Jack o Planterns

Jack o Planterns

This is a fun Halloween project for gardeners! It’s silly and quirky, and it puts a smile on everyone’s face. Turn your Jack-o-Lantern into a Jack-o-PLANTern this year for a fun garden therapy project using these simple DIY instructions.

Making your own is a really simple project. Heading out to a garden center will be the most time consuming and, might I add, dangerous. You will have to show some restraint if you don’t want to come home with a carload of colorful grasses, kale, and other fall beauties.

Materials:

• Pumpkin
• Soil
• Grasses, cabbage, sedum, & ornamental kale
• Marker
• Knife

Jack o plantern materials

1. Cut the top off your pumpkin to make a hole in the top. If it is fairly empty, then you don’t need to spend a bunch of time scooping it out. I removed the seeds and roasted them and left the rest of the junk in there. It will all compost together in the end anyhow. Use you marker to draw a face on the best side of the pumpkin and use the knife to carve out the holes.

Making a Jack o lantern planter

2. Now add some soil to the bottom of the pumpkin. You can use a container mix soil, although I just used SEA SOIL original which is pure compost. I found that my plants had quite a bit of container soil in them and I didn’t really need to add much more in the way of peat moss or perlite. Contrary to typical container planting instructions, you really want to pack the soil down at the bottom to create some firm areas where the plants can sit. These planters will not last long enough for the roots to struggle and will have lots of moisture and organic matter from the pumpkin itself. I also don’t think drainage holes are necessary but add them if you choose.

How to Make a a Jack o lantern planter

3. Now for the fun part (it is even more fun than carving a jack-o-lantern)! Plant some ‘hair’ with grasses…

Jack o plantern instructions -adding hair

…and ‘hats’ with cabbage.

Jack o plantern instructions -adding hair and a cabbage hat

Fill soil around the roots of the plants (remove the plastic pots) and pack it in through the eyes and mouth. Leave space for sedum and ornamental kale as eyes and teeth.

Jack o plantern instructions -adding kale for eyes

I tried swapping out the kale and sedum in different jack-o-lantern eyes until I got the look that I liked.

4. Now set your pumpkin out in the cool fall air and water periodically. After Halloween, remove the plants and make a pretty fall planter or use them to pretty up the garden. Compost the whole pumpkin and the soil and you will be well on your way to a greener garden next year.

Thanks for visiting the weekend project !

Original article and pictures take gardentherapy.ca site

Ironing Board Garden Art Lady

Ironing Board Garden Art Lady

Make an ironing board garden lady with a metal ironing board, and some items from your kitchen.

If you love DIY garden art, also see the garden art project archives here.

Creative garden art lady made from an ironing board

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A Better Use of an Ironing Board

Can we take a moment to give thanks for wrinkle-free clothing? I cannot say I miss having to iron an entire basket of clothes after doing the laundry each week. Now, my iron is dedicated to sewing and quilting. And, after seeing this creation, my ironing board may have a new purpose in life.

This wonderful ironing board woman garden art piece was made by Louise Y. who is a friend of Empress of Dirt on Facebook.

You start with an ironing board (metal ones work well), and add household bits and pieces to complete the design with body parts and fashion sense.

The blue spray paint on this one really makes it stand out.

Louise provided details (below) of the items she used for this one to give you ideas for making your own. Plus, there’s an alternative idea at the end.

How to Make Ironing Board Garden Art People

Creative garden art lady made from an ironing board

Louise writes:

• Arms and Legs: Her are arms and legs are a golf ball retriever that I bought for $1 two yrs ago. I did not know what it was but it was cheap, metal and look like hand.
• Feet: The feet are iron shoe molds in roller skates. I went to an estate sale and there was a basket of vintage roller skates for $1/skate. I knew she needed them.
• Hat: Her hat is the base of a metal lazy susan with the coffee basket glued on.
• Earrings: Her earrings are lead crystals from a lamp.
• Eyes: Her eyes are door knobs.
• Shoulders: The shoulders are the top of the coffee basket cut in ½. I had much bigger shoulder in my plans but they turned into a nightmare and I gave up.
• Sunglaseses: Her sunglasses are from my mom (40’s).
• Ring: Her ring is my Aries ring from high school.
• Curves: Her boobs are jello molds.
• Ears: Her ears are part of some curtain tie backs.
• Eye Lashes: Her eye lashes are forks from children’s tea set I had as a child.
• Mouth: Her mouth is the part of the golf ball retriever that I broke off and spray painted red.

