How To Reuse Trash

H URRY, QUICK, RUSH: Get them before they vanish, and before the next pretty face distracts your gaze. That’s May in the garden here, a mad rush of bulbs and then ephemerals, and the first stick-around-awhile perennials, too, all happening beneath a canopy of blooming trees and shrubs. Have a quick look at some current beauties in the slideshow below, and I’ll be back to the computer to write profiles of the ones you haven’t met before.

THEY HAVE THEIR OWN BLOG NOW, but meantime they’re still under contract here at A Way to Garden, the site that made them famous.

I KNOW, SOME OF YOU ARE ON TO THIS ALREADY, but in case you’re not: By clicking this link (equivalent to clicking the word “slideshows” in the “Topics” in the far-left column  of every page on the blog) you can browse through all the slideshows I’ve posted in two-plus years of blogging. King of fun, huh (especially if you’re someone who likes show-don’t-tell)? I love posting my photos taken in the yard here this way; what fun it has been for me.

I‘LL SHOW YOU MINE IF… (and actually, I have been doing so, with regularity). My garden, that is.

IDIDN’T KNOW A PINTLE FROM A GUDGEON, but I knew I had dragged home some rusty, clunky iron tag-sale finds over the years that I’d grown tired of moving around the garage ever since. And so were born my trash-to-treasure style garden gates, thanks to a crafty friend who knows his hinge parts and a thing or two more. This is not my first such adventure.

THE FIRST REAL SNOW CAME SATURDAY NIGHT, December 5, depositing 4 or 5 inches of heavy stuff on an evening followed by the most brilliant day, the kind where the sun and moon were both in the sky. But all I could see at first when I looked outside: the pots that hadn’t made it into the safety of the shed or barn yet.

NOT MUCH TO LOOK AT YET HERE, so I’m looking back at old photos instead, from spring 2008, our first year online. I know, not very Buddhist or in-the-moment of me, but a lot more fun than looking out at the mud and traces of dirty snow.

BROWN PATCHES of lawn and garden widen daily, and the “grass” is now a minefield of yellow-jacket nests. Ouch! But the hummingbirds dance around me while I weed, and the tadpoles have suddenly hatched into dozens of tiny frogs (boing, boing, boing!) and an older frog poses on a begonia leaf…and I’m grateful to be here, anyhow, if a little tired and crispy.My Gratitude List, in PodcastLISTEN TO my Dog Days Gratitude List on the latest podcast I do each week with Robin Hood Radio, WHDD in Sharon, Connecticut, the smallest NPR station in the nation.

This is also a great way to “plunge” a young shrub or tree (in its plastic nursery pot, using it for “annual color” before it gets a permanent garden spot in fall) or a houseplant you may wish to use outdoors in a pot bigger than it needs. Just make the pillow platform, balance the potted plant on it, and backfill around with potting soil or even mulch (my preference, for that use). You can even put several houseplants, pots and all, together in a big outdoor container this way for temporary summer duty.If I still worked where I used to, I’d call this a “good thing.” :)Categoriescontainer gardening

My son had outgrown his twin size bed and was ready for a new one. I decided to build an outdoor swinging bed that the family could enjoy on a cool summer afternoon. Below I'll show you how I built it.

Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University are partnering with us in our technology addiction project that stands alongside our 'Chained to Tech' garden design. At RHS Tatton Flower Show, researchers will be surveying guests to gauge their attitudes and perceptions towards our garden.

Have an empty Coffee Mate container lying round? Try this!