Spring Projects now Summer Projects!

Here's my old light fixture which I've had rolling around the garden for, oh, 2 and a half years...

Got some WD 40 on some screws and took it apart to take the foggy plastic sides out...and the elec bulb guts out.

Spray paint, a section of light fixture chain from another project, a candle and voila---I'm ready for the Into the Night thread

Love it and I really like the paint job! Where did you get the paint? I had thought about painting the iron gate green that I want to incorporate into the gardens but this color might look nicer :)

Bravo Sally! Your old light looks like a new garden object! You should copy your post there! Ric

OK, I'm done with my lunch break and am off to the local lumber store to get some composite board to make a raised holding bed . I need someplace to start all the iris rhizomes I got at the FSK Iris Society sale. I've been thinking a raised holding bed would come in handy for a lot of things. Hopefully, this is one EASY project that I can finish by this evening LOL... Terri

Thanks, The paint is a spray called Hammered Metal by Rustoleum (I think) and this is the bronze. I'm pleased with it, hard to see in the picture but a different sort of brown with hint of green. I guess I took the fixture which imitated an old candle holder, and turned it back into a candle holder!

Terri, I think I need one of those "raised holding beds". We used to use the planters on the deck to start cuttings or "hold" plants but now they're full!

Sally, thanks for the info on the paint - I'll have to look for it on my next visit to Walmart or Lowes :)

I finally finished planting the "bare spots" yesterday that I was looking at on Friday! It ended up taking me two days because instead of "just" planting I moved the rocks around and decided to extend the border. Actually I decided to dig up some of the rocks and stand them "up", then had to add soil for the new "raised" border and figure out what to plant there! I wasn't able to get pictures last night because just as I finished the skies opened up and we had a terrific T-Storm! Now that I've got that side of the path reworked I've decided the other side needs to be spruced up :( Hopefully I'll be able to get the other side planted today and will have pictures soon!

Sally, you did a great job of recycling that lantern. It is a fitting reincarnation!

RCN, I am so jealous. We still have had no rain, just that one day, a drizzel for two hours. Another day it was misty, but the ground didn't even get wet. I can't get enough water out there and recent & older plants are dying.

Stormy, Huge storms blowing thru our area last 2 nights and more expected today.

lHolly, I know. It rains all around us, but keeps eluding my neighborhood. Tonight I was out for dinner about 15 miles west of here. It poured cats and dogs all the way home and stopped a quarter of a mile before we got to my home. It is so frustrating.

Stormy, we're usually in one of those "pockets" as well. I remember one day last summer driving the two miles to town, it was pouring in town with water rushing down the sides of the streets. Headed back home thinking yippee we got rain! About a 1/2 mile from the house there was a distinct line across the road, we never even got a drop! More rain overnight here, wish I could send some of it your way :) I squeaked out another day in the gardens but we haven't been able to work on this area in over a week! Another project, a reworked border of the island in the middle of the driveway. It will be days before it will finally dry out enough to get back into it for planting :(

RCN, Believe it or not, it will rain at the two yards on either side of me and not at my house. I'm caught in some kind of weird thermal vortex the way the winds and heat com off of the river.

We're having a family celebration at the end of August. I do all the cooking and baking.
Usually I put all the cold food in decorated styrofoam containers with signs on the outside and covers on top.

THIS IS A QUESTION FOR RIC................

How would you go about building an "ice table" to hold lots and lots of ice with some kind of a plastic liner to control the melted water flow. I would be using at least 5 large pans (the kind used in buffets on the racks).

If you have the time, or an idea, please let me know.

There is a small version of a ready made at www.presenttents.com/icetable.html

Thanks in advance.

Teri

I'm not Ric but I'll chime in here....kiddie pool!

No kidding, flowerjen, you read my mind, even though some people here thought that it was a weird idea. That'll be the way we go if I can still find the shallow ridig plastic baby pools. So far today, the only thing that I came across were the inflatables.

RRR--

I go to a cookout once a year--Labor Day--to the home of 2 bachelors.
They got a deal on some old school tabled--sturdy wood ones--and one of them put edges on these from 2x4's.
Then--they put a heavy duty plastic on top and filled the space with ice from an Ice House.
When people bring dishes that need to cold--everyone just puts them on these tables filled with ice.

Now--I think there should be some form of drainage on these tables (they do not have this)--so as the ice melts, the water can just drain off. It is VERY difficult to dump all the water at the end of the party from this 8' table full of it.

I have an OLD--OLD cooler--and it is cracked on the bottom. I love using this at get-togethers to hold iced beer in. As the ice melts--the water drains out. Easy-Peasy!

Gita

Teri, I just picked up one of those rigid plastic pools for the pups a couple of weeks ago at Walmart. I looked everywhere inside the store for them but one of the sales clerks told me she thought they were in the garden center. I found them "hiding" way in the back with the display of containers, pots, etc. - I never would have found them on my own!

This wasn't a planned summer project but since the rain interrupted my planting I tackled pruning some shrubs which desperately needed a shearing. This border is gorgeous in the spring but the Weigelas desperately needed a haircut. It had been a few years since they were pruned and they were getting so big they were making it difficult to drive out into the field! I got a little carried away and started lifting the branches of the pink flowering Red Buckeyes and Cherry Tree so you can finally see the bright gold foliage of 'Gold Rush' Metasequoia in the background. Now all I have to do is pick up my mess! LOL

This is what the border looked like the last week of May. Let's hope they'll be happy with their new "haircuts"!

Thanks for the tips, Gita and rcn. I need to get this done one way or another. If I find the pools, I'll go that way. If not, I will check to see if a drain could be set up in an arrangement like the one Gita described.

