Alternate title: The post that’s been 2 years in the making.

Even after I made my own personalized doormat, my front stoop was still looking a little sad. So I decided it was time to spruce it up a little more with some pots and some greenery.

I still miss the beautiful front porch at our old house. It was big and beautiful and I loved to spruce it up with plants and furniture. Now I have a stoop. Sigh. But I’m not going to let that stop me from upping the curb appeal of our house in whatever way I can.

I’ve had a bunch of these black pots hanging around for 2 years now. But they didn’t start out black. In fact, they’re cheap, grey, plastic pots that I bought at Wal-Mart 2 summers ago. Wal-Mart still carries them. I checked.

I have 6 of them in 3 different sizes because I had grand plans to create a beautiful tiered pot display with cascading flowers. Doesn’t that sound pretty? Good plan, but it never happened.

When I bought them in 2009, I spray painted them with Krylon Fusion in black. I really love Krylon Fusion for painting plastic. It sticks like the dickins. Not sure what a “dickins” is, but it must be pretty sticky.

These pots have been moved, dropped, banged, shaken and stirred. And there’s not a scratch or ding on them.

So, I brought the biggest ones out to the front stoop. Do you ever notice how if you say a word over and over, it starts to lose it’s meaning? That’s where I am with stoop now. Stoop. Stoop. Stoop. Totally meaningless.

Here’s my favorite potting trick. Fill the bottom of a big pot with something really heavy and bulky. Like bricks. They’ll make sure your pot doesn’t blow away and they’ll take up some of the volume so you can use less potting soil.

I’m really happy with how the new pots freshened up the stoop (there it is again!). The ferns are called Kimberly Queen and I like how they’re a little more upright than regular Boston Ferns. Technically, they’re an indoor plant, but they should be ok out there since the front porch gets morning light.

And those are Wave Petunias tucked around the bottom of the ferns. In a few weeks, they should be cascading nicely down over the sides of the pots.

If you like a little more color on your porch, check out The Nester’s beautiful, blue urns with ferns. Urns with ferns. Urns with ferns.

If you want to see how I made the doormat, click here.

Sprucing Up the Front Porch with Pots, Plants and Spray Paint is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Hello friends! I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend. We spent a lot of time sprucing up the outside of the house since it FINALLY stopped raining for 2 days straight. What a relief. But it wasn’t all work…we snuck in a little time for a family get-together and some hanging out on the porch.

One of my favorite things about the porch is that it gives me a space to hang big baskets of flowers. There’s something about those baskets that makes my space feel so fresh and summery. And since my porch becomes my summer office, I really need to spruce it up a bit.

Last year I put ferns on the back porch. Loved them!

And waaaay back in 2009, I wrote a post showing you how to transfer your baskets from those plain plastic containers into pretty baskets with liners. It’s so easy and getting rid of those plastic pots gives your plants so much more room to grow and bloom.

The big downside of those iron baskets with the coconut liners is that your soil dry out so quickly. I usually have to water everyday and on the hottest days, I water twice. Too much work!

I finally came upon a solution and I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner. Garbage bags!!! Just line your coconut baskets with a single layer of garbage bag plastic and they won’t dry out so quickly. Here’s how I did it.

Cut around 3 sides of the garbage bag so you have one large piece of plastic. Then lay a section of your plastic loosely inside your coconut liner.

Trim the plastic to fit your liner.

Make sure you cut a few holes in the plastic. You still need some drainage or your roots will rot. Then add your soil and plants like normal.

And that’s it! Quick and easy and it’s going to save me a lot of watering time this summer.

Do you plant hanging baskets? What’s in ‘em?

Sprucing Up the Back Porch with Hanging Baskets: A Quick Tip is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

There are few things that I love as much as fresh-cut flowers in the house. They add such freshness and life to a room that I’ll shell out a few bucks when I find some that I love.

These spider mums were the best deal at Wal-Mart the other day. $5 for a bouquet of 7 flowers is a steal. And if I change their water regularly, they’ll last for well over a week…sometimes 2.

But now that it’s planting season, I’m ready to add a small cutting garden to my yard. I love having some plants specifically for cutting bouquets. It’s great to be able to walk out into my backyard and cut my very own flowers for bouquets to bring into the house or to share with friends and neighbors.

Kitty Cooper’s Garden

A cutting garden can be a big or as small as you like. I doesn’t need to be some huge separate area in your garden. A small bed against your foundation will work just fine.

