Front Porch Flowers

Despite all of the rain we've been having, I was able to find a few dry moments to get our front porch pots planted.

You might remember a past post about the three key elements to an eye-catching arrangement.

Here is this year's forumula:

Thriller: Purple Fountain Grass

Filler: Coleus, several colors and varieties

Spiller: Sweet Potato Vine

I love the bold, contrasting colors, especially with the modern lines of the planter. I tend to choose plants with showy foliage, because I don't want to depend on constant blooming for a display of color.

I broke a few of my own rules this year. None of these plants are perennials - they'll all get composted at the end of the season, not transplanted to a new happy, permanent home in the backyard.

I was able to keep the expense minimal because the single Purple Fountain Grass in each planter (6 total) were the only 4" pots I bought. The rest are much smaller plants that came in 4-packs - more plants for less money! In past years, I've been too late to the nursery to score good colors in the smaller sizes. Smaller plants, yes, but watching them grow and taking the credit for it is a lot more fun than the instant gratification of bigger plants!

I was going to skip the other flower boxes for the time being, figuring our impending porch project would either destroy them, or leave them neglected. But the porch project has been put on hold for a little while, and I decided a little color would help us enjoy the porch as it is for now. Plus, I can hope that the flowers attract one's attention away from the peeling paint and warped floorboards... right?



The formula is the same, but with a few other colors of coleus. I especially like the deep red.



Two hanging ferns make it feel cozy.



And during naptime, we made another quick addition to the porch...



Still left to do out here:
powerwash the floor - take off as much paint as possible - before August does and eats it instead
new cushion covers - get rid of the faded ones
an area rug
two more ferns in tall planters

Handy Hunk

Gotcha!

You thought you'd find a picture of the hunk, didn't you?

Sorry, just his handiwork!

Not much, right? Well here's the hideous before...

Yeah, a much needed change. Still doesn't seem like a big deal - we've changed every other light fixture in the house - just a quick little electrical work, right? Well, one thing we've learned about working on "this old house" is that nothing is ever as simple as it seems. When we took this beauty down, we found nothing but a small hole with the electrical wire poking through - no light box, nothing. That's when I decided it was time to call an electrician.

But my hunk was undeterred. He insisted he could cut out the tongue and groove ceiling, install a pancake box, and hang the ceiling fan properly and safely. So I said "fine," and went inside. You should know that this particularly notable for two reasons: First, I'm not one to relinquish such control, or supervision for that matter - this was pregnancy fatigue at its worst, and I just couldn't muster up enough energy to care. Second, this is just another example of my hunk's increasing skill set and confidence in the realm of home improvement. When we were first married, he could barely hang a picture. I taught him everything he knows about measuring, level and square, and how to use tools he'd never seen before.

So I went inside and fell asleep on the couch, while I listened to him work on the ceiling fan. Every now and then, I'd sit up to take a peek out the window, check out my hunk's sexy work jeans with the strategically placed hole in the rear, see a little bit of progress, and fall back into my pillow. And a little later, I woke up to find TWO new light fixtures on the front porch! Here's some before and after eye candy of the second:

Sorry, the hunk eye candy is for my eyes only!

My hunk is up to even more handiwork these days. He got a new toy for Christmas too, and has already had a chance to try it out. Pregnancy has left me unable to help on the big projects around the house. So a couple of weeks ago, I was left on the other side of the plastic sheeting while I listened to every bang and grunt, wondering what exactly was gong on, and if I really should be trusting my hunk to do this on his own. But I'll reaveal our new big project and all of the details in a couple of days. Yeah, one new blog post in two months is all I can handle right now!

Quick Change: Front Porch Swing

Nothing epitomizes the good life like a front porch – a place to relax and connect with the neighborhood. For us it is an extension of our home – another room, really.


In college, we rented a house on an ivy-covered hill and watched the world go by (and shared a good number of beers, too)!


When we were house-hunting, we put a front porch high up on our list of must-haves. Almost exactly two years ago, we became the owners of a house on an ivy-covered hill with a front porch. Coincidence? Probably not!


And if you have a porch, you have to have a porch swing! Ours used to be a run-of-the-mill wood porch swing, and it had seen better days.


But after three cans of spray paint and length of shiny new chain, (just $35 worth of materials) it looks better than ever!


