Making a Peaceful Place Just for One

Do you have a special place?  ....A quiet spot to rest and reflect?.....A place that affords you time away from home, yet just outside your door?  I have several of these little places and they are scattered around my property. Yep, right outside my door.  I think it is important to create 'home' in every corner of your space, not just on the inside.  It's hard sometimes to maintain all these areas and they fall into disarray like this.......

One spot in need of some help.

I sit in this rocker chair often.  I picked up a little over a year ago for 5 bucks at an all neighborhood yard sale just a few miles away.  It is a super comfy chair in a peaceful place.  I love to sit here and yak on the phone with my sis uninterrupted, enjoy reading a magazine or sip on a nice glass of chardonnay.  Lately, I have not been sitting here.  As you can see from the image to the right, it's gotten.....well.....unattended looking.  No longer the nice little place to hang out.  Time to roll up my sleeves and do something about this......



Little Green Stand that is rusting.

As I am removing the pots and sweeping up a huge mess of leaves and debris, I discover that this little green stand, that I trash picked off a neighbors pile about three years ago, is starting to seriously rust.  I really want this little stand to last, so I know I have to do a little 10 minutes rescue of the poor thing.  I also make the decision that I want this concrete block under the table to be out on display.

  

Shiny, new red painted finish.

I take out an almost-empty can of my Rustoleum spray paint in Colonial Red , wipe down the stand and quickly spray it red. I don't even take the time to put down a drop cloth. The worn, dirty beach towel will do.  This is a total whim!  "What the heck!"  I say, "I am having to hyper-examine way too much lately with this master bedroom and bath redo. I am not going to justify this decision."  Done.



I had picked up these summer heat tolerant plants at my local garden center, The Garden Gate.  I prefer to buy my plants at a local mom and pop place.  The large package stores like Home Depot and Lowes are filled with plants that aren't specific to my gardening zone.  Donna, at the Garden Gate, always stocks a good selection of both native plants and trees as well as foliage that performs well in my area. 

So, I told you in my blog post yesterday about my spider baby plants.  At the same time I am working on them, I am sweeping and clearing this sitting area.  Boy!  The leaves and dirt can collect like no other!  With the changing seasons (yes, we do have those in Florida) the sun is shifting and it will soon make this area inhospitable for some of my plants.  I shift them to the front of the house because it is shady there during summer. 

Spider Plant Babies



Rabbit's Foot Plant.
Moved to front under water garden.

I amend the plants that I have sitting in the space and add the few fresh additions.  I especially love succulents and desert plants.  They remind me of my trip out to California last year.  Make me smile.

So here is my quiet, peaceful spot "Before" and "After" 



-Before-



Remember my blog post, Give A Hoot Don't Pollute.  Well....at the end of that post, Woodsy found a neato home on the arm of my Adirondack chair at my front door.  Little did I know the peril that Woodsy was facing.  I spent a week stressed out that someone was going to ram the chair and knock the poor fella off!  So.....I had to find a safer place for Woodsy, but still wanted him in a central location so that I could enjoy him on a regular basis.  Here he is in his new home.  My quiet spot.  He likes sitting here and watching the boats go by......

Do you have a special spot somewhere just outside your door?  It doesn't take much to create one.  All you need is an old comfy chair, a place to rest a glass and a little bit of nature.  Oh, and your thoughts........

 -The End-

The Happy Accident Hospital and Rescuing Babies



One of my neglected Spider Plants.



No worries..... I am not in the hospital and I haven't been rescuing actual human babies!  No....It's just that time again! Needing to head outside to spruce things up. About every 3 months, my gardening duties are in project mood. Additionally,  I haven't been taking care of my plants like I usually do and it's time to pay the piper.  Some of them have gotten super mad at me.  Some of them are going to have to head to the hospital.  Some, well.....let's not tell them where they are going.....  

I have just let these plants linger, bunch all up together
and in need of tender loving care. 
Well.....water would help!
Shhh......don't tell that plant in the
center front that he is going to the hospital!



This bowl of succulents has great potential. 
I will clean it up and move it somewhere else.

Stressed out.

But has potential....

Most people would throw some of these plants away.  This little plant above, was NOT happy in my house and I just let it go too far. But I will rescue this guy.  I have rescued worse. I have picked up so many plants that my neighbors threw to the curb, you would even believe it.

I have pots that I cram all my sad, but still somewhat healthy, plants into and allow them to regain their strength together.  It's become quite an extraordinary collection of plants.  This particular pot (right) is quite a show piece.....and all these plants were almost dead at some point. (except for the little Purslane that I just stuck in the middle.) I added the  little stressed out plant above to this pot.  If you look closely you can see it peeking out from the back.



My Plant Hospital.



I have an area that I store extra pots.  I also store plants that are just too ugly to have sitting out on display, but could possibly see another day of beauty.  I call it the hospital.  I didn't always call it a hospital.  It happened by happy accident like so many things do when gardening.  It use to be an area to throw pots and plants that were just, well.....plain and simply stated, dead.  Funny thing was.....many of them came back!  It's a super shady area with just a dappling of light and a sprinkler close by.  Very peaceful spot where my ailing plants go to recuperate from the hot Florida sun. I recommend always having a plant hospital.  Money saving, big time.  I cannot tell you how many dead plants have returned in all their glory!