Here are a few annual flowers that are perfect for a cutting garden:

• Dahlias
• Snapdragons
• Zinnias
• Salvia
• Phlox
• Sunflowers

And a few of my favorite perennials for cutting are:

• Shasta daisies
• Coneflowers
• Hydrangeas

And may I say a word about vases? I guess you can’t really say no, can you? Over the years, I have collected a vast collection of vases in every shape, size and color. But one particular style remains my hands-down favorite. These narrow-necked vases are so easy to use that I go back to them over and over.

It’s work to arrange a beautiful bouquet in a large vase. But you look like a floral-guru when you stick a single stem or two in a narrow-necked vase. Plus, they have a beautiful shape even when they’re empty.

What are your favorite flowers for cutting?

Flowers for Cutting is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Our family will be hosting at least one (maybe more) meals over the Easter weekend. I wanted a pretty centerpiece that didn’t cost me a ton and could be used all spring and maybe summer! Enter my Easy Easter and Spring Living Centerpiece. Mine is really big, but you could do something a little more human in scale.

First, grab your shovel and dig up a patch of moss from your backyard. Make sure you do this in the middle of a wind-storm. You want to get the full-on crazy neighbor thing working. They haven’t seen me spray paint any bunnies for a while and I like to keep ‘em guessing.

No moss? No problem. Use the fake stuff. Or skip it all-together. We’re flexible like that.

Fill your container with some potting soil. Mine is an oval galvanized bucket from Lowes. They sell them with the paint supplies. I know not why.

Lay your moss on top and fill in with whatever little plants you can lay your hands on. I used some mini-ferns, dusty miller and some 50% off purple pansies. There’s no science to it…Just keep shoving stuff in there until it looks good. If you don’t like how it looks, add more stuff. Trust me. More stuff is good.

I also added a sweet little bunny that looks strangely like a zombie in these pictures. This post is taking a very strange turn.

After Easter, I’ll probably put it on the back porch and hope that it keeps growing. Once the pansies are done blooming, I can pull them out and add in some summer flowers. Maybe petunias?

Some more inspiration?

Meredith is the Queen of Use-What-You-Have and I still love her Easter Centerpiece from waaaaaaay back in 2009. Her moss-digging ways inspired me to do a little digging of my own.

Ann’s Easter Garden may not be a centerpiece, but it’s beautiful, meaningful and I love it. Sweet, inspiring Ann will probably be horrified to be included along-side all my crazy moss-digging, zombie bunny talk.

Living Easter Garden Centerpiece is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Hello, sweet friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours was spent hiding indoors from Old Man Winter who made a very unwelcome return. Doesn’t he know it’s spring? I’m ready for some sunshine, people!

But lucky for me, I had some spring inside the house because, last week, I started growing some grass to use in an Easter centerpiece. This was a fun, easy project to do with the kids because you can’t screw it up and the grass sprouts super fast.

All you need are some containers, potting soil and seeds.

I used wheat grass because I happened to have some on hand. You can usually find it at heath food stores and places like Whole Foods and Trader Joes. I’ve heard that it’s super healthy and people use it in smoothies, but I just grow it to look at. If you don’t have any wheat grass, you can use regular rye grass. It works just as well but sprouts a bit slower.

Cover your soil with a generous layer of seeds and a very light coating of top soil. Give it some water and keep the soil moist. Depending on the type of seed you used, they will sprout in 2-4 days. Then just keep watering it and trim as necessary.

In 7-10 days, you’ll have a container of lush springy grass.

My older son said that this one looked like a head. I agree.

Now if only someone would invent a teeny-tiny lawnmower, because sometimes your grass centerpiece needs a little trim.

Until then, you can use a pair of scissors or, do what I did, and give it a trim with your electric knife.

Perfect.

This isn’t my first time around the block with wheat grass. A couple of years ago, I grew it in my apothecary jars.

And I left my centerpieces plain, but you can dress them up with all sorts of spring-y-ness.

Maybe with butterflies like Urban Comfort?

Or peeps like Gather and Nest?

Or with gerbera daisies like Floral Verde?

Have you checked out Centsational Girl’s Fair Weather Forum?

Easy Spring Grass Centerpiece is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

I love getting my Pottery Barn catalog in the mail. I always find inspiration. If only someone would send me the “Lots of Spare Time” catalog. But I nearly always see something that I want to try and hack.

