Gardening, Inspired by Gloria

I've been embracing my inner Gloria Dump lately. ( In case that name doesn't ring a bell for you, she's a character in one of my favorite children's books, "Because of Winn-Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo.  If you haven't read it or even watched the movie, I highly recommend it.  Anyway, Gloria Dump is a lady who has a wild overgrown garden full of everything.)  A few Sundays ago, we were working in the yard (one of my favorite things), tilling up some rough spots and planting grass seed.  While we had the tiller out, I asked Matt to please make a pass along the edge of the chicken coop.  The ground is so packed from foot traffic right there and its too shady for grass to grow, so on a whim, I made a little shade garden.

My masterpiece

It's really not much, but to me it was a really big deal.  Not because I divided some shade perennials that were already growing and moved them, but because I, by my own self, used power tools to make a wooden border around my little bed.  Yep, I made three cuts with a circular saw.  My first ever.  Turns out it's not so hard or scary.  Matt may regret teaching me how to work this particular device at some point in the future, Lord knows what I'll come up with...

So, anyway, it's just a little three sided box made out of some old rough sawed pine (leftover siding boards from our house) that I cut and screwed together to keep feet of all sizes away from the edge of the chicken coop.  It is filled with hostas, bleeding hearts and violets.  The plants are a bit droopy in the picture because I had just moved them and because the bleeding hearts are already done for the year.  I found the top to an old chicken waterer and felt that it needed to take up residence in my chicken coop garden.  The other thing in there is a white metal dishpan/shallow bucket thing with some big rocks in it.  All this stuff was just laying around, so I spent zero dollars to make my chicken coop just a little jazzier.  Someday, I'd love to have it be all spiffed up with flowers and art and neat stuff like that.  I feel like I'm one step closer to the coop of my dreams.  (I know, cough crazy lady cough).

The ladies wondering what all the commotion is.

My other project of the day was to do something with this great old enamelware dishpan I got for my birthday.  I love old enamelware.  It reminds me of my grandma.  This dishpan looked like the perfect vessel for growing something in.  That's the beauty of containers, I can either cook in them or grow something in them.  My two favorite things. :)

A good place for a gnome nap.

As it happens I was also working on spiffing up another container garden I have next to my clotheslines.  This little dishpan fits just perfect right underneath it.  Being a shallow container, I wanted it to go somewhere shady so I don't have to water it every 30 minutes.  So, I needed more shade plants.  Small shade plants.  Out came my trusty trowel.  We went around the hosta beds to see what was growing in with them.  I found a really neat vine, which I'm sure is some kind of weed, but I think it's pretty.  There were also violets and some red clover.  Oh and some moss.  Matt hates moss.  His dad hates violets.  They think they're a pain and they ruin the lawn.  I think violets are pretty and moss is so soft to walk on.  So, I was a renegade and purposely cultivated moss and violets.  To some, my little  container probably looks like a rusty old bucket of weeds.  To my inner Gloria Dump, it is just right.  Besides, if the plants freeze out this winter, I'm not out anything.

Now that you've seen my creations and inspirations, what makes your garden grow?

"Weeds are flowers too...Once you get to know them"  -AA Milne