Garden Junk

Since I am sitting here praying for Spring to come, I decided to take a look at one of my favorite garden websites called GardenWeb. They have TONS of forums related to gardens/gardening. My favorite forum on there is Garden Junk. I am always amazed at the cool projects the members on that forum come up with. It is the place where I first learned about decorating bowling balls with colored glass pebbles. (Some people have even covered them with pennies.) They turn out so beautiful, and I love to see the sun shining off of them as they sit among all of the flowers. I made several bowling balls. Out of all of them, my favorites were the blue one (that I gave to Mr. Mister's mother) and the red one, that is still sitting out in my garden now.







It has been several years since I made the bowling balls and the pebbles have started falling off, so I just may have to revisit this project soon and make a few more.

There is also a new project I want to try my hand at. They are now making glass flowers out of dishes. The following pictures are NOT flowers that I have made. The pictures were posted by user name Kirkus and taken from the Garden Junk forum. The first two were from a craft show, where the vendor let them take pictures of her flowers.





This one was taken by Kirkus to show the plates they bought (at a thrift store) to make their own flowers with.



Aren't they just the cutest things? Now, I am going to have to go on the hunt for some really cool glass dishes, ashtrays, and candle holders! From the information given, it would seem that the flowers are attached to a brass rod, with a "flange" and silicone glue. I believe some people are going to use PVC instead of the brass. They are painting the PVC a different color.

Here is a another link with directions on making "Glass Flowers." It also shows a picture of the flowers. They did not glue the flowers to the poles. Instead they drilled holes through all of the dishes, then used a nut and bolt to hold them together.

The members have also made glass totem poles out of bottles and different glass pieces. Some even use lamp parts. They use whatever they find. It's so COOL to see all of them.

This one was posted by user name Luvstocraft:



These were made by Cindee. You can see more on her blog. She also has a "Shoe Garden."



While you are peeking around the different forums at GardenWeb, make sure to take a look at another one of my favorite forums Hypertufa. They make castings with hypertufa or concrete using REAL leaves from plants like gunnera and elephants ears. This picture was taken from the website. (That large leaf is NOT real! It was made from concrete.)



You can read more about how to make a concrete leaf casting here.

I have talked with Mr. Mister about planting a "Moon Garden" around our deck, so that we can sit outside and relax at the end of a busy day. Unfortunately, by the end of the day it's growing too dark outside to really enjoy all of our flowers, so a Moon Garden is the perfect solution for that. A Moon Garden is planted mostly with white or light colored flowers that bloom or can still be seen at night. You can also use plants that have silvery foliage that will help reflect the moonlight off of them. You can read all about them in the Moon Garden forums.

Of course, Moon Gardens are also known as White Gardens. You can search the internet for all kinds of photographs, plant choices, and information on them. One of the most well know White Gardens is found at Sissinghurst Castle. (Scroll down on the page) The garden is breathtaking!

So, since most of us are stuck inside due to the cold weather, maybe dreaming about all of these cool projects for our gardens, will help keep us warm, until we can get back outside and enjoy some beautiful weather!

I am sure you will thank me for adding more things to your "TO DO" lists! HA HA HA! Happy JUNKING!