winter garden

Sleet-adorned camellia blooms!

A photo posted by snapdragoncrafts (@snapdragon__crafts) on Jan 6, 2017 at 1:16pm PST

first floral arrangement

I've had this book since May, and have been dying to try a "recipe" from it! I would describe The Flower Chef as a "modern beginner floral design book." It breaks down bouquets into easy instructions and teaches you the basic underpinnings that floral designers use. Having never taken any floral arranging classes before, this book was eye-opening. Now I understand why my basic "grab a bunch of flowers and shove them in a glass" never really quite looked ... right.

Materials: 2-3 hydrangea blooms, and two bunches of other flowers. Grand total? $20! (these are from my grocery store) Also opaque container and wet floral foam.

My pre-soaked foam, trimmed to fit my container.

You start with the hydrangeas. ... then weave your other flowers through the hydrangea blooms.

Ta da! Needs something taller to add more vertical interest, but I'm in love! My first real floral arrangement!

a prettier view

This was my normal view from the back door out onto our patio. And it drove me crazy. I couldn't argue against the utility of using this three-tier stand for corralling the balls and toys. But I sure didn't enjoy the visual clutter it created on a daily basis. So I decided to reclaim the stand for my original purpose for it: plants! My husband surprised me with this stand years ago, and I've always loved it. And immediately I could envision plants overflowing from it. But I consulted one of my gardening expert friends about how to plant it, and was dissuaded from that plan since I might "ruin it." Well, it's years later and it's starting to rust on its own accord. I figure worst case scenario I can spray paint it!

I started with these basket liners, as I knew I needed something to contain the dirt. I cut them in half and ripped them to fit, overlapping to avoid gaps. Then I added my plants, and handfuls of potting soil to fill in the gaps. After a first watering, I realized I needed additional lining around the center to avoid silt spilling out. But after that fix, it was perfect!

Creeping jenny on top, and wave petunias on the bottom two levels.

Much better view, don't you think?

living in the garden

 

You may have noticed I've been only quasi-present on the blog lately. Where have I been? Distracted. Spring! Plants! Garden! I'm all over the place lately, but I thought I'd give you a peek into our backyard garden projects. Have you ever flipped through magazines and poured over photos of gardens wishing yours looked like any semblance of the picture? Well, 2016 has been the year of whipping the backyard into shape. It really started in 2015 ... the flower bed you see above previously had a single brick border and it was looking pretty pathetic. It was falling down, dirt was eroding, and just looked blah. My husband had the idea to try stacked flagstone. And the transformation was honestly magical. Suddenly the backyard had shape and looked purposeful and had a nice polish. It looked "finished." So we've been spending this spring filling the bed with different bushes and perennials. And then we realized ... hmmm.... there used to be grass under the swing .... realizing it wouldn't be growing back we added more flagstone! And scotch moss! I absolutely love how this turned out.

  

 What else have I been up to? Turning the patio into my personal rose garden.

And knitting on the swing, of course!

day five: week of red (and FO Friday)

And to finish the week of red (and orange), some final glimpses of red from my backyard ...

my bottle "bush"

Poor birds -- they need a refill!

one of my favorites, the dahlia

And here's an old finished object (FO) I realized I never blogged about! The last time you saw these guys was in my post on MacGyver knitting ... These are basic socks, using Ann Budd's simple sock pattern (Rav link), that I started knitting for myself right around Christmas. I had them ready for the kitchener toe graft at New Year's but then they stalled out due to how much I despise kitchener-ing. And then my cat discovered them and I ended up ripping back to fix the damage she inflicted ... grrr ... but now they are ready for this year's holiday season! The yarn is a self-striping colorway called "Kinetic Energy" by String Theory Colorworks. This yarn base, Continuum, has just a touch of cashmere in it. The verdict? Totally addictive yarn!

day three: week of red (and wip wednesday)

More from my garden! Serendipitously, it is my red asiatic lilies that are blooming first--perfect timing for Project Spectrum!

And moving to the darker side of red for my WIP Wednesday ... this is my Making Waves Cardigan (Rav link) in Madelinetosh Sock in Oxblood. There's a lot of black in this colorway. In some light it looks reddish, in other light a little purple. It's progressing quickly despite being sock yarn!

day two: week of red (and orange)

yellow week :: day five

yellow week :: day four

yellow week :: day three

I love this contrast ... so white and dreamy with a pop of yellow.

yellow week :: day two

love that sun shining through

yellow week :: day one

Play along! To see a list of who's participating, visit Erin's blog.

first bloom

First daffodil ... in February?!?! I freaked out when I saw them sprouting at Christmas. Yes, you read that right--Christmas. I am all about this southern year-round gardening thing, but seriously, this is sick. Let me extend a little bit of sunshine to the other parts of our nation that are experiencing much more decidedly winter-like conditions!

dahlia daze

Wow. I can't believe how well my experiment of planting dahlias on my patio turned out. I foresee many more in my gardening future!

digging in ...

Agapanthus or "Lily of the Nile"

My blistered hands bear the proof that I spent an unwise amount of time in the sun yesterday, hacking at our sun-baked front flower beds. Although our beds are brightened by the presence of the beautiful "Lily of the Nile" and flourishing azalea bushes, I wanted to add more color--and fill the large portions that go empty. Here's a look at "before" (but ignore the white flowers and two pentas bushes ... the true before shot would just include the two meager boxwoods in the middle of the bed) ...


before, perspective one


before, perspective two

I then added some of the following:


yellow coneflowers



pink pentas



angelonia


red pentas

And here's the "after" ... these beds are so huge, it's kind of sad to see how empty they still look! But this satisfies me for now ... I want to invest in perennials, and this freshens up the bed while I research my options.


after, perspective one


after, perspective two

lantana love

It was love at first sight when I discovered these pretties in my new garden!