BOUQUETS WITH BRANCHES AND OTHER YARD FINDS

While I'm waiting for blooms from my garden, I love to use branches from my yard as bouquets.  I have a huge demijohn on the landing in my foyer.   It's the vase for some birch branches.

BIRCH BRANCHES IN MY DEMIJOHN

Sometimes I paint them.

PAINTED BRANCHES ON MY MANTEL

I painted these branches too and placed them into a vase with shells and sand to support them.

BRANCHES ON MY MIRRORED TABLE

BRANCHES REFLECTED IN MY MIRRORED TABLE

Branches don't have to be bare to work as a bouquet.  I have Nandina shrubs in my yard.
 They're a bouquet source all year long. 

BOUQUET OF BRANCHES FROM MY NANDINA SHRUB

I clipped some branches from my cedar tree and wrapped them around some spheres
 inside a dough bowl on my dining room table.

CEDAR BRANCHES IN A DOUGH BOWL

My yard pickings aren't limited to branches.  I even invade my neighbor's yard.   She has a  huge tree that drops the most wonderful seed pods.  I added them to an urn and complemented them with some of my shed antlers.

SEED PODS AND ANTLERS IN AN URN ON MY PORCH

What do you bring in from outdoors to use inside?

Architectural Fragments As Design Inspiration

If you follow my blog, you know that architectural elements are a big part of my home design.   I use them inside my home as well as outside in my garden.   All the images I'm sharing are from older posts on my blog.   If you'd like to see the entire post, just click on the highlighted word or click on the image and you'll be directed to the full post.

I used half columns behind the day bed on my screened porch.

COLUMNS ON MY SCREENED PORCH

Part of a corinthian column is a side table in my foyer.

SECTION OF A COLUMN AS A TABLE BASE

The column next to the dresser in our bedroom once helped support a large mantel.

COLUMN FROM A VINTAGE MANTEL

I have another shorter column next to my favorite chippy chair.

COLUMN NEXT TO MY FRENCHY DESK AND FAVORITE CHAIR

A rescued garden gate fills a large wall space in my living room.

VINTAGE GARDEN GATE IN MY LIVING ROOM

On the bottom shelf of one of the bookcases in my family room,
 I used matching fragments as bookends.

ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENTS AS BOOKENDS

There is another styled cupboard in my kitchen.
You can see the architectural fragments scattered on the shelves.

STYLED CUPBOARD IN MY KITCHEN

In the foreground of this image of my patio, you'll see two cement "urns".  They were once part of a large fountain.  Now, they're just my garden art.

MY PATIO

Chimney pots from the roof of an old building are planters in my garden.   I also placed salvaged cement fragments in my flower bed.

PERGOLA IN MY GARDEN

Do you rescue vintage fragments?  How do you use them?

ENJOYED THIS POST? 
 Sign up to receive a notification every time I publish by clicking here.

We Just Have to Focus on Spring

On this cold dreary day I just want to think about Spring and my garden.
If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know that I've already written about my Sweet Woodruff ground cover and shady area garden solutions. It's one of my most pinned garden posts, so I thought I'd share again.  I've included some new photos so it's not a total repeat.

If you're looking for an easy-care, fragrant, and beautiful ground cover for your shady spots, 

Sweet Woodruff is my favorite.  A friend divided some of her Sweet Woodruff and shared it with me.  She told me that it was perfect at the base of a tree where nothing seems to grow.
  I used to plant impatiens in those spots, but the deer have convinced me to find something else.
Besides, Sweet Woodruff is a perennial and it spreads quickly.
 It also completely covers an area and keeps down the weeds too.

Flowering Sweet Woodruff

At first I planted it around tree bases.  Then I discovered that I loved mixing it in with the rocks and flowers in my garden along the walk way from my porch to my patio.

Walk Way From My Screened Porch to My Lower Level Patio

Beginning of Walk Way From Porch to Lower Level Patio

It's so easy to divide.  I can't believe that all these plants came from several small ones.  All I did was dig up a clump of the plant, then tear it apart into smaller pieces.  I re-planted the smaller plants in their new spot with some spacing in between.  They quickly filled in.

 This path is on the other side of my house and goes from my kitchen door to the patio below.

Path From Kitchen to Patio

Path From Kitchen to Patio, Looking Up

They really keep down the weeds around my ferns, nandina, lamb's ear and hosta.

What's your favorite ground cover?

Kathy

If you're looking for more ground cover information, go here. 
Ground cover really helps control your weed population.

University of Illinois