  

This wonderful Angel Wing Begonia
will live to see itself in a new pot soon.
Great recovery!

The project today is to tackle my four ginormous spider plants.  All four have a ton of 'babies' on them. 

Laden with babies

I need to clear out the dead ones and clean off the good ones.  I have so many offspring, that I decide to harvest some of them to put into small starter pots.  I start to break them apart gently and remove all the dead debris from around their roots.

Okay....so hear comes the weirdo in me.  As I am doing this....a very zen task I may add.... I start to see characteristics in these little babies that are kinda human.  Like this one......



Huge Momma!

I actually feel bad that I haven't harvested this one earlier.  It's huge and should have it's own home.  I actually think to myself, "Wow, this kid graduated from college and was never aloud to leave home!"

Most of them are tiny, but large enough to use as saplings (don't know if I am allowed to call a spider baby that, but oh well, I am.)  Then I find this one.....



Out of Wedlock Teenage Pregnancy

This one has sprouted another baby all on it's own.  I call it a Pregnant Teenager.  (I know, I am weird.)



Twin Sisters

I don't separate the two babies above, I just can't do it.  They seem destined to be together.

I clean clump by clump while making these ridiculous observations.  Makes me think of all the interconnectedness of nature and people.  I love working with plants.  It somehow connects me with the earth and gives me a sense of stewardship to nature.....

Finishing up the preparation process, I get a casserole dish from my pantry and fill it about half way with water.  I have decided to start new plants with these babies and possibly give them away to friends.  Putting them in water will keep them happy for days until I can attack that project. 

I make sure to use this amazing product, Mosquito Bits.  If you live in an area of the country that has mosquitoes, it is a must! It keeps mosquitoes from laying eggs in standing water.  I actually will spread this stuff around after a rain day or two to help cut down on mosquitoes. I sprinkle the bits into the casserole and add the babies.

I will enjoy these little ones until it is time to re-plant them.  Here they are hanging out on a table on my back patio.  They look happy, like little school children. 

I worked on other gardening, back patio stuff today as well and will reveal the results tomorrow.  It's spring time wherever you live!  Get out there and spruce things up! The only way I learned how to save these babies was by doing.  Heck, set yourself up a little sweet location for your very own plant hospital!  You will have a place other than the trash to send your plants too with the hopes that they too will have a glorious recovery! 

OH! and.....Don't forget to drink plenty of water!  (My friend, Ted is better at remembering that than I am!)

-The End-

It's Saturday.....Are you Spittin'? or Are you Chillin'?



This is Spit the frog.  I named him this because, you guessed it, he spits.  He just lays around and spits spits spits.  So you probably thinking, "If all he does is spit, why do I let him stay around?"  Well.....he helps me out, that is, when he spits.  He also greets friends when they come over to visit!  What a nice dude, eh?  Funny thing is, Spit can be chillin' and spittin' all at the same time.  Now that takes talent.  So, here is his home.... 

Can you see him over there???  Look closely at the left bottom tier of this fountain/statuary piece.  There!  There he is..... Ah ha!  There's Spit.  

I was given this three-tiered fountain four houses ago. (We have bought and sold 7 homes...I know, crazy)  It was a house warming gift from someone I never see anymore.  Nice gift, but unfortunately one of my family members decided to trade in the gift giver, so all I have to show for him is this terrific three-tiered fountain. The fountain was just a fountain for several years until it came to rest here seven years ago.  This setting is right by my front door and the fountain was all 'splashy.'  Not a good thing at a front door.  It is also a pretty sunny location, so I was filling up the fountain constantly.  Who has the time? Right?

I came up with an idea.  I would turn the top two tiers into planters and the bottom bowl into a water-garden.  I could have just planted out all three tiers, but I love the sound water creates.  Ah....soothing and welcoming.  I had a pond at a previous house and really enjoyed it, but just don't currently have the room now to dig one.  I had read a ton of magazine articles about creating small water-gardens out of whiskey barrels and the like.  I thought, "What the heck.  I'll give it a whirl." 

It has been trial and error, like gardening can be.  I change the top two tiers out seasonally. I have also added to the water-garden over the last two years.  Some plants have done well.  Other plants have gone by the wayside.  I currently do not have any live little friends swimming around.  I have had small goldfish in the past.  Perhaps I will add a few little guys again.  Who knows.

It's fun to tuck little whatnot here and there.  This (above) is a little glass frog.  He has croaked at Spit until he was 'blue in the face' (chuckle) about all the spitting. Spit won't listen.

I made this little lady out of clay a few years back.  I used her in a test firing of my kiln.  She loves lounging around in the water-garden too.  She knows how to chill.  Can you tell?! 

So it's Saturday.  Are you spittin' or are you chillin'?  I will be chillin' today.  After all the work I did on that secretary desk, I need the down time.  I did hit up a few yard sales today.  I saw a super neat Lane chest. The guy wanted too much for it.  (Darn, I hate it when they know what they have.)  I might stop back tomorrow and see if it was sold.  Ya never now.  So.....go get chillin'.  It's YOUR weekend. Do something for YOU.  Maybe even start your own water-garden.  While you are at it, will you stop all that spittin'?  Geez!  It's ridiculous already......

-The End-
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