Sometimes the best things to  hack out of the Pottery Barn catalog (or any catalog for that matter) are the things that aren’t even for sale. They’re the things that are in the backgrounds of those perfectly decorated pages.

For example, these gorgeous terrariums that Pottery Barn shows inside their Pickling Jars. Now, the jars are for sale (for between $139-$179. YIKES!) but they don’t come with those beautiful plants and such inside them.

I decided to create my own PB-esque terrarium inside my own container. Of course my jar was a steal from Marshalls at $9.00.

My jar is about 9″ across and 10″ tall, so there’s plenty of room for terrarium-type stuff. I put a layer of stones on the bottom so there would be some drainage when I overwater it. Then a layer of potting soil and a cute plant that I picked up at IKEA. Of course, any garden center will have something similar.

Before I say another word, I have to give a big virtual-hug to my hubby. At this point in the process, he walked in the door from a 4-day trip and saw my big mess on the kitchen island. His exact words to me? “Some husbands might ask why there is a huge bag of potting soil on the kitchen island.” Then he gave me a hug. How can you not love that man?

After I got the plant in place, it was time to fill in with some natural-type stuff that I had around the house…rocks from the mailbox bed, wood and bark from the wood pile, reindeer moss from another project.

There’s no science to it. Just start putting stuff in there until it looks good. Then call it done.

I am so in love with my Pottery Barn hack terrarium. It’s adding a little life to my entryway right now, but I think it will end up being a spring centerpiece.

Have you hacked anything lately?

Have you checked out Knock-Off Decor yet? This fabulous site features the best knock-off projects from your favorite stores and designers. You rock, Beckie!

Pottery Barn Hack is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Spring is sure to follow.
~Guinean Proverb

I have plans that daffodils will someday fill a woody patch of ground outside my kitchen window. I would love to be able to cut my own bunches.

Until then, the $2.99 bunch from the grocery store does quite nicely. I tied them all together with a little piece of jute twine and displayed them in a mason jar filled with water and rocks.

One for me and one for a friend who needs a little lift. I like to save glass jars (spaghetti, pickle, jelly) and remove the labels with hot water (and sometimes goo gone) so that I have a small collection of “vases” that I can freely give away with inexpensive cut flowers.

In You’ve Got Mail, Meg Ryan’s character said “Daisies are the friendliest flower”. That’s probably true, but I think that daffodils are the most joyful flower.

Just when you think that winter will never end, they burst out of the seemingly dead ground. And they appear to be trumpeting a joyful song…perhaps to their Creator? Oh that I would always remember to do the same.

Some days I need a reminder to choose joy….a reminder that spring will come again.

Top photo credit: Katy Ereira

No Matter How Long the Winter… is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

I was wandering through the indoor garden section of Lowes the other day and stumbled upon this beautiful container of succulents. For around $12, I decided he was a fun treat to bring home and try out on my kitchen window sill.

This is no small deal because I don’t have the best luck with houseplants. I’ve got a lovely green thumb when it comes to outdoor plants, but indoor plants? That thumb is totally black. I try and I try, but they never do well. Probably because I totally neglect them…forget to water…never fertilize…give them the wrong kind of light. Houseplants cry when the see me coming.

But succulents are as hardy as they come. You can neglect them horribly and they’ll just keep on growing. In fact, the more you neglect them, the better. They only need to be watered once a month or so, depending on the size of the container. Maybe 2x a month during the active growing season. They like plenty of light, but beware of heavy mid-day sun as their leaves will burn.

Now that’s my kind of plant. It’s by the sink. I’ll probably remember to water it occasionally. And it’s in a window. Lots of light.

Even though there is still snow in the yard, adding a little greenery helps me to believe the rumors that spring will arrive sometime soon. I do love having a little greenery in the house. It makes things feel fresh and alive.

What kind of houseplants do you love? Do you have any plants that are hard to kill?

Succulents in My Kitchen is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

via The Art of Doing Stuff

If you were lucky enough to receive a bouquet of roses (or other flowers) yesterday, then maybe you’re wondering what to do with them. I’ve always been kind of puzzled about how to arrange those cellophane wrapped bouquets. Karen from The Art of Doing Stuff showed me exactly what I should do.

