July Garden Party

Welcome to our July Garden Party
hosted by 5 gardening friends.  

I LOVE GARDEN ART

Do you like to use different objects for garden art?  I do...and this is one of my favorites- an old 1930's wagon.

An antique garden bench with some garden art objects.

This is a basket bicycle frame (somewhere under there) white Wave Petunias and Brocade Wilhelm Langguth geraniums.  I recently relocated it from the garage area.  The little bunny was from my daughter's home that she sold and now he's hanging out with me!

This obelisk has been used for many plants as well as gazing balls a long time ago.

A sweet little butterfly stand planter and a pedestal to elevate plants.

A chippy white rusty stand displaying a watering can full of Flamingo Rose geraniums and white bacopa (which is about to rebloom).  My claypot lighthouse was a fun project you can read about if you'd like to "here".  You can see a Fairy in the distance standing among some hostas!

Another Fairy peacefully content under the giant hosta.

I found this adorable miniature red wagon at Pier 1 which is actually a photo clip frame holder but I saw it differently!  I had Dan put a few holes in it so it can drain.  My little fairy Irish dancer is prancing about the White Chips Campanula- Bellflower plant.

Thank you for joining us for our July Garden Party!

At Home With Jemma * Have A Cup Of Mrs. Olson * Home And Gardening With Liz 

 Life and Linda * Poofing The Pillows

Linkup is below...

Also joining:

Dishing It & Digging It 

Gardens Out Front

Hello everyone!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our monthly

Garden Party- looking forward to seeing your garden posts!

Out front of our house is a small island that we created to help with privacy from the road and to reduce some of the noise that comes from the traffic going by.

The Zagreb coreopsis have been blooming and some shasta daisies along with various cone flowers.  These pink cone flowers are called Little Annie.

Solar Flare Coneflower

This is a hosta that can handle some sun called Orange Marmalade.  When it starts out in the spring the leaves have a tinge of orange in them and then it becomes more of a lemony yellow.

On the other end of the island some phlox are blooming, more cone flowers and a Rapido Blue Campanula or Bellflower down on the lower left.

I love the fragrance of the phlox plants.

These shorter cone flowers are called Pixie Meadowbrite.  They've been great coming back year after year and work well for a border plant.

This is a hydrangea called Pinky Winky.  

The flowers start off white but will shift to a combination of deep pink to light pink with tips of white.

This is my "Forgotten Garden" as I refer to it.  It's a bit hidden because of a big blue spruce tree and it gets less attention because I forget about it! 

Cone flower

Phlox

Mardis Gras Helenium (Sneezeweed) 

Deer and Rabbit Resistant and attracts butterflies!

Heliopsis, Tuscan Sun (False Sunflower)  This is considered the most compact heliopsis plant available and it also attracts butterflies.

Don't forget to join us tomorrow morning

for the Garden  Party!

Island Tropical Dining (T)

We had rain all night and it was warm in the morning and felt very tropical so I got to thinking about putting another tablescape together with tropical accents.   I put together two arrangements to get started with.

I cut some of my ferns, and forced them into a circle then into the vase providing a way to hide the floral stems that will go above.

I have three of these candle votives that were setting on my desk and they also influenced my ideas this morning for this tropical island  tablescape.

Naturally I had to use this green cockatoo (found at Younker's when they started their going out of business sale) for my Island Tropical Dining table.  

The Flamingo had to be included too!

The floral arrangements are a mix silk and real flowers.

I created the center arrangement by layering fern fronds in two directions and added some little pink parrots (napkin rings) for extra tropical flair.

The fronds help them to stand up.

The melamine dishes are by Cynthia Rowley found at Home Goods.  The twig placemats were from Pier 1's holiday season.  A great texture for my Island Tropical dining!  I added in one more layer with the blue edged placemats (from Crate & Barrel) to accentuate the blue in the plates.  

The blue and white striped flatware (Crate and Barrel this year) added a little more of the island look!  

These green beaded napkin rings are also by Cynthia Rowley and the napkins are another Pier 1 set called Flamingo Pink Stripe.  I recently used these in another tablescape "here" designed to look like a rose.

The little pink figural hibiscus plates were found on clearance at Pier 1- wish I could have found more than 2!

Rocco Stemware by Bahia Bormioli.  Love their blue and green mix and I've gotten great use of these for a variety of tablescapes.

The sun has burned through the clouds and it's a beautiful day!

Thank you for joining me for my Island Tropical Dining!

Joining:

Tablescape Thursday

Share Your Cup #300 

Dishing It & Digging It 

Last Foundation Project and a Garden Bed Updated

This area had been neglected since last year when we removed lava rock that had been a landscape accent for a long time.  We finally got it completely removed and finished with the mulch.

This large stone was left over from last years Japanese Garden project so I had Dan set it over here.

A new layer of mulch freshens things up nicely.

We re-did this area last year- you can see that project "here" if you'd like.  It really was a great improvement from what it had been.

I still have to shape these shrubs up.  This was several weeks ago when they were blooming.

Out back by the patio I did a little makeover project.

I dug out a bunch of these hostas and some were transplanted out front to the area I just showed above by the big stone.

I grouped them together so they appear like one extra large hosta.  Now I want the stone moved a tad- lol...it never ends!

The creeping Jenny got lifted and set aside split up and replanted.

I planted a new to me Hosta called Brother Stefan.  When these are mature they'll cover a much larger area and definitely be touching.  It will be almost hedge-like.  Things got real messy!

The thick heavily textured leaves also resist slug damage and I like there coloring.  

I found this fairy statue at Home Goods a little while ago and finally gave her a home here.

I moved out the wood/metal garden bench that was here and had Dan put the cement one back that used to be here.  It is easier to see the plants this way.  

I relocated the planters with the orange begonias over here too.  

That's enough tweaking outdoors- time to kick back and enjoy!

I will be joining:

Dishing It & Digging It