Gardening:
7. Keep Garden Alive - Water, water, water!
Social:
13. Celebrate Litha (Summer Solstice) - Requested time off work so I can do a vigil for the shortest night of the year
Keeping the garden alive in the summer months is all I seem to be able to do at present -
@Raenia -
maybe we should learn the rain dance:).
I think I may at least try to stay up a bit longer and celebrate Solstice with my neighbor, the self-proclaimed witch - fiery red hair an' all:).
Celebrating the seasons can only be a good thing.
@Serendip Agreed - don't forget to enjoy your gardens. I do get carried away when I'm working on a project but since I got Mr. R. (cough-cough:) one of those cool swing chairs I tend to appropriate that for my morning coffee while he is at work.
I do "let him" use it on the weekend and of an enchanted evening now that the Secret Garden has scented gardenia, a lovely light curtain and lush greenery again instead of the wicked, thorny monster Bougainvillea that had become an unmanageable monster and had made the space unusable.
CREATIVITY
FOUNTAIN
1. I did sneak in a little creativity project for the rescued fountain parts - doing a mosaic of sparkly glass and sea shells I've collected at the beach over time.
Using up as much of my remaining stash of art supplies as possible and then donating
most of the remainder to charity.
The goal is to not buy any new art supplies at all in 2022.
Just sort of an unofficial goal as I have declared war on 'invasive' stashes of any kind - especially the lingering, old ones.
The fountain mosaic is quite uplifting to do, sheer creative play.
I started a potential layout of the design, trying to keep it simple with a bit of tropical flair.
WIRE WREATH OR GLOBE OR BIRDCAGE
2. I watched a youtube project on making a wire wreath for a Pothos (climber) in a pot - which gave me the idea
of possibly doing this on a larger scale in my garden, as a focal point maybe with fairy lights intertwined in a huge hanging basket or
tied to big tree limb... maybe:).
I could do a mini version and see how it looks first - my neighbor has the most uniquely marked golden Pothos leaves on her monster plant.
So it is a free project since I also have plenty of garden wire and even a hanging basket.
I got about six different leaf patterns from her to experiment with.
This is essentially the popular Monstera plant if you let it latch onto a tree - the leaves become monstrously big indeed, looks cool, but not what I want.
I'm only hesitating because I don't want it to escape from the pot and grow wild. We'll see.
3. GROWING a creative Tropical Garden
We have a lower tree branch that looks a bit bare and out of place in a prominent spot. It cuts straight across which looks odd, but we can't cut it since this branch is just now growing new leaves after being freed up from that monster Bougainvillea. I need that feathery leaf shade for the seating area as well as the shade-loving white Peace Lilies that have naturalized there.
YouTube to the rescue again - why didn't I think of this? Duh!
Using plants I already have - so in essence - free - we like free:).
A few ferns, one experimental orchid, a cool hot pink air plant that hasn't found a home yet from the plant fair in May, incl. some dreamy, romantic Spanish Moss from around the garden should spark that tropical vibe and give it visual interest.
We'll see how much I can actually still get done in June because after that it is nothing but water, water, water and do the bare minimum of maintenance - just to keep the garden alive until late October.
