After a Rain

 

We a got a nice rain this afternoon.  Unfortunately it was in the middle of taking up the last piece of matting at the front of the nursery. It became a terribly muddy chore after that.

Erin didn't seem to mind getting really dirty.
Kendel is always getting dirty but this was over the top!

 

It is quite a hard chore and they were both great about slopping around in the mud. Getting the old giant piece of mat into the dumpster added to the look too. I think Erin's about to give it up for the day. Thanks you guys for all the effort. It is looking great! 

Summer Progress

The garden shop is now filled with goodies. We would like awnings over the doorS which are in the works. Our mosaic tiles sholud be done soon and that will add color to the front of the building.



Garden Shop

In the meantime it's looking cute inside and the red cabinet is housing all the fairy things.

It turned out to be more spacious than we thought it would be.

There are two entrances into the shop and we have decorated the paths along the way.

 

Next week, August 30th we are back on our regular hours. Open everyday 9-5.   We got quite a lot accomplished being closed to the public three days a week for July and August. A lot of the black matting was removed and gravel put down which we all love. It makes the nursery cooler in the summer. We are looking forward to fall.

 

                         

 

 

 

Mosaics in Progress

Wednesday Mary and I had the opportunity to work on the mosaics for the new Garden shop entrance. We picked out lots of different colored tiles and spent the afternoon playing.

You can see how different the first two are from each other. We even start out with different strategies.  Mary is much more methotical about hers. I was getting a kick out of it.

We still have to grout them but that is next weeks chore.

We have 2 large inserts and two small so just one more to complete after this. I can't wait to see them in place.

Sunny Sunflowers

To add cheery color to the late summer beds we planted several types of big sunflowers about 4 to 5 weeks ago. All of them are blooming beautifully right now.

These Russian Mammoth striped sunflowers are about 6 feet tall now. I thought sunflowers were supposed to follow the path of the sun, so I expected these to turn around in the afternoon. But no, they spend all day facing East, at our neighbor's house. We never get to see the giant, frilly flowers. But I grew them for the seeds to feed the birds so at least they will get to enjoy them.

Luckily these sunflowers planted in the same bed have groups of flowers so at least some of them face our direction.

This stunning color is from a collection called Moulin Rouge. We have seen flower colors ranging from burgundy to this bright red to the bicolor below.

All the different variations in color are gorgeous.

Mosaic madness

We are making the finishing touches on our new Garden Shop. The four panels around the French door are very boring and we have been mulling over what to do with them.

Kendel suggested tile and we liked that idea. Sharon found some hand painted tiles on the internet she liked but they were very pricey and I wasn't going for it.



Then Sharon was looking through a new book we just got in, The Garden Source, Inspirational Design Ideas for Gardens and Landscapes, and she was inspired by the photo below.

I thought this was doable and not too expensive. We have experience with mosaics, having done a Broken China Mosaic Birdbath class for years. So off to the tile store we went. We chose about 11 or 12 different colors until we were informed we had to buy 8 tiles of each color. Since we only needed about 63 tiles, we limited ourselves to the following palette.

You can see the grout color, Dove Gray, between the orange and teal blue tiles.

I found this broken Talavera pottery piece in the garage in much the same palette so I am hoping we can use pieces of it to add some interest.

We will continue the tile adventure here next week when we start putting together the mosaics.