RRR, The pic below was our party "cooler", till Holly turned it into a garden object. The guys loved it, it would hold 3 kegs at once! LOL I was at a party once, where they had an old stainless steel sink built into a table top for icing foods, it worked pretty darn good, they even hooked up the drain so the water could be directed away. Ric

OOPS, forgot the pic! Ric

"kiddie pool" was my first thought, too, especially if you could find one to fit a round table! I think I've seen them at both Sam's and WM within the last couple of weeks.. good luck finding one! I've got a green turtle shaped sandbox that would probably work also, although it's "walls" are wider than a pool would be.

You might also be able to find a pond liner (same idea) that would work... I picked up a round rigid liner on sale last month for $20... later, you could put it to its intended use, LOL.

Ric, and I were at a party where they did exactly what Gita described. They used a blue tarp to line theirs. It worked very well. They had trays of shrimp, meat, veggies and fruit and it was a build your own ciskabob. Then you took it to the grilling area and cooked it your self. It was a great party and a lot of fun. You could check out a rental center or restaurant supply.

Pond liner is another great thought, Critter. If my DH feels up to it, we might build the table. His RA is not yet under control, but we're working on it.

You could use such a table at summer parties... and in the winter, you could fill it with sand and a heating cable (or kitty litter and Christmas rope lights) and use it as a propagation table inside! :-)

RRR--

Pond liners are VERY expensive! At HD we carry them as well.
There are 2 kinds---the rubberized, thicker one--comes in 15' wide roll and each linear foot costs around $16. Now--the table could reqire 4' of this--so you are looking at $65!

There are pre-packaged, boxed liners, but they are heavy vinyl of some kind--these are a bit cheaper--but you have to buy the whole box, which has enough in it for a pond and will also add up in $$$$$. Many of these boxed liners run 15'x20 or such.

In the paint dept. there are all kinds of tarps--any size and thickness. probably your best bet. Also really heavy plastic in rolls.

How about an old (clean) shower curtain--or buy a cheapy new one? They are pretty heavy duty...meant to be around water.....

OK! enough ideas.... Gita

RCN, I thought Rick was the family pruner!!!

LOL Stormy :) Rick's pruning jobs are definitely more severe - I refer to his as "scalping"! I like to think of mine as "haircuts" so I guess that makes me the beautician :)

Went to the local hardware store today. (One of the "Do It Best" stores). I bought their last 2 rigid plastic kiddie pools to use as my party "chiller". So easy. Thanks for the suggestion.

easy peasy

Yes, the pools will do, but not as dramatic as a bathtub!!

Finally grouted the tile over the front porch steps. Now we can see that the step below is not level. At first I thought it was the tile, but the leveler showed it was the step. I will clean up the grout haze over the tile and try to clean up the dark circle on the step and forget about the sloping step for now.

Grout looks good, did not notice the step being so sloped before. Maybe a wedge just under the slab but on top of the blocks, would help level it without being obvious. I would probably put a flower pot back on the stain and forget it another few years...

RRR, happy to hear you found your pools! Your grouted tile looks great :) It started giving me ideas on another project in my head. We have a plaque at the top of our driveway with our number on it, it's just sitting on the ground right now :( I'd like to use cinder blocks to build a pedestal of sorts, smather them with grout or something, add interesting rocks and center the plaque to get it off the ground. After seeing your tiles, I think I remember seeing some really neat tiles at Lowes that might look better!

I've been busy the past couple of weeks - not really finishing any "projects" - just what I'd call puttering, a little here, a little there! It all started when I was working on the bamboo fence. I kept looking at the gardens in that area and realized there were a lot of bare spots as well as some damage from the rains washing down the driveway. I decided to extend this bed a little and build up the edge of the slope with more rocks to hopefully resolve the "wash out" problem. The red line shows the area which was extended.

It was the perfect spot to tuck in a few of these Ferns I was anxious to get planted. It's a Himalayan Maidenhair Fern http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1794/. It looks so delicate but it's a really tough little Fern, stays short and spreads! If they spread too much I may be sorry I planted them here but for now they work perfectly :)

Across the path from that slope is what I call my 'Cat' garden :) It's been almost three years since I first moved the Cat to this spot and planted the area. I've lost some plants there, some didn't fare well, etc., etc. and there were a lot of bare spots! After finishing the slope I finally concentrated on getting more plants added to fill in the area around the Cat. You can see the bamboo fence in the background and there's still more work to be done along the path to the fence but I won't be able to continue until I can get the huge Hibiscus moved that's planted between the two trees.

On the other side of the path across from the slope and Cat garden is an area which has always been ugly and the weeds were prolific under this Chamaecyparis. I finally struggled with limbing up the Chamaecyparis which allowed me to weed the area and get it planted! I still have one more project to tackle in this area - the large 10 year old clump of Siberian Iris in the back needs to be divided this fall and then hopefully by spring everything I planted will have started to fill out this area!

Then on to the next corner! This bed was beautiful last year with Pineapple Sage and Coleus planted there but I just never got around to planting anything this spring and it desperately needed plants! Plus, it's also the area where the rain water comes gushing down the driveway and turns into the path wrecking the slope planting. So...I tore apart the large rocks that were originally there but were getting buried from the expanding Geranium planted beside the birdbath. I rearranged the rocks and added a few more stolen from other areas of the garden to build a corner wall which will hopefully divert the water so it won't wash out the path every time we get a gully washer! The morning after I finally got everything mulched, I found Phoebe in there burying one of her bones :(