Fall/Winter

Well, it's almost time to bring the plants in for the fall/winter.  It will be a sad day, as it will be really empty.  I think for the fall, I'll get some pumpkins to provide a little bit of color, and then try to find some nice big mums to round it out.  I've seen some nice ones, but they are so stinking expensive, I can't the sheer number I'd like to fill out the porch.  I guess some are better than none, though right?

Still no word on the gutters.  Can't wait to get the whole makeover complete!

AMW

Empty Porch

With the Nor 'Easter that blew threw this week, we decided once again to clear the plants off of the porch, and bring them inside.  Mostly because we didn't want the wind knocking them down, or even off of the porch.  This is the second time we had to do this (the 1st being for TS Hanna), and I don't like it.  It's not that I don't want to protect the plants I've worked so hard on, it's that the porch looks so.....  EMPTY.  I don't like it at all.  It's sad looking...

On the flip side , the inside of the house is bursting with color.  So it will be nice in the winter time when all the plants come in and find a home for the winter.  But still, judge for yourself...

AMW

Rain Barrel

A few months ago, I went to a Rain Barrel workshop. For the price of the workshop (which was VERY reasonable), we got a barrel, all the hardware, and the training to turn it into a working rain barrel. Complete with instruction on how to tie it into your gutter system at home, and start collecting rain water for your garden or plants. Now to me, this sounded like an AWESOME idea. I could not wait to get started.

The main problem I was facing, was that the gutters on the house were in bad shape, and in some instances had come off all together. I wasn't sure where I would be able to tie it in to our system where it would actually get water (as most of the gutters were clogged).

So it sat. On the side of the yard. Weeds growing around it, and just generally looking pathetic.

Now, new gutters are on the way (part of the makeover...) and the gutter company saw my rain barrel sitting in the weeds, and actually told me that they have incorporated rain barrels into several jobs. YEAH! Validation! But I didn't want my ugly rain barrel to become a focal point. I also didn't want to move the rain barrel to the back yard, because we all know, the plants are on the FRONT porch.

What to do? What to do?

I opted to PAINT my rain barrel. Some scoffed at the idea. And were skeptical that it would help. My hair-brained idea was to paint it red, a brick-red so it didn't stick out so bad.

And then paint brick lines on it, so it blended with the house. I thought it would be cute.

I cleaned out part of the flower bed (where the barrel was to reside) and got some retaining wall blocks to raise it up. I also put a LARGE paver on top of the blocks to provide a flat surface. Then I surrounded the area with small white landscape rock to polish it off just a bit.

As you can see, it ended up more on the "artsy" side of cute. But I certainly think it is MUCH better than the drab grey barrel that it started out at.

Stay tuned for a final update picture when the gutters get put on. (Incidentally,that's when the final makeover update for the house will happen as well...)

AMW

POTW - Plant of the week

Almost forgot about this one, although I have no idea how! Here is another schefflera plant that we have. You may remember the post about THIS one. Same kind of plant, but way different. (That cleared it up, right???) This one is HUGE. We've had to move it several times, cause it takes up whatever spot we put it in. Right this minute, it's behind the small table that is inbetween the two adirondack chairs. It has actually spilled over onto the table, it's gotten so big. But it's a pretty one, and extremely healthy!

AMW

A new one - TBD

This is a new one.  What is it?  I have no idea.  My best un-plant-educated guess is pothos plant, but we'll have to wait and see.  When I went to repot the corn plant, it was in the pot, on the edge.  I knew it wasn't a corn plant sprout, so I decided to grab it, put it in a small pot and see what happened.  Well - it started as the two outer leaves, and within two weeks, that third middle leaf came up.  So it's growing, and healthy and happy by all accounts so far.  I promise to keep you updated on this one, as I can't wait to see what comes of it as well.....

Plant Updates

Thought I would take up some bandwidth today to update some of the plants of the day that have been featured previously.  I mentioned on some of them that they had been repotted, but I still had old pictures.  I finally got around to some new pictures, and here they are.  I'll link to the original post, so you can go and see the difference if you'd like.

First up is the one I call the "Purple Plant".  As you can see from the this picture, it's actually a lovely shade of PINK.  HERE is link to the original post.  This one is still in it's original pot, though, so not much of an update other than it's colors.  And man is it a pretty one!

Here are two of the beloved Palm.  The ORIGINAL post showed it in another pot, that is now home to the corn plant.  (More on that one in a bit).  I reuse pots I already have, and just move them to plants that will suit them.  This one I had to buy, cause it is especially large.  Most of the pots are made out of a really light, but strong material.  Almost a styrofoam, but not.  Helpful, huh?

