garden.  The brass parts would be used in art projects, or put together in other combinations to make a number of odd contraptions, bird feeders and bird baths, pots for plants etc., but my favorite idea was to make them into water fountains. 

 

 

 

Sorry, these are photos of old pictures, so they are not very clear.   This is a water fountain I made years and years ago.  I simply tore various lamps apart and utilizing the tall center hollow pipe of the lamp, I  tightened a nut on the bottom threads (leaving a space of pipe under the nut to hook the hose onto)  and begin stacking bits and pieces of different  lamps on the pipe, creating the design of the fountain I wanted.  When I reached the top of the pipe a nut would tighten all the pieces together.  Then  fasten a water pump and hose to the botton of the hollow pipe and the water would flow up the pipe and down the sides.  I liked using a larger piece for the top that would allow the water to drip off the edge. 

 

 

 

As you use these brass fountains they weather beautifully with a nice patina

 

 

 

The fountain base

 

 

 

This is what is looks like now,

the hard water has mellowed the brass

 

 

Shouldn't have torn all those lamps apart, now-a-days they are worth a small fortune, but

then again I wouldn't have enjoyed all the quirky yard decorations.

Sometimes you just can't put a price on a yard

that makes you smile, and makes people think you're a little wacky!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JillyBean's Farm Volume II

                                   BEYOND THE BLUE DOOR



                                                     Volume two of JillyBean's Farm

                                        would of course have a picture of me on the front cover,
                          but remember I am a bit self-conscious about getting my photo taken
                               so the cover would look something like this......... I am wearing my
                                              favorite pair of cut-off work pants and my sturdy
                                                          square toed boots from the 70's

                                                           Directly north of the driveway
                                               at the little red house is a stately BLUE door.
                                  This door frames the most beautiful view, and usually a lovely
                                                                    1 acre garden,

                                                     but alas, the critters have eaten it all so
                                                 I have allowed the weeds fill in the tilled soil.

hinge on the garden gate

                                                                    They thank me by
                                     growing blossoms that feed the bees and hummingbirds.

.

I am not sure of the name of this weed.  It smells as awful as it is beautiful.

I have just always called it stink weed. 

GORGEOUS!!!

                                  the view
                        beyond the blue door


                                            look under jillybean's farm tag for more volumes

JillyBean's Farm volume l

Have ya ever been standing in the grocery store check-out line and observed the magazine rack?  There are many magazines published by celebrities featuring a picture of them on every cover every month.  I always wanted my YARD and farm to be featured in a magazine, but I live in the sand dunes and sagebrush so my yard is not magazine material.  Really it's not that bad, but it is a struggle trying to keep it like I want it.  So, I decided to do my own magazine article about my yard and farm with my picture on the front cover.  I am a bit self-conscious so the front cover would look something like this: 

Then you would see before and after pictures showing a beautiful transformation of dirt and de-brie into a Paradise.  Well I haven't any before pictures (Wish I did), and I don't have any after (it is still in progress), but I do have some NOW pictures.

As you pull into our yard  you see a bright yellow picnic table. ( We eat out-side all summer.)  With a chandelier dangling from a tree branch over-head.

As you look a little further you spy bright green chairs and what is that?  It looks like a dining room hutch.  Nope- guess again, it is a gun cabinet re-cycled into a outdoor whats-it.   This has been sitting in my drive-way, er------ out-door dining room------ for the past 7 years.   It has dishes, paintings and glass bottles inside.   Carver spent a whole day painting it.  I LOVE it!

 

Glen made this table about 40 years ago as a teenager.  It is held together with matching yellow baling twine.

Another project of Glen's is the bench that folds down into a picnic table.  I made the green chair seat.  Just put a couple of boards across 2 matching wooden chairs and then painted it.

The pictures above are just in the drive-way.  In the next volume I will show you what's beyond the BLUE door.

Note:  last night, Sat. 23 a new CSA member came to the farm for her first pick-up and commented that my yard looked like something in a magazine.  Thanks Stephanie, you made my day----week!!!