Over the weekend, I gave a large terracotta pot taking up space in our garage a quick makeover. The old homeowners left it behind, and while I wasn't a fan of the 3D wheat, it was a nice size and weight.

Rather than get rid of it, I decided to try painting it. One coat of black paint - Sico's 'Grand Piano' - was all it took, and in 10 minutes I had a brand new planter. Hannah and I braved a crazy downpour on Saturday morning to go to Home Depot, where we picked up potting soil and a few plants - including my old favourite, lavender.

The different plant heights look a little funny right now, but give the lavender some time to fill in and start blooming (some sun would help!) and I think it's going to look - and smell - great.

What are you planting these days?

P.S. Happy 4th to all my American family, friends and readers!

How was your weekend? We had a wet and cold one, so we spent most of it indoors, hanging out with Adam's family. My MIL gave me some lavender plants from her garden and I can't wait to get them in the ground (hopefully later today). Lavender is my absolute favourite scent and the colour is oh-so-pretty. Here are some big and small ways to use it in your yard - which one would you choose?

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I love lavender and boxwood together - this may be what happens in my yard.

 

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...and my new favourite window box idea.

 

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Any experience growing lavender? What's your favourite scent?

How was your weekend? We spent a lot of it outdoors, enjoying the beautiful weather and working on our future patio area. I gave our back windows a fresh coat of white paint while Adam planted a row of emerald cedars. We chose cedars for our future privacy hedge because we like the look and they grow quickly (relatively speaking; in 4-5 years we should have an impressive evergreen screen). Adam planted the shrubs ~18 inches apart and filled the holes with a mixture of dirt, compost and manure. Now we just have to remember to water them ;)

Next, we need to finish cleaning up the brush you see in the background of the first picture. It's actually a grove of bamboo that we're keeping - it offers great privacy during the summer months - we just need to clear out last year's dead stuff to make way for the new. We also need to mark the area for our patio so we can start digging. In case you missed it, you can check out my patio inspiration here.

Our living room was feeling pretty empty without the Christmas tree, so I picked up a giant tropical plant to take its place. I think it was around $12 and it came in a big black plastic pot. Better than your usual grocery store planter, but still pretty plain. I was looking for a way to dress it up when I spotted these planters on West Elm's site:

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Worst case scenario I was trashing a big plastic pot, so I decided to try DIY-ing my own version with a little paint. I used painter's tape to mark my line, brushed on two coats of Sico's Inkling (the same colour we used on the walls in Hannah's nursery), and removed the tape while my paint was still wet. As soon as my paint was dry, I sprayed the whole thing with Rustoleum's clear gloss spray.

Not quite as glossy as the West Elm version (I may add another coat of clear gloss spray), but not bad for $0 and a half-hour's work (not including drying time).

Thanks to everyone who commented or tweeted with your two cents about my headboard dilemma. Almost all of you said I should paint it, so that's what I'm going to do. I even bought the paint this weekend :)

Remember that Kijiji find I teased you with back in August? It hung out in our living room for a bit, until I figured out that it really belonged in our dining room. The best part is that now I can stare at it while I'm sitting on the couch :)

I found the Dwell Studio pillow at HomeSense for a steal. I think it adds interest to the room and the colour of the applique ties in with our living room couch, helping unite the two spaces (now that I'm sure I love it, I should probably remove the tags). The vintage enamel jug was another Kijiji find.

 I've been wanting to add a snake plant to our house for ages, but for some reason I never buy them when I see them for sale, and then I kick myself later when they're nowhere to be found. Home Depot had a few tropical plants on sale for under $10, including one snake plant, so this time I made sure he came home with me. Still need to transplant him into a prettier pot.

How was your weekend?

Remember my paint-dipped chair? Turns out I couldn't stop at just one paint-dipped project.

I found terracotta pots and saucers (not sure what the correct term is) at the Dollar Store months ago and the paint was leftover from other projects (including the chair). For my chair, I taped off the areas I didn't want to paint to get that "dipped" look. I tried doing that again (after painting most of the pot with my orange-y coral colour), but I couldn't figure out how to wrap straight tape around a round pot and get a smooth line. I'm not saying it can't be done, I just couldn't do it :)

Instead, I measured two inches from the bottom of my pot and made several pencil marks as I worked my way around the pot. Using my pencil marks as guides, I used a small foam brush to apply my white paint. My line isn't even close to straight, but I like the wavy imperfection.