This one hasn't been repotted, I just wanted to show how much it has sprouted since the ORIGINAL post on it.  So much, that I can't get all of it's little spidery legs all in the picture.  I'm thinking that these will make nice little houseplant presents to give friends and family...  Watch out, you could get one too.

The corn plant.  I don't know that you can see a significant change in it's size, but this pot just suits it better.  And was bigger to boot.  It was the original pot for the palm, as mentioned before.  The corn plant also got moved from it's original location on the porch as well.  HERE is the original post.

The Peace Lilly.  Not much new since THIS post, but wanted to highlight this beautiful bloom on it!  Enjoy.

THESE poor crotons were in rough shape.  In the original post, I mentioned joining them together in one pot.  Here is that pot, and their progress.

Coming up sometime soon - a post about my rain barrel venture, with pictures, and a new plant to the porch.

AMW

POTW - Pic of the Week

The Palm.  Here is another example of a pretty plant just sitting there at BJ's, calling out my name.  Got this one home, and right away potted it into this pot.  It started growing immediately as is evident by all of the new growth in the second picture.

It has since been repotted into a larger pot, and is showing signs of outgrowing it as well, but I just can't put it into a bigger pot.  As it is now, I have NO IDEA where this gal is gonna go this winter.  (Or some of the others plants either....)

This one was strategically placed at the end of the porch, with the large fern hanging over it, as kind of a "plant barrier" to the next door neighbor.  Not that we don't have good neighbors, but a little privacy is a good thing.  The top of the palm and the bottom hangers of the fern started to intertwine, so the fern got relocated.  It's ok, though, as the palm is quite large enough to be it's own barrier now.  

This one is undoubtedly, one of my favorites.

                                             

During yesterday's rains, I took two buckets and set them on the front step to collect water running from the front roof.  The front gutter is missing, and new ones are coming soon, but in the mean time, it's a mess.  But I was able to catch enough rain water to water the palm, the corn plant, two spider plants, one hanging fern, the peace lily, and all of the little tiny plants on the table.  That's a lot of rain water.

The next venture is to get my rain barrel painted and installed with the new gutters, but that's another post.......

AMW

Hanna

Well, as you've seen the last couple of posts, we're getting a new roof.  We were worried on Friday that they wouldn't finish before TS Hanna came through.  They kinda did, and kinda didn't.  They got the whole roof shingled, but didn't get the ridge vents on.  It started to sprinkle, so they made the decision to shingle the ridge, and come back today (Monday) and put the vents on.  

As far as we can tell, the roof held with no leaks.  Such a relief to know the roof is in good condition.  I promise some good pictures when everything is cleaned up.

As for the porch and the plants, we took nearly everything in.  We took down the wind-chime, the Hatteras Hammock swing, and brought in all of the plants (except one).  So what was left on the porch?  2 Adirondack chairs, and small table and our mammoth palm plant.  I have to say, it looked pretty bare out there.  Almost like the first whole year we were there.  

However - it was WAY COOL to sit out there at various times during the storm and watch the wind and rain, the pine trees sway across the street, all of the folks run in and out of 7-11 while trying not to get wet, and the very small amount of cars drive by.  

I wish I had had the forethought to take some pictures, but I was so entranced with the storm that I forgot.  Must do better.  

AMW

Makeover In Progress

These top five are the roof over the gameroom, progressively getting better.

The back side of the front of the house. Not much done here at all.

Two of the front (and the porch). Hopefully they will finish today

before Hanna blows into town!

Before pictures of the makeover...

This is tha back of the house. The roof over the "gameroom" was

in really bad shape.

This is a close-up of some of the area over the gameroom.

An angled view of the front porch.

This is one of the dormers over the front porch.

Makeover Update

As previously mentioned, a makeover is happening to the house. We are getting a new roof! The color is completely different... While it's not quite finished, there will be posts for before, in-progress, and after pictures. *NOTE* - Some pics may not actually of the front porch. But we'd like to post them here anyway...

AMW

POTW - Pic of the Week

These two plants, Crotons I think, are two plants that have struggled a bit.  They drop leaves regularly, but once again, are doing well on the porch.  You can actually see in the picture on the right, that the roots are coming up a bit, indicating that it needs to be repotted.  I've done this since these pictures were taken, and put them both into one large pot.  I'll try to post pictures soon, but it is doing AMAZINGLY well since joining together....

Yes, I know the title says Pic of the Week.  Pic of the day was too much, because I was running out of plants.  So, I'll space them out a little more now...