A Garden Outside the Door

To "come full circle" means "to complete a cycle of transition, returning to where one started after gaining experience or exploring other things:, according to Wiktionary.

The side entrance to my home, which serves as the main entrance to my home, has always been a prime spot for a container garden.  Lots of display room, sunlight, and access to water.  Early in my gardening career, I would fill five or six pots with a geranium, some petunias, a couple spikes, and call it done.  By midsummer, the flowers and I were both tired - tired of watering, fertilizing, and deadheading.

I tried different combinations of flowers and foliage, with each year becoming more simplified.  I had tired of the look and work of containers. Five or six pots, became only two, in time. The last several years have seen huge macho ferns take center stage, as they were a dependable specimen, easy to take care of, and provided a lot of bang for the gardening buck.

This year, however, the yearning for a bright, fussy garden outside my door took hold, after laying dormant inside my soul for years.  I had to have lots of color, and lots of blooms greet me each time I opened the door.  It had been a long difficult winter.  Summer, warmth, and flowers seemed to be just the ticket to throw off the doldrums.

Since I gave up on multiple containers full of  blooms years ago, I also gave up on keeping lots of empty containers around. So, it was off to several garden centers in search of containers.  This group sits to the left.  Note the photobomb by Mama the cat.

This group sits to the right of the door.  Just off to the side is a bale of Pro-Mix, my material of choice for potting up plants.  It is a soilless potting mixture.  I start all my seeds in it in the winter.  I have used it for all outdoor containers for years.  It is a stalwart product found in my garage year round.

And, here are the stars of the stage.  Each and every color is represented.  The range of color and texture available at garden centers is remarkable.  This year, I particularly thrilled at the deep scarlet reds and oranges, from coral to peach to pumpkin.  

There was no theme, no consistency, no plan. I bought what I liked.  And, then, I became a little afraid.  What if this madcap collection of color and texture looks terrible?  What if orange, and pink, and yellow, and blue, and white and red and purple don't look good jumbled together?

Forging on, I began to plant the containers one cool day in late April.  As you can see, I am not a neat gardener.  Once I got started, I threw caution and just about everything else to the winds.

Here are the pots after planting, seemingly lost in their containers in late April.

By May 17, the plants had settled into their new homes, and had begun to fill out nicely.

This morning, June 7, the pots are almost overflowing their pots.  They are bright, exuberant
and thriving.

Pinks and oranges share the same pot, and sit comfortably next to one filled yellow and blues.   My favorite combination is the primary color pot featuring red, 2 yellows and a blue which sidles up to a white and purple combination.  Huge zinnias and snapdragons are just about ready to bloom, and who knows what colors they will bring?

Closeups of some of my favorites, as they gleamed in the early morning sunshine.  

My "walk on the wild side" this year has already given me more joy than I could have hoped.  One cannot help but smile at the carnival outside my door.  I am glad to have "come full circle".

A Soulful Potting Bench

Better Half and I spent the "better half" of a day recently building this utilitarian potting bench, which fairly brims with history.  She was designed for dirty work. Hers will be a hard life.  She will sit in the elements after her photo shoot in the garage.  She will never look this good again. 

 

I have yearned for a potting bench for years.  My yearning usually takes place when I am awkwardly potting plants on the uneven stone wall that surrounds the garden or as I kneel in the pea gravel, tiny pebbles digging into the flesh of my knees.  This year, however, I began to yearn early.

As Better Half and I drove to pick up sod (another post in itself), I began to design a potting bench. For ease, the bench would be constructed of all 2 x 4s, with finished measurements of 48 x 21 1/2 x 36.  4 legs, each 34 1/2 inches high, would be enclosed by two aprons or skirts on which the top and shelf would sit.  Easy enough.  I chose pressure treated wood because the bench would sit outside and because I did not want to spend a fortune for cedar. After all, the bench was designed for work.

The initial plans, hatched Saturday morning, were tossed to the wayside by Sunday midmorning, thanks to the intervention of Better Half.  I will be eternally grateful for his intervention.

Better Half remarked that he had salvaged some 4 x 4s, real oak ancient 4 x 4s, from the old grain scales on the farm. The beefy timbers formed the bed over which tons and tons of grain wagons and tractors rumbled. I stood on those timbers while pregnant with my first son to allow my husband to weigh me.  I did not weigh a ton, but it sure felt like it..

My curiosity was aroused, so a quick trip to the farm was made to inspect 4 x 4s.  They were perfect. Stout. Sturdy. Aged. Grey  

Here they are after having been cut to 34 1/2 inches.  Aren't they gorgeous? (And remember, measure twice, cut once.  We didn't..)  There was no way in the world I intended to wrap those gorgeous legs in common treated 2 x 4s. 

 A walk to the last almost standing barn on the farm revealed a wealth of weather battered lumber, protected well by more poison ivy than I have ever seen in one place.  Carefully, we were able to harvest enough boards for the aprons, both top and bottom.

Rather than sitting the pressure treated boards on top of the apron, we added three 2 x 4 supports to the inside of the apron and recessed the top boards to the level of the apron top.  While a general plan had been developed for this project, most of the construction was done "on the fly", so it is impossible to give step by step directions.

While we were salvaging barn wood and beams, I noticed  a pile of pickets from the old first fence on The North Forty.  I thought they would make a great lower shelf, having the same weathered appearance as the barn wood and aprons..

  The rounded picket ends and the nail holes added even more character.  Better Half even saved the screws from the old fence and used them to affix the shelf to the apron.  The old fence holds a dear place in my heart because it was one of the projects I completed with my dad many years ago.

Once the top and shelf were attached it was time to figure out how to recess the blue tub into the top.  I created a paper template tracing the outside of the basin, then cutting it down to account for the size of the lip.

 The circle was traced onto the wood and Better Half patiently cut the circle with a jigsaw.

Voila!  It fits!  Check out the beautiful knot and pattern on the front of the apron!

A little styling and then it's time for photos.  From the side.  From the back. 

 I just can't get enough of this beauty.  

And now, my soulful potting bench as she does the work for which she was intended.