I’ll be honest…I’m not much of a rose girl, particularly on Valentine’s Day. Mostly because it annoys me to no end that the price of roses doubles that week. But Karen’s ideas will work for other kinds of flowers too. I used them on a bouquet of tulips. Check out Karen’s post on How to Arrange a Dozen Roses for all the whats and hows of arranging roses.

PS…If you didn’t get a bouquet of flowers yesterday, then march yourself down to the store today and get one for yourself. They’re 1/2 the price that they were 24 hours ago.

What to Do With Those Roses is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

One of my favorite things about late summer (besides lightning bugs and cooler nights), is the blooming sunflower. A few months ago, I professed my undying love for my hydrangeas and showed you how to make a quick and beautiful arrangement.

But now, my beloved hydrangeas are past their prime. Which is just as well because my sunflowers are in full bloom and ready for lots of cutting!

Photo: Penn State Ag Department

I think lots of people mistakenly assume that all sunflowers are ginormous and require tons of space to grow. Giant sunflowers (like the Mammoth variety) are fun to grow, but they definitely belong outside (or in the back of a magenta pick-up truck). Unless, of course, you have vases made of lead and huge rooms that can handle their comically large proportions.

There are lots of smaller sunflower varieties that are fantastic for cutting and making quick bouquets. You don’t need acres of land to grow them and you can get lots of flowers from one plant. Some varieties to look for are:

Autumn Beauty
Italian White
Lemon Queen
Red Sun
Teddy Bear (that the one in my pictures)

But don’t limit yourself to this list. Look at the seeds available in your store and find multi-branched varieties with smaller blooms. The multi-branched varieties will get you more flowers on each plant.

We usually plant our seeds a few weeks before Mother’s Day so we can use them as gifts and so they get a head start on the growing season.

That bouquet in the mason jar is going to a neighbor to say “Thanks for letting us crash in on your new swimming pool!”

What’s blooming in your garden now?

For the Love of Sunflowers is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

The other day I showed you the vegetable garden that I’ve been dreaming about. The Mister and I are doing some of the legwork this summer so that we can have a great garden next summer. How’s THAT for planning ahead?

Today, I want to share my reality. I like to call it the Good Enough Garden.

You don’t have to have a perfectly planned space on an acre of land to grow some of your own vegetables. I’ve taken over a flower bed near our basement door for my Good Enough Garden. I’m pretty sure I’m breaking all sorts of gardening rules but it works for us.

I’m using an entire bed for our garden, but there’s no reason you can’t tuck some tomato and pepper plants amongst your shrubs and perennials if they get enough sunlight. Now, I’m not telling you to rip out all your azaleas and evergreens and plant cucumbers (unless you want to, of course). But no one will be calling the Gardening Police if you do.

In that little space, I’m growing a row of bush beans (because they don’t need a trellis to grow on), yellow and green peppers and cucumbers.

I don’t expect to feed my family on what my tiny garden produces. We’re just having a little fun and getting the kids excited about gardening.

I’m also using a bunch of pots to grow even more vegetables. I’ve collected some rather large pots over the years and this year decided it was time to try growing some veggies in them.

All of those big, black pots came from Wal-Mart last summer, although I think they still carry them. They were the cheapest, biggest pots that I could find. Originally, they were that awful, fake terra-cotta color but I painted them. Of course.

Note: Keep you eyes open at yardsales this time of year for people selling big pots. The terra cotta ones are great, but even big plastic pots (like mine) can be freshened up with a coat of spray paint (on the outside of the pot only). I like to use Krylon Fusion paint for plastic.

I’ve been told that carrots do well in pots, so we’re giving it a shot. Carrots prefer loose, well-drained soil. They would hate my clay soil. So pots are the way to go for me.

Tomatoes also do well in pots. There are so many varieties and some of them were specifically developed for growing in containers.

And a tiny pot of basil on the window sill would never do for me. I like to make and freeze pesto for the winter, so I need the gigoonda-sized pot.

Two of my favorite resources for information on growing vegetables in smaller spaces:

My Square Foot Garden
Life on the Balcony

Are you growing any vegetables this year? What’s your fave?

The Good Enough Garden is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

For the last 2 summers, I have dreamed (dreamt?) about a beautiful, productive vegetable garden in our backyard. That dream has taken many forms and I haven’t acted on it because I didn’t have a clear picture in my head.

Until now. I flipped when I saw this picture in This Old House magazine.