I even sewed together three dining chair cushions that were lying around the house to make the cushion. (Free!) The cushions were a thoughtful Christmas gift from Ben a few years back, but we didn’t use them anymore. I knew I kept them (and him) around for something!

We ordered new outdoor lighting earlier this week. You can look forward to another front porch update when they arrive...

Been Busy…

I’ve been up to a few things lately – here’s a sneak peak…

Porch Swing Quick Change
Cheap Kitchen Lighting Redo
Canning For The First Time
Cleaning The Basement

More to come…

A Tale Of Four Flower Boxes

We have four flower boxes that hang on the railings around our front porch. They provide eye-catching color which draws your eye up the ivy-covered hill and welcomes you to our front door!

A stunning planter has three key ingredients – a “thriller” for height and drama, a “filler” to bulk up the planter and create a mass of color, and a “spiller” to soften the edges of the planter and add interest. If you balance the colors and textures just right, it creates an eye-catching arrangement.

For the past few summers, I have added one additional requirement to designing my planters – I want my planters to contain primarily perennials, plants that I can transfer to the ground at the end of the season and enjoy for years to come.

Gardening and landscaping can be such expensive undertakings. I can’t bear to buy plants that live for one season, just to end up tossing them into the compost pile during fall clean-up. At the same time, developing a landscaping plan and filling in flower beds can be extremely expensive if done all at the same time.

Choosing perennials for flower boxes is the answer to both of these problems – I spend my money wisely, choosing plants that look great in my planters for one season and will have a permanent home in the flower beds come fall and winter. I have fewer plants to throw away, and the flower beds around the house continue to evolve through the years, while adding year-round color with very little maintenance.

This spring I found it particularly difficult to choose my plants. I wanted to do something different, and I also had a few problem areas around the yard that I wanted to spruce up.

At the edge of the patio and in front of the air conditioner and rain barrel, I’ve been nursing along an area of grassy groundcover to hide the ugliness…

And then there was a full sun area surrounding a stepping stone that needed some groundcover as well…

My spring and summer flower box formula…
Thriller: Ribbon Grass – to be transferred to the air conditioner/rain barrel flower bed
Filler: Dahlias in a bold deep orange – not a perennial, but I could dig up and save the bulbs if I was ambitious!
Spiller: Fireglow Sedum – good fall color to be transferred to the stepping stone flower bed

With a well-thought-out plan, I went to work and created a very balance and symmetrical arrangement, lining up each specimen in three neat rows.

One tip: Perennials in 4” pots go a long way. My flower boxes aren’t that big, and I like to save money, so I used a utility knife to cut each 4” plant in half for more bang for my buck!

Here’s what they looked like shortly after I planted them…

And after a summer of hot sun…

By the beginning of September, it was time to transfer the plants intended for flower beds in my back yard. They need time establish themselves and space to stretch their legs.

Less ugliness by the air conditioner and rain barrel…

Happy sedum by the stepping stone will spread and survive any mis-steps while adding deep pink fall color…

But there are still a few months of growing season ahead of us, especially for my south-facing flower boxes! I wanted bold fall colors – the kind of arrangement that reminds you of pumpkins, apple cider, and falling leaves. The plants have to have some nighttime cold tolerance and not mind the mid-day temperatures.

My fall flower box formula…
Thriller:
Ogon Grass (1) – a spiky dash of chartreuse for height and contrast to the deeper colors

Fillers:
Peach Melba Coral Bells (1) – unique color with fabulous texture


Ornamental Purple Cabbage (1) – more unique color with different texture and a little more height


Deep Fuchsia Mums (3) – nothing says fall more than a mum, they even smell like Homecoming!


Spiller:
Creeping Jenny (1) – quite possibly my favorite plant, for its bright color and trailing quality that fills in the nooks and crannies anywhere you plant it

I went with a less contrived arrangement this time, anchoring the box with the “thriller” in one back corner and the “spiller” in the opposite front corner. The bigger “fillers” (Coral Bells, Ornamental Cabbage) were placed for maximum contrast in color and texture to neighboring plants, and the smaller “fillers” (Mums) were tucked in between. With the exception of the ornamental cabbage, all of the plants are perennials, which will be transferred to the landscaping beds in late fall.

The result is quite pretty, and they’ll continue to look great all fall…