I've still got two more pots, so I'm definitely going to try this again, hopefully with a colour that isn't so terracotta-esque ;)

We passed this house while out for a walk the other day and I thought this was such a clever window box idea, I made Adam stop so I could take a picture. So cute!

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend :)

I love the look of Fiddle Leaf Fig trees. I've been craving some greenery in our home and had my mind set on a fig tree. A few weeks ago I found an assortment of large Fig Trees at Sheridan Nurseries,  With great excitement I purchased one (it was quite pricey) and had it loaded into the car and my Mom and I drove away. I kept turning around to look at it where the tree lay in the back seat - It was gorgeous. It was also huge. Within us driving a few blocks, reality started to sink in about how big the tree really was.  With great disappointment and embarrassment at my inability to judge size, I realized we had to turn the car back around and return it. There was no way it was going to fit in my house.

Last week I was walking by my local flower shop and I spotted a small little potted tree that had a handwritten sign: "White Fig Tree, $10". I walked back later that night and bought him and carried him home. He's perfect. :) Although the leaves are a little different (not as rubbery as the Fiddle Leaf Fig) it still gives me the look I wanted, was easier on the pocket book and small enough for our house. Success! Let's see if I can keep him alive.

I hope my US family, friends and readers had a great holiday yesterday! During the Canadian long weekend, while buying some tomato transplants for the garden, I couldn't resist grabbing a few annuals for the planters outside our front door (since last year's lavender plants were long dead).

Planters are such an easy and inexpensive way to boost your home's curb appeal - and the options are limitless. I decided to have fun with a little pink this year, a colour I seem to be loving lately.

These photos were taken right after I finished planting (and just as it started to downpour). The impatiens were pretty unhappy-looking when I bought them, but they're already looking healthier. Here's hoping I can keep these babies alive for the rest of the summer (my track record with potted plants = not so good)!

Do you have any tips for planters? Which plants have you had the most success with?

Back in April, I shared our plans for the yard this year. Last weekend we had some mulch and topsoil delivered, so Adam added more mulch to our flower beds (especially where we extended them) and filled our raised garden beds with soil (which he then mixed with several bags of manure).

With the danger of frost (mostly) behind us, it was finally time to plant a few new shrubs we picked up - and our garden! We've been keeping the plants outside in their pots, in the spots we plan to plant them, and bringing them inside for the night if it looked like the temperature would dip below freezing (Nova Scotia is at least a month behind Eastern Canada and the US in terms of climate, in case you're noting that you've had your plants in the ground for weeks). Since Adam was in the studio recording all weekend, my mom came to help me (as in, she did all the work while I messed around with the garden).

So what did she plant?

A couple golden euonymous shrubs...

{the larger euonymous was the same size as the two new guys when we planted it last spring}

And this pretty little shrub. I've completely forgotten the name, but it should be sporting some little yellow flowers soon.

{waiting for little yellow flowers to bloom}

Here's how that flower bed looks now:

{yes, our lawn DESPERATELY needs to be mowed - we're just waiting on a replacement part for our mower}

She also added a small spirea shrub to one of our front beds. When I looked over our plans, I realized we meant to add two of these guys, so I'm off to pick up another one soon.

In terms of our overall plans, we've made some real progress.

Side bed:
-extend bed and add new mulch
-add rocks to fill dead space
-add 2 small golden euonymous shrubs
-add divided blue hosta from front bed (we may have missed the boat on this one until the fall)
-add yellow flowering shrub

Small front bed:
-extend bed and add new mulch
-add rocks to fill dead space
-add 2 new spireas (still need to add 1)
-replace rose bush with red japanese maple
-add new holly bush

In case you thought I was just standing around watching my mom work, here's some photographic evidence of my progress in the garden. I used a measuring tape and string to plot my rows and followed the directions on my seed packets in terms of spacing (both for the rows and the seeds).

In the first bed, we're hoping to have peas, beans (yellow and green) and cucumbers:

{peas, yellow beans, green beans, cucumber}

And in the second bed, I planted zucchini, carrots and several kinds of lettuce.

{zucchini, carrots, and a whole lotta lettuce}  

We're also planning to plant several tomato and pepper transplants in containers, so wish us luck!

Did you plant a garden this year? Any tips?

I transplanted a few succulents into glass jars earlier this week to add some greenery to a new side table in our living room. My mom scored all three plants for just $4 (the horticulture department at her local community college was selling that semester's work) and I found these glass jars at the Dollar Store for $2 each.

