Campfire Tomatoes

I'm really enjoying the garden these days. It's fun that the tomatoes are on each side of that arched bench along with the lettuce so you don't need to go far to have a salad.

For me, good garden design is all about ease, comfort and accessibility.

I like to make it a seamless experience by keeping everything handy and fun.

This will be even better when the grapes start going good on the trellis.

 My whole philosophy is that things should be both useful and ornamental. A campfire isn't exactly beautiful but it's useful for helping with garden clean up and we really enjoy relaxing and watching it at the end of a long day.

Garden Living

This to most people this is just the end of a driveway but to us it's our summer living room and dining room. In a perfect world there wouldn't be parked cars, neighbors or traffic but a gardeners best tool is an imagination that lets you ignore those things, listen to the birds and create beautiful spaces anyway.

The little coffee table is also a footstool so I'll be getting my sewing machine out soon to make a padded cover for it. I need more cushions and pillows for the other furniture too so I'll see what I can do about that as well.

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The area next to the "living room" area is my dining room and tea table.

The beauty of this arrangement is that it can easily be moved  around if you have more company and need to entertain a larger group. We've got an outdoor extension cord for power and we often run and electric tea kettle or a hotplate out here. Each year we make changes and improvements.

I' always eager to see what happens with our project next.

Bringing your eye through the Garden

We spent yesterday painting the birdbath white and transplanting hosta. This side of the yard is so shady that colors just didn't show up. We're hoping that the contrast of the bright edges on the hosta and a white birdbath, bench and arbor will bring your eye through the front garden. We'll be waiting to paint the arbor because all of the birdhouses are full and busy right now but we do plan to have it done before they start moving in next year.

Even the birds seem to like the changes because it puts the birdbath between the bird houses and the bird feeders. Who wouldn't like a house by the pool and nearby food?

When we opened the window this morning they were singing and sitting on the rail of the wheelchair ramp next to birdhouse that I've got mounted to the side of it.

It cheers me up so much being able to watch all of the activity as the birds flit around between things and raise their little families.

A well designed garden is a healing experience that I hope to be able to share with even more people this year and in the future.

It beats up  my power wheelchair driving over the grass and gravel around here but we're hoping to add some solid paths soon.

Planter and projects in the garden

I decided to move that planter we built away from the front of the yard. It was too shady there and we couldn't get anything to grow there so close to the pine tree so it was time for a change.

 What really surprised me is that it slipped right off the soil.

I was AMAZED at how easy it was to move. Are you wondering where it's going? It's new home will be alongside our front steps with a lattice trellis in it for some privacy from the neighbors.

I'm still working on this chair but decided to sit here a while and test the integrity of the paint. There's be no point in finishing it if I'd discovered that the paint would scratch, chip or peel. I'm pleased to report that it passed all wear and use tests with flying colors.

I had to laugh because in this case Martha Stewart does have "a good thing" with her outdoor craft paints.