garden – Digital Mustard

Picking up the keyboard again and beginning to post here and in family site. Going for posts more often and probably shorter eventually. Thinking it will be better to keep up with things if I chunk it as it happens.

This blog has been my DS106 documentation – but as others who have journeyed that path – it is now just turning into whatever I am into at the time blog -but highly influenced and still with the #4life influence.

So- we are now 8 months in our new location. We closed the chapter on our former residence March 17 so all is behind us now. Things are feeling like home and yet still have a newness and adventure feel.

The first spring and summer season is bringing the discovery of the garden and yard.

I have no idea what is planted and what might come up. Today I found that the large Maple tree at the corner of the house – which when we looked at the house and when we moved in was surrounded by deep brown mulch is now flush with new sprouts of something encircling the full trunk and about 5 feet around it! They are all the same type and seem to be planted in a pattern. Guessing they might be Lily of the Valley – which I love! – they don’t look like hostas. It is still such a surprise as there wasn’t a piece of green anywhere in the mulch when we move in the first of August.

Being retired now, I can do gardening. When I was teaching and working – the end of the school year ran the schedule and I mostly didn’t get things in until right before the fourth of July! So the itch is there and I have been watching the freeze and frost forecasts and comparing them to the records of averages. Since the yard is unknown I am creating in containers. I decided to plant them. Until the nights get a little more stable I carry them in and out of the garage each day. The deck railing plants may go in soon -even if I lose them. I am still not sure about light over the days – so it is a gamble anyways. I have to give credit to Cathy Jo Nelson – my muse and inspiration for the deck planters. She creates and nurtures the most beautiful porch setting with deck planters. I have admired for a few years now from her posts on Flickr and FB.

I have also been searching out the garden centers in the region. Each new one brings delights! Here my favorite so far of the containers for the front porch.

I also am working on the back service entrance.

And have created my Gnome and Fairy succulent dishes as well.

My other influence is a very enjoyable young woman -Laura, from Ontario Oregon who started with her own YouTube videos and has been picked up by sponsors now. I love her passion, style and creations. Check out the Garden Answer on YouTube and Facebook.

So as I am getting back into posting and recording #4life transitions of creating…..

I fell into a Facebook group for HGTV Fixer Upper Fans. It has been a positive group and very active. All things decor with a strong lean towards Joanna Gaines style of home decorating. It has been a good fix over the winter months and an entertainment diversion as the state of the nation is in flux.

I have added posts, got into the energy of red trucks and tiered stands. Everyone wants white cabinet kitchens and gray walls- but lots of levels of design. Amazingly – with 300K members – a positive group that is supportive and helpful to others in choosing the right backsplash or how to hang curtains etc. Most of my posts did not draw much interaction – but enough to have a conversation or two. Until this last weekend.

I have been working on setting up our front entrance for curb appeal and to welcome guests. Its not my nature to be too generic and trendy – but also finding I am refining my style after many years. I also like a bargain -so trying to find the best for the best price.

I posted one section just to the side of the front entrance that I finished and within one day it had over 400 likes! HUH? It was the simplest thing I have done so far and touched the most in others. That either means it is too mainstream – or just a touch of mainstream with a twist that gets attention. Either way – the likes count etc. has never meant much to me – it doesn’t change what I do, why, or what I believe -but it did feel kinda nice to have the attention.