Perfection! Tidy raised beds surrounded by gravel paths so that I can wear my cute flip-flops without getting my feet (too) muddy. It’s exactly what I want!

I love that the smaller bed size that makes it easier to tend with the kids. I hope that gardening with my kiddos will give them a greater appreciation for the food that they eat. I want them to have a basic understanding of where our food comes from. Green beans don’t magically appear at the grocery store, you know.

Did you know that now is the perfect time to start planning and prepping for next summer’s garden? Now that I have a clearer picture in my mind, we can start building the raised beds and filling them with grass clippings, straw and compost. By next spring we’ll have beautiful soil for planting.

Since the beds will already be prepped in early spring, I can start the plants inside while the weather is still cold. They’ll be ready to transplant as soon as the ground warms up!

And by thinking ahead, I can make sure that we’ve selected the perfect spot so that the garden gets adequate sunshine. Before you plant anything in the yard, you want to make sure that it will get the proper amount of sun. You may think you know, but you might be surprised when you check different areas of your yard at different times of the day.

My plan is a loosely interpreted “Potager” garden…that’s a fancy French word for a garden that incorporates edible and ornamental plants. And if mine can include a trellis and a bench, even better!

Want to know more about Potager Gardens? Check out these articles:
Designing a Potager Garden @ Country Living
Potager Garden @ Homestead Revival (LOVE her site!)
Potager Inspiration @ Parisienne Farmgirl
More Potager Inspiration @ Exalted Beauty

Country Living

Later this week, I’ll show you how we’re gardening this year. I call it the “Good Enough Garden”.

What about you? Do you have a vegetable garden? How does your garden grow?

The Inspiration Garden is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

I’m spending lots of time with my hands in the dirt this summer. Trees, shrubs, perennials and a small garden. Since that wasn’t enough, a few weeks ago, I decided it was high time for a summer herb garden. I planted all the herbs in pots so that I can bring some of them indoors and continue to enjoy them come winter.

I love the hodge-podge of mismatched pots. I wish I could say it was deliberate, but I was simply using what I had. It’s pure serendipity that it looks so pretty sitting on my back porch.

I love mint in my iced tea. Did you know mint comes in a huge number of varieties? In addition to the Kentucky Colonel mint that I bought, my nursery carries orange mint, chocolate mint, pineapple mint, lavender mint and apple mint. A little note…Mint is HIGHLY invasive. Don’t plant it in a flower bed unless you’re ok with it taking over. You’ll have mint out the you-know-what.

Rosemary that I’ll take big snips from when I make Pioneer Woman’s Pot Roast. YUM!

Chives in my chalkboard flower pot.

These adorable chalkboard pots are now available in my OpenSky shop! There’s a Single 3″ Pot and a Trio of 3″ or 4″ Pots! I love mine. Within minutes of opening the box, my boys were decorating it with the chalk it came with. I had to steal it back for my chives.

There’s cilantro that I must have for my Gazpacho Dip. (Originally from Pampered Chef, but it’s no longer on their website.) It’s my go-to summer appetizer. I usually skip the pitas and serve it with tortilla chips. Delish!

And dill that I’m going to use to make Dilly Beans later this summer. They’re pickled green beans and they’re curl-your-toes good.

Check out my OpenSky shop for the new Chalkboard Pots! I can think of all sorts of things to grow in them.

Summer Container Herb Garden is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Nothing brightens up my kitchen faster than a bouquet of fresh cut flowers. And if they happen to be hydrangeas cut from my front yard, then even better.

The Annabelle Hydrangeas that I planted in our front beds 2 summers ago are getting big and they’re covered with beautiful white blooms. I really think that the hydrangea is God’s most perfect flower. You don’t need to be a master flower arranger to create a gorgeous bouquet. They’re so big and beautiful that they practically arrange themselves.

This is one of my favorite ways to create a quick arrangement or centerpiece. I put 5 or 6 mason jars into a metal basket (from Marshalls). Each jar gets 2 or 3 hydrangea flowers and a few get a stem or 2 of leaves. That’s it!

I have a small obsession with mason jars because they’re useful for so many thing besides just canning.

A seriously stunning arrangement in 5 minutes flat. Having these beautiful flowers in the house makes me happy.

Hydrangeas are usually considered a southern flower, but us northern girls can grow them too. You just have to pick the right varieties. Besides the Annabelle, I’ve also planted some Endless Summer hydrangeas in the front yard. They’re blue in acidic soil and pink in alkaline soil. You can add some lime around the base of the plant to encourage blue blooms if your soil isn’t acidic enough.

