DIY Ivy Topiaries

During a visit to the Getty Museum in Malibu, I fell in love with the Ivy Topiaries that were placed throughout the gardens. I took lots of pictures to remind myself to make my own for the garden. I looked online for sphere foundations to make the topiaries, but they were too costly for small spheres so I decided to give it a go and do it myself.

   

 Step 1: 

I used wire hangers from the dry cleaner, but you 

can use any heavy wire that is easy to bend into shape

Step 2: 

I formed the wire into circles

Step 3: 

The plastic pots were a bit too tall for the ceramic pot I wanted to 

place it so I had Mr. S trim them down and then he poked holes for the wire.

Step 4:

Fill the pot with potting soil and put the wire hangers through the 

holes on the pot. Mr. S crimped the wire to stay in place with pliers.

Step 5: 

Hold wire in place with zip ties at the top and trim excess.

Step 6:
I placed the plastic pot in the ceramic pot. Now
all ready for the Ivy! (I had empty ceramic planters from last year.)

Step 7:
Weave Ivy through the wire. In no time the Ivy will fill in!

The Ivy has filled in beautifully with the Pansies and Poppies

Another ivy topiary I started about 6 months
ago with a small ivy plant I purchased for $2

Why does fashion become too serious?

This week was very difficult with customer deadlines. A style I had been working on needed to be cut on an automatic cutter because of the internal cut outs. I had been working on the pattern conversion without success for weeks. The pattern was created on Style Cad converted to PAD System which controls the data for the Kuris Cutter, but no matter what parameters we tried, the pattern would not convert properly. With the deadline to meet, the stress was terrible, I had actually lost sleep! That's when I ask myself, why does fashion become too serious?

With the help from tech support and the guys at the cutting service, it was finaly successful The guys allowed me to video a test cut.

Pink Alexander Magnolia Tree

With shopping list at hand, Mr. S and I went to H & H. I had difficulty keeping on track with the nursery filled with Pink Alexander Magnolia trees. Mr. S and I stopped to admire them and I ignored my impulse to buy one. On the far side looking for the plants on my list there was more magnolia trees to tempt me! I tried to ignore them as I looked at plants, one of the workers drove up with a cart right beside me and began loading the entire row of magnolia trees. A part of me wanted to grab one of the trees, but I'm happy to say I remained strong. We left without caving in.

I had always wanted a pink magnolia tree since the first time I had seen one years ago at The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. The next morning Mr. S asked if I was still thinking about the magnolia tree. I told him, yes. He encouraged me to go back and buy one. I didn't think twice and was on my way back to H & H hoping they still had trees! 

My Pink Alexander Magnolia tree!

 Afew days later, I took the afternoon off to meet the 

workers from H&H to deliver and plant the tree.

 I can't wait till the tree grows to full height! So beautiful!

Gardening is art, dirt is a blank canvas

Planning and designing took a long time, for me, it helps to draw the plans to help visualize the garden and where to place everything. I also started a Pinterest board for inspiration and an Excel spreadsheet to log the pants. If you are like me, I get overwhelmed when I go to the nursery. I want to buy everything, so I bring a shopping list to keep on track. It doesn't always work because an interesting plant always catches my eye. H & H Nursery in Lakewood is my favorite and I also frequent Armstrong Garden Center.

Now that the vegetable beds are in, there's always work to be done in the garden. I find there is never enough time to spend in the garden. Unfortunately, I have to work and the weekends are never enough time to spend in the garden, so I wake up early to send some time in the mornings before getting ready for work. I use to think watering was a chore, but now I enjoy it. I find it relaxing giving me the opportunity to admire my plants closely.

The beds are filling up!

 Kale, strawberries, onions and garlic

 5 or 6 differnt varieties of lettuse and 2 kinds of cabbage

 Lettuce!

Nasturtium & Black Berries

Images of Watermelon Vines

While shopping at yard sales many years ago, we met a nice man who Mr. S bought some fishing tackle from. I think they chatted for over a half hour about fishing. He showed Mr. S one of his fishing reels that didn't work, so Mr. S asked if he could take a look at it. He borrowed a screwdriver and had the reel apart in seconds, adjusted something inside, and the reel worked like new!

The man was so appreciative that he showed us his back yard, which was covered with a vine that had taken over at least half of the far side of the yard. After my eyes adjusted, I realized there were several watermelon hiding under the large leaves on the vines. He promised us a watermelon when they were ready. Mr. S and the man exchanged phone numbers and a month later he called. It was the juiciest watermelon!

Since then, I have had the image of the watermelon vines in my mind and tried to grow watermelons and pumpkins twice each with no success, so I was determined to have room for a watermelon and pumpkin patch. The space for the the vegetables beds was larger than I had ever had to work with, 30ft X 21 ft! So much potential for lots of varieties of vegetables.

The plan was to have 4 main raised beds 12' x 6', with 2 ft wide boarder beds, and walkways in between. So off to the hardware store again for wood and supplies and to the city dump for more mulch.

The raised bed boxes are constructed with 2" x 8"s 

and anchored with wood stakes in the ground

The boxes are in place

We lined the beds with cardboard to minimize 

the weed and grass from coming through

This time we rented a trailer because we estimated that 

we would need at least 4 loads of mulsh to fill the beds

Even with 4 full loads of mulsh the beds were only half filled

We filled the balance with a mix of Kellog Growmulsh and Miracle Grow

 which has been a suscessful combination for several years

Finally ready to plant! Now the real work begins!

The blue and black berries are planted

I planted a few flowers along the fence

The Lettuce bed

The Kale and Spinch bed

The tomato trellises are in place

The first Tomatoes are planted. This is only the begining.
Now to plant more vegetables, water, weed and wait!  

Through the Garden Gate

In the past I had pets dig up flower beds and lounge on cool vegetables, so I knew a fence had to be built for the vegetable garden. For months I looked at hundreds of photos for fences and garden gates for inspiration trying to decide the style I wanted. Mr. S helped narrow down the choices and finally we decided on a white picket fence.

We did a lot of prep work during the week in preparation for another back breaking weekend. I measured and checked my plans I had drawn and took a trip to the hardware store to buy the wood, hardware, and supplies for the fence. For the main support posts we used pressure treated wood. There were pre-made sections of  picket fences, but Mr. S did not like the construction, so we bought the pre-cut pickets instead. Lots of measurements later we had a fence!

The main posts were set in concrete

 All the pickets are spaced the same 

distance apart with the dogs watching

 I think Zoe has figured out the fence is to keep the dogs out, 

she doesn't look happy about it.

 Making progress

 The finials were a bit pricey, 

but they added the to style I was trying to achieve.

 I drafted a pattern on my CAD system to use as 

a template to achieve the curve for the gate.

Time to paint!

 The fence is looking closer to what I had imagined!

 I'm so happy with the results!

 I had to search for the trellis. H&H had trellises, 

but they were all too wide for the gate opening.

I had to special order the trellis at Armstrong Garden Center.