Assembly

• Basically, I screwed or glue everything to together
• I took the legs off the ironing board. I thought I would use them for legs but they were different sizes. So I used one the legs and screwed it to the ironing board and put the leg in an umbrella stand that I had.
• The roasting pan is attaching with 3 bolts, one of which goes through the leg/stand

Thanks, Louise!

Another Woman in the Garden

Barb of Our Fairfield Home and Garden also has a garden lady. This one is made from wood and embellished with paint, accessories, and rather perky bazooms! You can see Barb’s garden including her garden lady here.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

Empress of Dirt TV

Original article and pictures take empressofdirt.net site

Inspired ByNature – Moss Art

Inspired ByNature – Moss Art

I was lucky enough to have a private tour last week of the ByNature studio in East Vancouver. Walking into the studio, I was instantly transported into a tropical rainforest with a warm, humid climate and wall-to-wall tropical plants in a variety of unique planters and frames.

ByNature has the exclusive rights to a number of innovative European designs like moss frames, wall planters, and even upside down planters (see all the products here).

Perhaps one of my favorite designs are all the Mossart Still Nature installations around the space. These are the height of low-maintenance design because the reindeer moss is no longer living. In fact, reindeer moss isn’t even moss! It’s a fruticose lichen belonging to the Cladoniaceae family that is popular in terrarium and floral projects.

ByNature has taken a rainbow of reindeer moss colors and used it to make art “for urbanites who want to enjoy the beauty and freshness of natural décor – with the ease of a zero-maintenance product”.

I got a peek at a large installation they were working on for a private home as well.

All of this has me inspired to get cracking on a moss art project or two myself! I am no stranger to reindeer moss, having used it in terrariums, wreaths and even my silent auction Gnome, Woody.

There is still so much that I want to write about from my tour of the ByNature studio. I’ll share more photos and some of the one-of-a-kind wall planters that have me drooling in another post. Stay tuned for that next week.

In the meantime, here are some terrariums featuring, you guessed it, reindeer moss!

Original article and pictures take gardentherapy.ca site

In A Summer Garden ~ Our Fairfield Home & Garden

In A Summer Garden ~ Our Fairfield Home & Garden

Summer Garden ~ Our Fairfield Home & Garden

August, the time of waking to early light and birdsong. Warm breezes enjoyed from a shady chair after garden-tending. The aroma of a barbeque on the grill wafts across the way. And fireflies and cicada choruses are signaling the end of the day.

Now the sturdier summer plants that can take the heat and dry have their time. Rudbeckias, Limelight Hydrangeas, Day Lilies and self-sown annuals keep color in the garden along with the container plantings.

Tomatoes and zucchinis are plentiful and we are experimenting with new recipes and putting some up. Wild birds are happy with seedheads left undisturbed for their dining pleasure. Catbirds are swiping cherry tomatoes from The Shutter Garden, but there are plenty for all of us.

The worries of the world are left behind as you step into a summer garden.

New York State Ironweed in the Summer Garden ~ Our Fairfield Home & Garden

Shade Garden in August ~ Our Fairfield Home & Garden

Shutter garden In August ~ Our Fairfield Home & Garden

Front Island garden in August ~ Our Fairfield Home & Garden

Limelight Hydrangeas

Morning Glories & Birdhouse

Verbena Bonariensis ~ delicate tall flowers self sow with abandon

Pink Zinnias for a cheery pop of color!

Birdhouse on a fencepost

Squash Blossom ~ big as a dinner plate!

Gerbera Daisy Bloom

Rudbeckia Triloba ~ a Goldfinch feast!

Pink Asiatic Lily ~ tall and elegant

Rudbeckia Lacinata ~ Six foot giants for a tall border or screen!

Goldfinch eating sunflower seeds

Feverfew ~ self sows throughout the flowerbeds

Day Lily ~ one of many varieties in our garden

Coneflower adds a pop of color in the summer garden!

Clethra “Ruby Spice” is a pollinator and hummingbird magnet!

Black-Eyed Susans ~ leave the seed heads for the birds!

Original article and pictures take ourfairfieldhomeandgarden.com site

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Original article and pictures take secure.img1-fg.wfcdn.com site