And just a few weeks ago, I planted these beautiful babies behind our garage.

They’re called Limelight Hydrangeas and I’m dreaming of a huge garden full of bright green blooms that I can cut all summer.

I could find them in a local nursery but I found them from on Ebay (yes, Ebay!) and decided to take a chance. Hubby calls them my “plants in a box”. They arrived all wrapped up and ready to plant. So far so good!

I love puttering in the yard as much as I love puttering in the house. We’re lucky that we have plenty of space to try out new plants and flowers. Young plants are generally inexpensive so they’re a great way to experiment and find out what works in your yard.

What’s your favorite thing growing in your yard right now?

Hydrangea Bouquet Decontructed is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

I also win the Most Pointlessly Long Post Title Award. Neener neener.

I summer-ized my fireplace hearth last week. I went the traditional fern-on-the-hearth route, but it wasn’t totally working for me. I think I like the Boston Ferns on the back porch instead of on the hearth.

When I saw this beautiful Kimberly Queen Fern at Wally-World for $9.00, I was sold. I love how it’s fronds are all sticky-uppy rather than hangy-downy like the Boston Fern.

And the planter basket adds a nice bit of texture. Yes. I know it looks like a waste basket but it really is a planter. Also from Wally-World. $4.00.

The wooden tray was a Marshalls find from a long time ago. I’ve used it everywhere in my house.

That is all. I promise. No more fern posts this summer. I’m fern-obsessed. Fern-addicted. A fern-aholic.

I Bought Yet Another New Fern and Changed My Summer Hearth Because I’m a Lunatic is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

I used to think of ferns as old-lady plants…no offense to old-ladies. I love old-ladies. I hope to be one someday.

But no more! I was looking for something different for my hanging baskets this year and I found myself utterly smitten with ferns. They’re so beautiful. And southern. And despite the face that I live in Pennsylvania, I believe I have a southern heart. (How else can you explain the fact that I make KILLER sweet tea?)

So ferns it is. Mine came from Lowe’s, but I’ve seen beautiful ferns at Home Depot, Sam’s Club and Walmart this year. Must be a good year for ferns.

And if you’re tempted to leave your hanging baskets in the plastic pots that they came in, let me give you little tip. DON’T DO IT! The baskets aren’t big enough to let the plants grow properly for the whole season and the hanger parts aren’t long enough.

Much better!

What’s in your baskets this year?

Here’s some more hanging basket ideas:

The World’s Largest Hanging Basket @ UK Telegraph
How to Make a Wild Hanging Basket @ Craftzine
Beth’s Beautiful Front Porch with Baskets @ The Stories of A to Z

For the Love of Ferns is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

I love a well-decorated outdoor space. As soon as the weather gets warm, my attention heads outside and we spend as much time as possible out there.

We had a beautiful front porch at our old house that I finally decorated when we were trying to sell the house. I could have kicked myself for waiting so long to make the space beautiful.

Hanging curtains on the end of the porch created a cozy nook that felt like a real room. Fabric does wonders even in outdoor spaces.

We don’t have a front porch on our new house (sad face) so I added curtains to our back patio. We had just moved in when I took these pictures. It’s so nice to realize that we have grass and flowers where there was once bare earth. Progress!

This year I’m toying with some ideas for using trellis to create some more privacy on the back porch.

photo: BHG

I’m picturing something sort of like this with a flowering vine growing on it…maybe a Clematis or a Climbing Hydrangea.

As I was browsing around the web looking for inspiration, I came across some other great ideas:

An Outdoor Room: Adding Privacy @ The Design File
Creating a Cozy, Outdoor Space @ Nesting Place
Drop Cloth Drapes for the Patio @ Heather Bullard
Chain Link Fence Curtain Hardware @ BeachBrights

Do you have a porch? Do you decorate it for summer?

Have you seen the big list of giveaway winners that I posted earlier?

Curtains on the Porch is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Did you know that fall is a great time to plant new trees and shrubs? Yep! The air may be cooler, but the ground is still nice and warm and that lets all those little roots take hold before it freezes. Then, come spring, your new tree already has a jump start.

The best part is that now is the time when most nurseries and garden centers (like Lowes and Home Depot) put their trees and shrubs on deep discount. The leaves on this tree may be a little crispy, but they’ll be fine come spring.

