My Spring into Summer Gardening!

I started cleaning my garden beds when I got distracted with all of the invasive plants that I found, some I suppose I brought into my garden and they spread beyond belief and some maybe the birds dropped seeds.  I had to remove them to make room for my new flowers and herbs I planned to use this year.

Well, this job has turned into a much bigger project than I ever anticipated. I have pulled plants, removed leaves, re-planted a few, and planted a few new ones.

I am still working on some areas!  My findings have been incredible, I have surprised myself with the work involved.

I found a lot of very TALL plants that were choking out anything else to take root so I  started pulling.

Piles of pulled flowers and leaves for mulch!  I asked around on "Hometalk" what my findings were and I always get wonderful answers there.

One plant I pulled was called "Jewelweed" and it is still everywhere even though I have pulled tons of it. It creeps into the tiniest places and is even under the front deck area where the ferns grow. It is good to have on hand for "itch" I learned so I put some into a tire I had in the back yard to try and keep it contained.

Another is "Hawkweed" and I have not done much with it yet. Then we have the daisies, I cannot pull them as it is my favorite flower but I have small daisy like flowers on 5-6 ' stems invading the gardens so they will have to go into another place... I will assume they are just spring bloomers but I want the roots gone from my growing gardens. They are beautiful tiny white flowers and also another breed is pink/purple teeny tiny  flowers with spiky flower heads. They are alike but for color.

When I got to the driveway garden I found all of this spreading ivy that was covering all of my edging and even growing into the woods as ground cover. I had planted Ferns, Hosta, Daylilies, Bee Balm, etc there and it was choking it all out so I started pulling. Long runners came up and I filled a 30 gallon trash bag with them.  Then I had to find out what it was  so I asked on "Hometalk" and in the meantime did an internet search for "Swedish lvy" looking ground cover" and I found it really is "Swedish Ivy," It does spread along the ground but unlike ivy it does not climb high. So, I quit bagging it and put into into bins of water. I finished a small basket I had saved a tiny 6 inch pot in my attic over the winter with and made another new one but there is so much I could buy all the pots at a Big Box store and still never use it all, so I decided to share it in My Etsy Supplies shop " ByLightOfMoon".  I hope to share it with many folks who can use it for containers, baskets, ground cover if contained, etc.

I also mowed the yard and find it difficult to mow on a slope we have in front of our cabin, the lawnmower gets away from me and mowed down a beautiful blooming plant I still have yet to ID.

 I was sick so I decided to put moss there and remove all the growing grass. Now, I do this by hand with a hoe  like hand device. I hit stones form our driveway gravel and the area got larger and larger. I also wanted to get the grass away from a small garden I planted at the bridge entrance to make it easier to mow with the grass not in the rock surround. 

My Roses are doing very well and I am taking cutting for my potpourri makings! 

I am also drying

the larger daisies!

Here is the garden enlargement I have been working on in the process:

When I first started digging I found these stones, I was facinated by the beautiful red colors! But, I dudg them out...

We still have the fountain to put together , it had been on porch last year but  it is going to the yard this year.

This photo is looking down from our porch over the garden, the red rail was there to keep the dirt from draining into the gully ( we have no gutters) when I first moved here and the garden only went that far., This is the hill the grass was hard to mow and the mower would get away from me.
 I filled the space in with moss collected from the forest!

Existing garden below, succulents overflowing!

More to pull below 

 Garden almost done, planted with small cuttings, it will grow!The rocks/stones are what I dug out of the hole.

This is also funny, I was taking a before photo of my fairy garden that I was re-doing with some new items I got in Alabama at Jo Ann's.  I had just sat them there till I also unpacked some other items I have for it. 

I reached down to move this dish and like to scared myself to death, this frog was in the bowl and had been on  my porch last year I believe!

I am trying to seed some sunflowers and I believe where I had them sitting in the yard, the bunny or my cat has been nibbling! 

To get away from my garden, I have to show you a place I visited. I had seen the Gardens of Rhododendrons were in bloom in Hiawassee, GA. I got there a little late and most of the blooming was over but I got a nice walk and a few nice pictures. 

The Indian Tree there, we also have one I have a photo of in my shop too.

As i was leaving  I could not believe my eyes, so cute, A Snow White and her Dwarfs! 

