Hedges

Hedges:

Dear All,
Soon the gardener will be outside the walls wearing her large sun hat and armed with her clippers. Foliage will fly, the spiders will scatter and soon all will be, once more, under control!

I am sure there is a little birds nest in the tree near the gate. I am pretty sure the chicks  fledged earlier in August but I will walk very quietly past just in case.

Mini Hedge Workbook:

Our friend Fatima brought the mat displayed below for show and tell at one of our mini musketeers get togethers and said. "Perhaps you would like to take some of this greenery and see what can be done with it."

Elizabeth of http://www.studioeminiatures.blogspot.ca jumped for joy and said: "It is a hedge".
Yes, Elizabeth, you were right  - once again.
Fatima gave me the whole mat to see if it would work and I think it works very well. The price is certainly right!  Thanks Fatima for your sharp eyes and generosity!

You can see by the photo above that the foliage is on a grid, each plant can be used individually or as a run. I cut the left side two narrow rectangles and glued it on to cardboard. I then filled the rectangles with white glue and pressed my tea/coffee dirt mix into the glue to form a semblance of a garden bed. The piece below was cut off the run as it was  too long.

Here is an unfinished wall.

Now the hedge is sitting in place. You can see part of the garden soil on the right hand edge.

I think it took about an hour to get the hedging into place. I will have to do some fine tuning but it was such an easy project.

The gardener will consider if the hedge needs some infill planting and perhaps some minor pruning.

Oh, I can do all that in the late afternoon, it's too hot to work. I think I'll retire into the shade, drink lemonade and read a book. 

Regards Janine

PS. My book club LAFF, Literary Association for Fun has just read Half of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a tale about the Biafran War and events leading up to their attempt to separate from Nigeria. A great book for discussion.

There are ten members of LAFF. We meet once a month except July and August and each takes a turn to host an evening of lively discussion, good food and of course wine! 

Our LAFF group has been together for twenty years. I was so grateful they saved my place for me while I was travelling.

Regards Janine

Garden Corner

At last! progress: Come with me for a short visit to the walled courtyard.

  Here we have the utility area, paved with limestone bedded on gravel. A little grotesque cheerfully 

guards the potting bench and shelters under the hygrangea petiolaris.

 He is sitting so quietly that moss is beginning to grow on his seat. 

 The gardener is trying to revive a little plant inherited from a friend. The pots await transplants while the birdcage,

 partially concealed, continues to rust away.

You can see one of the decorative garden balls placed in the old iron planters. 

These decorations divide the flower garden from the work area. 

On the architectural plinth is an old bee skep with a honey label. The bright colour of the everlasting flowers attract the bees. A little birdhouse is almost concealed in the growth of the climbing hydrangea. The mirror was crackled and the surround of the mirror is trimmed to compliment the windows of the house.

A closer look at the climbing vine. This was reconstructed from a small scale ornamental ivy
vine. Leaves were chosen for their smaller size and most repainted. The flowers were a brilliant find received from Elizabeth www.studioeminiatures.blogspot.ca

I had been working my fingers to the bone punching out little circles in the attempt to make the flowers. The photo below shows the vine climbing over on to the other side of the wall.

Stepping back a little we can watch as a bird tries to find a mate in the crackled mirror. The pathway and decorative garden ball ornament is reflected as well.

A closer look at the bee skep - simply made by wrapping string around a clay pot and topping with a toggle button and label.

Above:  An overview of the flower garden - representations of agapanthus, hydrangea, chartruse green chrysanthemum, spires of bugbain and black mega-mondo grass contained by a finely trimmed boxwood hedge.
I purchased the agapanthus some years ago at the Seattle Miniature Show but made the other plants. The chrysanthemum leaves are made with an oak-leaf punch to cut painted water-colour paper.  Leaves were shaped and applied to paper-wrapped wire. The flowers are a little plastic daisy that you may find at a craft store like Michaels or Joannes in the U.S.

The daisies are trimmed to various sizes and painted. The black mondo was sea grass for an aquarium - painted and trimmed. The hydrangea - once again I used the ivy leaves painted a more consistent paler green, the flowers are from a floral pic. The bugbain (to attract bees) can be found at most craft places as well. The ornamental balls are from the dollar store - 12 for $1. The grotesque was the top of a stamp.

Below is another view that can only be seen when the garden is detached from the wall. Yes! I must paint the back of the architectural salvage. The soil was made from a mix of dried coffee grinds and tea bag leaves. I thinned white glue and mixed the "soil" then applied it around the plants that were each held in place by a small piece of foam. That was a messy idea. Wonder if any of you have found a better way? Fortunately the hedge held everything in place.

You can see that I have only worked on approximately a fifth of the garden space. When I started I felt it was not large enough to fit the things I had planned to put in it. I am happy now with its size and I know I still have a lot of challenges ahead - which of course is the pleasure in working on a project like this.

Below is a final look at this part of the courtyard garden, in place against the house.
It is great to be able to detach this area as it is much easier to work on it than it is to work inside rooms of the house.

I hope this look at the utility area is of interest to you and that some of the information may be helpful. If there is anything you would like to know don't hesitate to ask and I will try and help.

I had been doing a lot of thinking about this area and seemed to be dragging my feet in getting to the foliage. Once I began I was so inspired and enthusiastic I could hardly leave my work area to concentrate on real life. It made me feel very happy!

I hope it makes you happy too!

Regards Janine