We snapped up some new trees and bushes for 1/2 off over the weekend.

The downside is that you have to buy ‘em when you see ‘em even if you don’t have the right vehicle. Otherwise someone else may snap up that Japanese Maple Tree that will be perfect for your front yard.

I wish I could say that this was the first time we risked life and limb (hardy har) and drove home with our heads stuck in a tree. My poor boys.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a article on fall planting from HGTV.

And here’s a great how-to on tree planting from DoItYourself.com.

You can still enter your project for DIY Day! If you have a few minutes, go browse through some of the projects. Amazing!

The winners of our giveaway from DiscHangers.com are:
Christi @ Life is Dancing in the Rain
Connie @ Shady Creek Lane
Ellen @ Handmade Recess

Congratulations! Shoot me an email with your address and I’ll get you hooked up with your DiscHangers. And if you didn’t win, remember that you can get free shipping at DiscHangers.com by using code FREESHIP09!

Fall Planting is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Whew! I loved seeing all of your outdoor projects during our Garden Party! I finally finished making my way around to see everyone and thought I would share a few of my favorites with you all.

JJ of the BLAH BLAH BLAHger, shared her patio makeover on a budget. She used a shower curtain and a tablecloth. Love it!

Beth from The Stories of A to Z has the most beautiful backyard hideaway and hanging baskets. Thanks Beth!

Ashley from Ashley’s Busy made over this dumpster find. I totally would have wrestled her for that bench if I had seen it!

I am digging this portable herb garden from Kelly at Purple Lemon Designs. And look at thos adorable garden markers! She did a tutorial here.

For those of you with vegetable/fruit gardens, I love this idea from Jeanne Winters for sharing the bounty of your garden.

Another great porch makeover from Sugar Mommy.

Mandi Shandi makes beautiful container gardens and did a faboo patio makeover.

Check out how The Rhinestone Contessa uses plates as edgers for her beds! Manuela from The Pleasures of Homemaking did it too!

I wish I could live in Funky Junk Interiors backyard. Just look at it! And the birdhouse garden is cute too!

And when Funky Junk kicks me out, I’m going to live with Nana at In a Garden just so I can see all of her amazing roses.

Garden Party Round-Up! is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

It’s time to share your outside projects! I’m so excited to see what everyone has been doing. I’ll get things started.

Do you remember when I showed you how to plant your own hanging baskets?

Here’s what mine look like this year. I did it exactly like I showed you in my “how-to” post only I used yellow Million Bells (miniature petunias) instead of New Guinea Impatiens.

They’re growing like crazy and they look so beautiful on my back porch.

Now it’s your turn! Mr. Linky is ready to go. Link up to the exact post on your blog. Click on the title of the post in your blog to get the permalink up in your address bar. If your link is just to your blog and not the post, I’ll have to delete it. Readers will be clicking on these links for weeks to come and if they can’t find your Garden Party post I’ll get irritated emails. I don’t like getting irritated emails.

Feel free to grab the Garden Party button and use it in your post. Thanks Darcy! And make sure you link back here so your peeps know what’s going on.

Now let’s get this party started!

It’s a Garden Party! is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Who would have thought that the funny, cactus-like plants that my great-grandmother kept in her kitchen windowsill would be trendy? In my never-ending attempt to be stylish and current, (where did I leave my fanny pack anyway?) here’s my take on the succulent trend.

I love their texture and the fact that they thrive under my neglectful care. They’re the perfect houseplant for me.

I found my little beauties at Lowes but if your neighbor has them in their flower beds, ask if you can cut off a few pieces. They’re really easy to grow from cuttings.