I lined the bottoms of my jars with a layer of stones about an inch thick (for drainage), then added my dirt and my plants. You can buy cactus or succulent potting soil (I just used what they came with) at any gardening or home improvement store, which is more sand-like than regular potting soil and drains really well. The most important thing to remember with succulents is not to overwater them. I've read that misting them with a water bottle once a week works well, but I'll let you know how it works for me.

Here they are in our living room, with a better view of the new side table (now we just need to find the perfect area rug). Who knows if this is where they'll stay, but I love having more plants in the room!

  

Adam and I took advantage of last weekend's amazing weather to get some work done outside. This is our second spring in this house, so while last spring was spent doing loads of clean-up and just figuring out what grew where, this year we can start to refine what we have and make plans for what we'd like to have down the road.

Last year we dug two new beds - one in front of the house and a larger one around the side of the house. We added several new plants and mulched both beds. The cost of new plants adds up quickly, so we try to save money by buying later in the season (later in the season = sale time) and choosing plants that come with a guarantee.

This year I knew I wanted to update the beds' shape and add a few more plants to help fill things out. I looked through last year's photos (this is where having a blog comes in handy) and roughly sketched out my plans for this year.

After living here for a year, I have a better idea of which plants will do well where. I also gave some thought to colour, shape, hardiness and general maintenance (I prefer low).

After a quick trip to Kent for some super on-sale black cedar mulch, I started digging out the new shape of the beds while Adam cleaned up the hostas that border our yard and raked up the rest of last year's leaves.

Starting with the large bed around the side of the house, I used my shovel to "mark" the new outline of the bed, then turned over the soil, patted it down with the back of my shovel and covered it with mulch.

{unfortunately the sunshine, though good for the soul, is not so good for photo-documenting}

The new mulch looks darker because it was wet, but once dry, it blends with the exsiting mulch perfectly (we also spread some new stuff around the rest of the bed for good measure).

Here's a better view of how the bed changed shape:

{old bed shape}



{new bed shape}

We have an abundance of large rocks on our property, so I asked Adam to carry a few over to the bed to help fill in the empty spots. The plan is to add new golden euonymous shrubs on either side of the existing one and a new flowering shrub (maybe a goldfinger potentilla?) between our purple smoke bush and blue evergreen.

 

We'll also divide the large blue hosta next to our driveway and transplant it near the two existing hostas (which you obviously can't see yet).

The bed in front of our house also got a shape update. I basically extended it to the end of the walkway and added a little swoop, just for fun.

{old bed shape}

{new bed shape}

And yes, I made Adam move a few more rocks.

The plan for this bed is to dig up that rose bush (it doesn't actually flower and I'm afraid I don't have the gardening skills for roses) and replace it with a Japanese maple. Adam and I both love Japanese maples and always said we wanted to plant one in our future yard. We also have plans to add another holly bush (turns out you need a male and a female for red berries - oops), which will eventually form a nice hedge in front of the juniper (we plan to keep the holly bushes low, while letting the juniper grow nice and tall). And we'll fill up the new section with a couple of shrubs on either side of that lone rock. Right now I'm thinking spireas - we already have one in another part of our yard and love it.

This is only some of what we're planning in terms of landscaping this year, so expect to see more yard updates in future posts. Oh, and I had to share this picture of our dog Maddie hanging out with us while we worked. Rough life, eh?

A HUGE thank you to everyone who commented or tweeted in response to my baby news - you guys are the best!

Ever since the garden shops closed for the season and succulents became impossible to find, I've been really wanting to add a few to our house (I have great timing).  On Tuesday night I was in Michael's pondering the exorbitant price they're charging for wool roving, when I stumbled across some plastic succulents. I know you're probably silently praying that I didn't buy one (spoiler alert: I did), but hear me out. I'm normally not a fan of fake plants, but I've been killing a lot of plants lately (not on purpose, mind you) and it kind of seemed like the right thing to do.

via All my friends are dead.

Also, it was on sale and I figured I could afford a $4 chance. Here's what I came home with (in addition to pictures of something at HomeSense I'm trying to convince my husband to let me buy):

Please excuse the flash - I was working at night!

I added peastone from our driveway, cut the succulents off the stem and arranged them on top.

My apologies if you can't get over the whole fake plant thing, but I'm thinking it's not the worst placeholder until I can find the real thing. Where do you stand on fake plants?