MY TULIP MAGNOLIA

I know I always post about my Tulip Magnolia, but it’s so lovely and puts me in the mood for Spring.  It’s hard to get a photo of it from inside, but I want you to know that it completely fills the windows with pink. 

I don’t just layer inside.  I love the contrast of the green of the Nandina and the Mugo Pine against the pink of the Tulip Magnolia.  The berries are still hanging.  I enjoyed them all winter.

The last two years it was hit by a late frost and I had no blooms.  It’s thriving this year.

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FORAGED HOLIDAY DECOR

 I always like to use clippings from my garden during the holidays.  My favorite foraged greenery is from Magnolia, Cedar, and Nandina.  This year I'm using my Nandina shrub. Its leaves have turned a perfect holiday red and the Nandina "tree" produced tons of red berries.  

I started my holiday decorating outdoors.   In the summer my Chinoiserie planters are filled with ferns.  For Christmas I clipped my Nandina and put branches and berries inside the iron spheres on the planters.

The planters are on either side of the garage entrance.  This one is on the left of the doors.

CHINOISERIE PLANTER WITH NANDIA CUTTINGS

I love the berries.

BERRIES ARE THE PERFECT HOLIDAY RED

The planter on the right shares space with a clock that's only correct twice a day and a lattice screen.

CHINOISERIE PLANTER, LATTICE, AND CLOCK

THE OTHER CHINOISERIE PLANTER

I clipped branches from my Nandina shrub and tied them to the lamp post with  black and gold ribbon. Yes, raking our leaves is on our to do list.

LAMP POST WITH  GATHERED NANDINA CLIPPINGS

I  gave the obelisk near our front porch the same treatment.

OBELISK TOPIARY WITH GATHERED NANDINA BRANCHES

I have an iron topiary in the side yard.  I added branches and berries to it.  The tall grass in its Fall color makes a perfect back drop.

IRON TOPIARY WITH NANDINA BRANCHES AND BERRIES

I couldn't forget the mailbox.  Here she is in a sea of leaves.  Don't miss the Bella photo bomb in the upper left of the image.

MAILBOX  AND NANDINA IN A SEA OF LEAVES

How do you decorate outdoors for the holidays?

To see the iron planters in the summer when they hold ferns, go here.

MY FABULOUS FINDS GRAVEYARD ---- LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!!!

One of my skills is my ability to find the fabulous and the unique---- and then hoard it until I have the perfect location.   I haven't decided if this is a good or bad skill to have.  You see what has been happening with me for many, and I mean many years is that I have no will power and I purchase these wonderful pieces without having a plan or a place for them.  Hence, I am the owner of the fabulous finds graveyard.

I'm happy to announce that I was able to retrieve this vintage copper-topped restaurant tray from the home decor graveyard and find the perfect spot for it in my kitchen.  In preparation for the blog post about the tray,  I added a vase with some clippings from my Nandina shrub.   I love using "just green" clippings as Fall flower arrangements.

The next morning when I entered the kitchen I found that the Nandina decided to shed all its leaves.  Look what happened!

My first thought was that I had a big mess to clean up.  Next though I realized that the way the Nandina scattered her leaves was very artist.  I decided to write the blog post with the leaves just where they fell. The tray is huge.  I'm going to use it as an extra serving/prep area in the kitchen.  I love that the copper covers the sides too.  Don't miss the nail head trim on the corners.  It fit perfectly on top of a folding French bistro table I also had in the graveyard.  Don't you love it when it all works out.

TRAY RESTING ON FOLDING FRENCH BISTRO TABLE

CLOSE UP OF NAIL HEAD

There are handles on each side.

LIFT HANDLES

My bread boards fit perfectly on the table base.

BREAD BOARDS

Of course I mostly cleaned it up.  Here's the result in the afternoon sun.

AFTER CLEAN UP

Notice the hook behind the demijohn bowl with the bee napkin rings.  I think the restaurant hooked up the tray when it wasn't in use.  What do you think?

The bowl with artichokes took the place of the vase.

What do you have in your home decor queue?

BOUQUETS WITHOUT BLOOMS

During the Spring and Summer my garden is bursting with blooms.  I always gather them and bring them inside.  Now that it's getting colder, most of the blooms are gone. That doesn't mean I still can't have an arrangement in my home.  There is such a thing as bouquets without blooms.

I always turn to my shrubs.  I filled a vase with nothing but clippings from my Nandina bush. 

NANDINA BOUQUET IN A CHAMPAGNE BUCKET  

Most of the summer the Nandina is green.   As it gets colder, the leaves become tinged with red. 

 I added  it to a planter at the store.

NANDINA BOUQUET AT OUR STORE

Magnolia leaves are my favorite, especially during the holidays.

MAGNOLIA LEAVES AS HOLIDAY DECOR

 My cedar tree comes inside too. 
I added some around silver holiday spheres in my dough bowl.

CEDAR BRANCHES IN MY DOUGH BOWL

When the leaves change from green to reds, yellows, and oranges, I snap off a colorful branch
 and add it to a wicker-covered bottle on my  screened porch.
 At the end of my street is a tree that drops the most wonderful pods while releasing its leaves.  They look like huge pea pods and turn a warm brown, curling and twisting perfectly.  Here they're wrapping themselves around a vintage book.

BRANCHES AND LEAVES IN FALL COLORS

I put some of the colorful branches on the bench on my front porch too.

FALL BRANCHES AND MY FAVORITE PAINTED PUMPKIN

I even use branches without their leaves. 
When a friend cut down her birch tree, I rescued some branches and added them to a demijohn.

DEMIJOHN AND BIRCH BRANCHES ON MY STAIR LANDING

Actually, branches work as arrangements all year long.

DRIFTWOOD BRANCHES ON MY MIRRORED TABLE

Yes, I painted Harry Lauder Walking Stick branches orange and placed them into a vase.

PAINTED HARRY LAUDER WALKING STICKS

Shed antlers make arrangements without blooms too.

SHED ANTLERS IN A JAR

Feathers can take the place of fresh flowers.

FEATHERS IN A VASE ON MY MANTEL

What do you use as a bouquet alternative?

COTTAGE GARDEN SUCCESS PART TWO

I recently wrote about my cottage garden.  The post got so long that I had to divide it.  You might want to take a peek at Cottage Garden Part One before you start this post.  Just click on the highlighted words and you'll be directed there.

I think you'll  agree that my Limelight Hydrangea stole the show.

I've found that ornamental grasses are a perfect way to add texture to your garden.  

They're very low maintenance too.  

CARLY ROSE ORNAMENTAL GRASS

I planted another variety of ornamental grass around the lamp post.  

I repeated this grass along the fence on the other side of the house.

ORNAMENTAL GRASS MIXING IN WITH MY PERENNIAL HIBISCUS AND BLACK-EYED SUSANS

My perennial begonia likes shade, so it fills in a bed in the shady back yard.

I'm looking forwarding to enjoying my blooms until frost.  My garden is sparse during the Winter.  It's a totally different and more tailored landscape.  The boxwoods, pines, lirope and nandina are the new features.

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