Sure some years I am able to keep flowers alive and looking good, but more times than not it isn't the case. I have no rhyme or reason to how I betray plants after the promise of a healthy life, it's sort of hit or miss on the type and location of the ones that will pull through.
Since in the past I have proven that I can kill expensive plants just as good as cheap ones, when a shopper pointed me in the direction of some marked down flowers due to a little over night frost here in May, I decided I would take them home.
The plants still looked pretty good to me, and I thought with some loving care I could warm their pretty little buds and in return they would bloom for me.
I had a pile of last years crop of dead plants that had just been dumped out and were waiting to receive fresh soil and greens, when I looked differently at four galvanized buckets that I have been hanging along a spacious sea of stuccoed garage wall.
I wanted to paint the plain buckets and add a little color to the dreary garage wall.
So I opted for an experiment.
This location gets a lot of very hot sun. I have planted ferns, and trailing flowers, and any variety of plants that look great for the first few weeks, but eventually I forget to water them, or water them too much, or just look at them wrong and they wilt.
Of the rescued flowers on clearance at the store, the pansies were intended for the buckets. Then I realized they would be getting the hot afternoon sun and the vicious cycle of looking good for a few weeks would recur, so on to plan B.... the experiment.
Why spend more money when I have a yard full of split-able hostas that won't matter if they make it or not in buckets, I wouldn't have spent a penny on trying.
I have hostas in both shade and sun and in the ground they do great. We shall see how they do in the hanging buckets.
A few years ago we turned some old parts into a potting bench, I will include the links at the bottom if you would like to see what those old parts used to be. The potting bench became my bucket transformation location.
This was a simple paint project. No need to be fussy, I wanted the silver buckets to look a little worn, maybe like a well used beach pail.
To paint and stencil the buckets, I simply gathered my paint and some of my Old Sign Stencils , and headed right out to my potting bench, working with the dirt all around me.
There between the potting soil and plant food, I alternated with a base of Fusion Mineral Paint in Champness and Tuscan Orange, followed by Picket Fence for the stencil color. My buckets were inspired by Carlene from Organized Clutter.
I eyeballed the stencils for placement on the buckets, and just held them in place since I forgot to grab tape.
We have this unintended resort theme going on in our back yard, so mixing up the Old Sign Stencils worked great to keep with the theme.
Below are some bean bag boards I made with the intention of using them as art and hanging them on the long blank garage wall.
There is plenty to see and do here for kids and adults, although the playground was lost a couple years ago to a big tree in a storm, and the mini golf holes need a good cleaning out before anyone can putt.
We added the mud pie station, trying to situate it close to a hose to wash off the cook top as well as the little bakers, and it might just be my favorite outdoor project. A couple of the chef's have probably gotten too old to play with it :(.
I've had some previous ideas to enhance the long blank slate of a garage wall, but I never get it accomplished so the galvanized buckets go back up every year.
While I might be fond of weathered silver buckets, I like that this year they have some color. If the hostas stay alive I will be money ahead on the plants I usually kill in this spot every year.
If you have a brilliant idea besides hanging buckets for this four stall wall, leave it in the comments. But don't say paint a mural, because that won't happen!
I do have a couple thoughts on how to dress up the typical garage windows, starting with washing them, but I would like to hear your ideas.
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I love this project, Bliss! The colors are perfect!
ReplyDeleteha...just washed my garage doors yesterday, its amazing how dirty they get. love the idea of hanging the baskets. creativity is not hitting me this morning but if it does I will be sure to let you know. have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteHanging planters can be so tricky to keep alive. But Hostas seem to stay alive no matter what, so you may be on to something. These are so cool, as are Carlene's. I love your resort themed back yard!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE these!! Seriously need some of those stencils for my new lake house! Good luck with that green thumb. It's hot as balls here in Alabama already so I'm worried how my plants will fare this summer.
ReplyDeleteThose are great colors and stencils!
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem with plants. Good luck!
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