Tuesday 21 April 2015

How Come Mine Never Look Like That?

I was perusing an article the other day about how to freshen things up in your back garden. "Oh", I thought, "I could probably learn something from this." (At this time of year in Chicago, everyone's gardens are still dead and we're not supposed to start planting till May 1 because of the risk of frost. It's all a little depressing and hard to remember that, come summer, if you keep up with your watering, everything will be lovely.)

Anyway, this is the article and these are some of the suggestions -

Tea cup bird feeder:

Initially I thought this was quite sweet. I'd imagine you have to glue the cup on to the saucer, or spend a fortune in replacement cups. And then I imagined someone like my mother (who's coming in May) saying "Why do you have a cup and saucer swinging from that tree?". When I try to do these artsy things, they always look sort of, well. stupid. Besides, I don't have a tree.

Chalk Embellishments - 


I love the look of this, but one word (especially in the UK) - RAIN!

Bottle Tree (aka "colorful glass feature") -

I really should try this one because lord knows, I have enough empties to supply the whole street with this "feature". But seriously? Has anyone actually done this? Here's what I do with my empties and I think it actually works.

Candle holder inserted into empty (sadly) bottle of Dom. 

And finally the "Chair Ornament", otherwise known as "rickety old chair".

Again, in theory, this could look quite good in a shabby chic kind of way. Were I to try it however, it would probably just look like I'd left a chair out for too long and then dumped some flowers on it. Or worse, someone would remove the flowers, sit on the chair and fall straight through the middle.

14 comments:

  1. I know what you mean, I can't pull this stuff off either.

    I had to laugh at the bottles though. That is a BIG thing here, but they are placed on a different type of structure (don't ask me what, I don't have a clue) and it looks pretty good in some yards. But in mine, it would look like we had a drunken wine-fest craft session.

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  2. My word - I didn't know Chicago was that cold! First of May is so long to wait. I can't believe it.

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  3. The person who made that teacup birdfeeder has obviously never fed a bird in her life. The squirrels and raccoons would clean it out before a bird got near it!

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  4. I was just about to say the same thing as the commenter above: that teacup feeder looks like it's designed to attract rodents. What I would like, though, is for someone to come up with an attractive, crafty use for a million cardboard packing boxes. Those, I have plenty of.

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  5. MsC and Diana - We have a lot of rats and squirrels here so yes, yo have to be aware of that. What people seem to do is hang bird feeders on stands in gardens where the rodents can't get to them. I'm still not convinced about the old crockery though.

    And yes Mwa - we had 70's (F) less than two weeks ago and snow flurries this morning.

    Gigi - you can't just leave me dangling. Provide a link to whatever you were talking about.

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  6. Your mother's practicality amuses me! That said, I think your bottle candle holder is quite beautiful, so I'm willing to be you could pull of the other projects in fine form.

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  7. I know what you mean; I can't always pull this stuff off either. I've just mastered garden bunting and am going to try little garden lights draped on the fencing this year - we'll see how it works. (and I'm still holding off planting my geraniums until the last frost - such a gamble!)

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  8. This isn't quite it, but it's close...

    https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRLKcLRaYJ6PEHhvKDVgudgxV8Qil1k352Qm8Y-RV_IBnw22jqcbg

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  9. Thanks Gigi - yeah, I think I'll give it a miss. LOL

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  10. My friends, who are dreadful hoarders and go to flea markets, have so much stuff in their garden including a vintage wheelchair that was full of plants and now is full of dead plants. Terribly sad looking

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  11. Now that - beats everything ALW. A wheelchair. Oh dear.

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  12. I do use old chairs, but not like that. I remove the seats, paint them in a grey-blue to match my fence, then use them over large perennials as plant supports, so that the flowers erupt out of the empty seats. In the winter when the plants are cut back, I can stack the chairs against the fence in a dark corner.

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