How to grow succulents from cuttings

1. Cut off a piece of the succulent plant about 2-3 inches long
2. Let the cutting dry for a few days until a callous forms on the cut end.
3. Plant in loose soil. Roots will grow from the calloused end.

~~~~~~~~~~

More succulent inspiration:
A succulent wedding (this is gorgeous!): anthimeria
Decorating with succulents: The Nester
Tablescape with succulents: delight by design
Rooftop succulent garden: Apartment Therapy San Fran
Potted succulents: shelterrific

Succulents in an Apothecary Jar is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

My favorite greenhouse

It happens every year. Mother’s Day comes around and the urge to start planting and growing stuff becomes irresistible. For the past few years, The Hubster and the kiddos have given me flowers for my hanging baskets as a Mother’s Day present. Then I get to spend a couple of hours playing in the dirt. I love it.

Last year, I wrote about how I plant my baskets because a few of my readers (I think I had 7 at the time) commented that they had no idea how to do it. So here’s a quick run-down on what I do to create the most luscious hanging baskets you’ve ever seen.

The first thing I’m going to say is please, please, please, get your plants out of those plastic hanging baskets that they sell at the store. They’re not big enough to allow the plant to grow for the whole season. Not to mention that the hook parts aren’t long enough so they make the basket hang too high. It just looks silly. Rant over.

Here’s what you need:

1. Metal hanging baskets with those coconut fiber liners – I’ve had my baskets for at least 7 years and I just replace the liners every couple of years.
2. Potting soil
3. Flowers – Evaluate whether the area where they’ll be hanging has full sun, part sun or shade and get plants that work in that setting. Sometimes I buy the premade baskets and sometimes I get individual plants…it just depends on the cost.

First, you want to put a layer of the potting soil in the bottom of the basket with the liner. You just eyeball this. You want enough soil so that the top of the root ball of your flower is just a little below the edge of your liner.

Edit: The only downside of the coconut liners is that they allow the soil to dry out quickly so you have to water frequently. Hayley from The Handmade Housewife just gave me a fantastic tip! She puts the saucer part of a plastic pot in the bottom of the coconut liner before she puts in the dirt. It helps retain moisture so you don’t have to water as often. Brilliant!

Then you take your flowers out of their container and put them the new baskets.

And fill in with more potting soil. You don’t want to cover the soil of the existing plant.

That’s it! Give ‘em a good watering and hang ‘em up!

Through the magic of time-lapse photography, here is the same basket just a few weeks later after using Miracle Grow plant food a few times.

Sigh. Seeing those baskets makes me miss the porch at our old house. Sigh.

How to Plant Hanging Baskets: A Tutorial is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Say that 5x fast.

I had to look up the spelling for both of those words. I’m still not convinced they’re right.

While all you southern girls are enjoying the first breaths of spring, us northern girls are still dreaming. It’s supposed to snow here on Tuesday. Argh!

So while I dream, I created a bit of spring in my kitchen by growing some grass in my favorite apothecary jars.

This was a great project to do with the kids. Put some potting soil into the bottom of each jar. Then spread a bunch of wheat grass seeds on top of the soil and spritz with water.

You can buy wheat grass seeds at the health food store but I got mine on ebay. Cat grass works too and you can usually find that anywhere that sells packs of seeds. Wheat grass and cat grass are great because they sprout so quickly. Seriously, mine sprouted in less than 24 hours. You could see them growing hour by hour.

Just mist them with water every few days and watch the grass grow. My son says that we need to get a miniature tractor to mow the grass. I’m thinking little scissors will work.

Apothecary Terrarium is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

Remember a few weeks ago when I showed you how I repot my hanging baskets for my front porch? Well, a few weeks of water and Miracle Grow and here they are now.

Here’s my little tip for you. Get yourself to the store – Lowes, Walmart, Joanne – wherever they sell the metal hanging planters with the cocoa liners. They make a simple hanging basket look so much more beautiful and striking.

You should be able to find them on major clearance at this time of year. I bought mine 5 years ago on deep discount at the end of the summer. I probably spent $20 on all 4 of them. I’ve since replaced the liners twice. Mine are getting a little rusty so next year I’ll probably paint them. Just had to work that in here!

Doesn’t my front porch look sad and empty now? You can see what it looked like before I started packing it up here.

A Gardening Update and A Small Tip is a post from: A Soft Place to Land

I got to go to one of my favorite places in the whole wide world on Saturday to pick out a Mother’s Day present. It was fantastic! Hubby and the kids went with me and I got to wander around for as long as wanted without listening to any complaining…from the man or the kids. This was a major feat by my husband who managed to keep the kids entertained for nearly 2 hours!

And this one…

The room of ferns. My kids were afraid to walk down that aisle. . .

When my four-year old finally did, he looked like a little adventurer whacking his way through the jungle.
Here are the petunias…

Look at the colors in this Regal Geranium.

Last one. I love this row of Bacopa.

Once I get my baskets and pots planted, I’ll share some more pictures.

Do you plant annuals? What kinds do you like to plant?

My Favorite Nursery is a post from: A Soft Place to Land