So, please visit my Etsy Shop " ByLightOfMoon" and get you some nice Swedish Ivy to plant yourself in your baskets, containers, or for on your garden ( but, keep it contained. )

I also have many photographs of the surrounding countryside and a beautiful  flowers, plus nature's findings and curiosities! 

Smiles, Cyndi 

Working on the weekend, fairy gardens,Valentine's Day Wreaths, and a little clutter!

I have been working on the Valentine wreaths outside in the cold weather this weekend. I will have to take it inside to glue the extra pieces in the areas I want to cover the new wired twine my DH found for me. I was using regular old twine but I thought it showed too bad, so I wanted something I could make tighter plus less visible. Here is before and after photos!

The just bittersweet that made itself into two hearts just happened and I am going to leave it alone.

I like the simplicity of it and it will be in my Etsy shop as soon as I figure out how to ship it, the other one also. On another note, here is a photo of leaf like I have in my yard with a penny in the photo. They are everywhere and really cover the groundcover plants where they get no water so I pick them as I can. It is an oak leaf and a huge one. They do come in handy in the woods though as I use them to carry home my tiny finds, I just pick a leaf and add my tiny moss or lichen, fungi to the leaf in my basket and it keeps it separated from the other moss I collected. It is also good to hold the neat mushrooms I find. It is an endless job as we DO live in the forest with the trees all around us.

I left a jar of water outside last week I had some cuttings in and forgot about it. I heard a crack yesterday and the bottle had broken with the frozen water in it. I cleaned up the broken glass and here is the bottle, all ice!

When my son- in-law was here for Christmas he told me I had a cluttered yard. I guess I do have a lot of "yard art " from all my scrounging around the recycle bins and places. Even my porch is full, I sit there all the time and like having wind chimes near to hear so we do have several hanging from the porch ceiling and overhang. Here is a photo of a bicycle chain and I have found several that I laid across my banister and I have hung several little doo dad's from it with our homemade hangers. My husband cuts them up for me from old rusty coat hangers. We started doing this when I had some consignment booths in Alabama before we moved here and they hang things very inexpensive. This piece of bicycle chain I found just looks to me like an angel. It is frozen and I cannot move it, so one wing is a little cock-eyed but that is OK. I don't need perfect!

I adore my Fall Owl too hanging on our porch and I have not taken it down for winter. I love him too much and I did purchase him at a nearby shop I frequent. MY fairy gardens are even left as they were this summer, I have added way to many fairies and fairy garden items to it I had in the yard so they would not get wet and break. By the way, our porch s coved in the front of our cabin. The dish garden fairy terrarium with the gnome sits on a table by my chair and when it rains I just sit it on an outside banister for watering. Then I just turn it to drain, I believe it was a misting bowl that I found at a thrift and makes the perfect drainage with the bottom hole kind of on the side of the bowl. Look for them! They are great or you can use old lamp covers.

We are under a Winter Advisory today, it is 41 now and light rain. I have some Etsy packages to mail and I may take them to the blue PO box if they will fit, just in case I cannot get out in the AM. I usually just take them to the clerk, he knows me well! I appreciate my Etsy sales, they really help our income as we live only on Social Security! It really helps with gas and grocery $ throughout the month. I made some bird cages with moss and hydrangea for a lady, a custom order for her wedding. I made a couple up myself as I had some cages upstairs in my craft room and I was sitting on my porch one day and remembered this antique bird cage hanging from my cluttered porch with nothing in it. Hit My Head! That did not last long!

Here are the other couple I made up for fun.

Only the last one had the top open so I had to slide the moss and hydrangea in the side slits on the large and white birdcage. It worked out OK! While I was out and about last week I also found a Chiniquin Tree I had visited before and I got a wild hare to see if there was any pods from it. Well, they were everywhere. So what does Cyndi do, She collects some, well a lot!

I have them in my Etsy " ByLightOfMoon" Shop as they are great for using with mixed media as I did with the Valentine Wreath or a terrarium, even in a ball bowl that is rustic maybe with pine cones, etc.

I will also add some of these fun acorns, they are so tiny I love them in my shop as soon as I can get them listed. I baked them in the oven when I collected a batch last year and it smelled heavenly! I wanted to be sure of no critters. Well, I have had fun chatting with you this AM, the sun or light is getting clearer outside, not much sun here in several days. We did have a light snow last Thursday that was pretty. After Last year's snow, I though when I shoveled our side porches I should have made a huge snowman with all I shoveled off to the yard! Maybe? Smiles, Cyndi