Upcycled....... an Instant Vase

We are big recyclers here at my house.  I smash any and every box possible, rinse every can and bottle, save old clothes for crafts, etc.  I always try to find a way to reuse an item before it even goes in to the recycling bin.  Waste is not something that we do in my house.  I throw away only the things that I absolutely have to.  

 

 

We have several live plants in our office at work, my boss has the biggest green thumb ever!  One of the plants was getting way to big for its spot so I was asked if I would like to take some of it home.  Yay me!  Free plants!  Only problem was when I got them home, I soon realized, I had nothing to put them in!  So, I headed straight to the recycling bin!  What did I find?  None other than this nice olive oil bottle.

 

It was just the right size for my new vines, and I liked that it had the raised lettering and details.  This baby came pre-decorated!  So the first thing I did was to remove the label.  I peeled off as much as I could, and then soaked it in soapy hot water to remove the sticky stuff.  Wrapped the top with a little ribbon........and voila! Instant vase!

 

Im not sure what type of plant this is but I was told it only needed to be placed in water.  And this is also how we keep them at work, and they seem to thrive.

 

Made a nice little addition to my kitchens window sill, and the bottle was just the right size for the ledge.  It even matches my valance (which Im looking to replace).

 

I even had enough left over to add to the mantle in the living room!

 

Free plant, free vase..........home décor does not get any better than that!

My Green Thumb 5

Out in the yard this week we finally had some new color popping up!  The rain beat the glads down pretty good but it did bring out the blooms.  Only one small problem..........my glads are RED!!!  They were supposed to be pink!!  A pretty soft carnation pink....but that obviously is not the case here.

 

 

I know with Hydrangeas you can plant pennys to turn them blue.....anyone have any idea on how to make these pink?  Did something go wrong in the soil?  Maybe its the weeds growing in the beds?  Who knows?  But I want them pink! Lol!

 

Don't get me wrong.......they are still beautiful, and I love them just the same, but pink is my color.  We went ahead and cut some of the ones that the rain knocked down so they didn't go to waste.  Made for a lovely display in the house.

 

 

Mr Green Thumb 4

We have had soooo much rain here lately!  While it is good for my plants to get the water, it has also been damaging as well.  The poor things have been beaten down and drowned out.....and the weeds are getting completely out of control!

 

 

There are some good things happening around the garden though,  Im going to be having some Gladious blooms soon!  I love these flowers, they are great for cutting!  These should be a real pretty pink too, my favorite color!

 

My Hostas are also blooming!

 

This bunch here will be getting separated for next year but boy are they beautiful!  You should have seen them before the rain.  They were standing tall with perfection.

 

Now, its time for some weeding before the rain comes back!



My Green Thumb 3

Summer has definitely came in with blast..........a heat blast that is!  I am so glad that I got most of my gardening done already.  The thought of watering my plants with sweat does not sound too appealing right now! 

 

This little project took place last month.  I had already planted all my bulbs and anything that was previously planted had all started to come up. This side of the house was lacking when compared to the others.  Sure it had the row of Hostas and the Snowball bush (which needs some serious  trimming) but it is a deep space and just seemed empty to me.

 

I wasn't quite sure what to do here really.  So, I headed to Lowes and picked up some flowers to get me started.  I wasn't familiar with the flowers I bought but they all said that they would attract butterflies (which I love)  So I grabbed up a handful and went with it!

 

Loving the color that it added!  They are perennials so hoping that they take well and produce better next year.  Gotta start from somewhere, right?

 

 

We also still had a small pile of creek rock laying around, so I threw some of those in there for walking stones.  They have came in pretty handy when its been time for weeding.  I also liked it because it separated the Hostas from my newly forming Butterfly Garden.

 

My Green Thumb is continuing to sprout and maybe one day I can get the weeds to stop growing!  Until then......I will pick away!

 

My Green Thumb 2

Now that all the Daffodils have bloomed and gone away the front strip of my house is an awful site.  I have never had Daffodils before so I wasnt quite sure what to do with them now.  Then I found this article on eHow about haystacking them! 

We did this to all the dying flowers and it seemed to work out great!  There is a possisble chance that they may not bloom next year due to this method so be sure to read up before proceeding.  Once the leaves had all died, we cut them back to the ground.  No more unsightly plants!  Now what to do with the empty space?

The other side of the house had an abundance of Hostas, so I decided that I would split them up a bit to fill in for the Daffodils till they bloomed again (hopefully) next spring.  I have planted many Hostas before, but have never split them so I needed a little internet help here.

Here from Garden Web  is the tutorial I used to move my many Hostas!  This made it so easy to do!

These are the Hostas that I am going to be moving.  And hopefully once they are dug up I can work on getting rid of all the stray grass that keeps popping up!  Any suggestions on things to use, that will not kill plants???

Here is where I moved them to after I split them up.  It fills in the space nicely and gives them more room to grow!  Now just need to head back to the store for some more mulch...lol.....see my bare spots! 

Now, I have this space that has been untouched for who knows how long!  It is sight for sore eyes that's for sure!  Maybe I can pick up something this week to pretty it up a bit!



My Green Thumb 1

When we first moved in to our new house this winter, I had no idea what I would find come spring! So, when we started weeding out the way over grown flower beds, I was very excited! To my surprise, underneath all the brush was many Hosta starts, among other things that I couldnt wait to see what they bloomed into!

 

Just look at this beautiful Snowball Viburnum!!!  This baby is around ten feet tall, needs some trimming but it is a great asset in my bed!

 

 

We have Rose bushes, Hostas, Daffodils, and Peonies...........that we know of!  I was so overwhelmed when I realized that there was so much planted already.  I thought I was going to have to start from scratch, and with the cost of landscaping I had expected to have nearly bare beds this year.

 

Spring had brought me much joy!

Bring on the blooms of summer!!