I have more to do also. The other side of the bridge to the house. Waiting for the compost on the other side of the barn to mature. Your yard already looks nice. More plants, less lawn is great!

Good work

Thanks, tk and Debra! Texas, isn't there always more to do? And by the way I think the thing you did with the birdbath is brilliant, and I feel sure the space around it will turn into a lovely thing, even though it isn't where you wanted the birdbath to begin with.

Fun!

I could finish things a lot faster, if I didn't have to always fix my mistakes. For instance, my current project is painting the cut off end pieces of my house siding to use as edging for my garden. I'm using the leftover blue paint from repainting my house. This is my favorite color, but its overwhelming on the house. The house has brown trim, which I wanted to use on the edging, but I have 1/2 can of brown left over, and 10 cans of opened blue. Yep, painters opened every can and used part of it. So blue edging it is. So, I found a big piece of cardboard to paint them on.
P

Not realizing the paint would run under the wood, and stick cardboard to the wood.




So, I had to soak them, and scrap off what I could, and repaint them.

TK and Kyla, I LOVE what you're doing. Hey, there are always mistakes to be fixed. Trust me on this, your gardens will never be "done". But that's the fun of it really.

TK. that first picture looks real interesting, in an abstract art sort of way.

Also, I feel ya about wanting to get it perfect and I also wonder how long the blue paint will show once it's being used as garden edging.... I'd be too lazy to paint it, myself, probably.

Well, changing the water garden into a flower pot didn't work either. Because even though I covered it with plastic to keep the rain out:


Enough got in so it was waterlogged this morning:




I overturned the pot, and violets, pigeon peas, and dirt, all flowed out like lava.
The plants are repotted in pots that drain, the laundry pot is probably back to being a water garden.

Oh yeah, lack of drainage has caused me to reject many a wonderful container! What I ought to do is buy a dang drill, like a 3/8 inch drill, and a variety of bits that can drill metal and ceramic.

Dang.

*adds "drill" to list*

True, I do have such a drill. Just can't bring myself to drill holes in my great, great, great grandmothers laundry pot. I already feel terrible that once I got it, it's rusty all over. (TX humidity?) It never was rusty before.

No, don't drill holes in it. How about this: Get a fairly large lightweight container that is albout the same diameter and a few inches less deep than the pot. Put small rocks or something in the bottom of the pot to bring the container edge to the level of the pot edge. Put your plants in the container and plop it down inside of the pot. That way, regular watering runoff will evaporate and, if you get a huge rain, you can take out the container, drain the pot, and put the container back into it.

That's what I already did. Also put gravel and dirt between the two containers, so it would evaporate quicker. Not fast enough, apparently.The pigeon pea was already sagging from excess water......then it rained.

BTW - what happened to DavidofDeLand? He started a bunch of interesting threads, but hasn't commented lately.

Ah, sorry, I missed that part.

David decided to withdraw from ATP. Think you can still correspond with him through his website.

Anyone know why? Sure don't want to bother him

This is all I know:

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Very strange, and sad.

Yes, I agree. Communicating electronically leaves out so much that it is easier for misunderstandings to occur and, sometimes, more difficult to resolve. Hope he is doing well.

Watching your pot dilemma, How about a bog garden ? Is that possible in Texas?
Plants that do not mind being waterlogged ?
I know I grow cannas with pots standing in water, and golden creeping jenny as a base plant.

That's a good suggestion, Cinda. So, TK, maybe that,and then some way to easily tip the pot sideways to empty out any excess water?

Oh, heck, here's what I'd do. I'd turn the durn thing upside down and use it as a stand for another pot, in which I would plant a few tall things in the middle and some trailers down the edges (yes, like creeping jenny!)

Now, that could look quite smashing!