I’ve always wanted one of these antique garden benches. This year at the Christie Antique show, I kept looking for one in my price range. There were lots of beautiful ones, but nothing cheap enough, cute enough, or in the right colour. I did find some other great things there, but the more benches we looked at, the more my girl friend Allana and I thought we could make one for less. We were contemplating colours and designs, and snapping up pictures to copy. On the way home from the antique show, we spotted a little dealer, just outside of town, and stopped in for one last look. We struck gold. There was a little un-finished bench, and I got it for, I think $35. Allana and I figured we couldn’t buy the wood for that, and I went for it. All that was needed was a coat of paint, in any colour I wanted. It wasn’t old, just a repro. Great I thought, then there’s no guilt around leaving it out in the rain in the garden!

Here it is, before I painted it.

I started out with a couple of coats of white exterior stain. And I was tempted to leave it like this.

But, I always have to guild the lily. So, I’d seen on HGTV shows in the past, that to create a slightly rustic look, you can run a candle along the edges of your piece before you apply your top coat. The wax keeps the top coat from sticking well, and makes it easy to sand off on the edges to create a rustic look. I tried it, and it worked really well.

I put the finished, pink bench along the side of the deck. It has a cute little enamel ware teapot, that I got that day at the Antique fair, and it’s holding a simple pink geranium. It sits along side the muskoka chair, acting as a side table, or extra seating.

Looking down from the new bench, you can see my White Garden, between the pergola and the house. It’s my favourite garden, and although I think it looks better in early summer, it’s got some beautiful things blooming right now too.

The perennial sweet peas are flowering, although they look a little pink. There are a few pink and purple imposters in the white garden, a few that will be moved in the fall, but the sweet peas will stay, they’re almost white. The yellow extension cord is a temporary fix for my new fountain. I can’t resist showing you a picture of it, in a new little garden. It makes a wonderful noise, and pretty view from the deck, seeing it in front of the forest behind.

Back to the white garden, with a view from the house. You can see my flagstone path I created, and the intersecting one is pea gravel. I love the grey and pink colours it adds. Of course the table has a huge water toy set up on it, life with little children! But I know how quickly it passes, so I don’t mind having their toys scattered about these days.

The pergola is of course my very favourite part of the backyard. My amazing brother-in-law, Shaun built it for me, and we had the interlock done. I added the path ways and plants. Although we have a small, pie-shaped backyard, with our neighbours very near, I love the forest behind and the gardens we’ve been about to create. Here’s the view from our upstairs bedroom window. You can see the paths, and the courtyard effect the fence, house and deck create.

The main path leads to the back garden gate.

This little bell like clematis is doing well beside the fence, at the end of the other path.

And the cone flowers are beautiful.

My creamy coloured marigolds are so pretty beside a sweet little birdbath.

It’s amazing how many white flowers there are when you start looking. My mom and I, who started a white garden at the same time as I did, have a great time hunting and exchanging plants and ideas. Have a peek at her white garden here. And although it’s hard to be restrained and only use white, I absolutely love the effect it creates. This was just a little patch of yard, that was seldom used since it sloped down to the fence, and seemed kind of separate from the rest of the yard. Here was the only before picture I could find.

Just some grass and a tree. Now it’s one of my favourite places.

I hope you’re enjoying your garden this summer too.

This post is linked up at Whipperberry, and Tatertots and Jello.

This weekend, my mom held an open garden for the members of her Horticultural Society. Yesterday we toured the front, see Part I here, and today we head to the backyard.

We go through the arbour, and into a sheltered spot between the house and the barn.

The barn is on the left, and makes for a great place to store pots, shovels, hoses, and everything else needed to tend the garden.

Looking back at the house, is a little veranda; a great location for a cup of tea!

We served some lemonade, bottled water and sweets to the members of the Horticultural Society. I had fun doing a little baking, and making some of mom’s favourites for her special day. I made chocolate chip shortbread, shortbread fingers, and mini lemon meringue tarts. They seemed to be much appreciated.

There are lots of pots on the veranda, all in terracotta here.

You remember my fairy gardens, see how I made them here, well I made one for my mom too. No fairies around today, I don’t thing they like so much company.

And here is the view from the veranda, looking out to the rest of the backyard.

On the corner of the house, on the right, beside the back door, is a lovely purple clematis, and at it’s foot another gorgeous pot of simple coleus and fuchsia.

Just behind here, under the maple tree is my mom’s Japanese garden.

There are hostas, grasses, a new little cut-leaf Japanese maple, columbine, a boxwood, hydrangea, a red corkscrew hazel, peonies, and a snowball tree. I remember when my mom first planted it, with a little research done at the library. It’s such a peaceful spot, and a great lesson on how what is mostly plants without flowers, can still create such a beautiful display with differences in texture, shape, and leaf colour.

Around the edge of the barn is a climbing rose, with a sweet little trough garden at it’s feet, and the wheel barrow ready for service.

And, behind the barn is the vegetable and cutting garden. My sister is a florist, and during the summer my mom sometimes supplies flowers to her from home. The flowers are still coming up, the veggies are doing amazing. My mom’s friend, Russ, is the veggie gardener. He lives in an apartment and is happy to have a little space at a friends to grow his fresh veggies. And so are all of we…the happy recipients of extra tomatoes, zucchini, onions, etc.

The garden is divided into quarters, with a sweet little sundial at its centre.

Along the back of the property is another big perennial boarder.

The giant pacific delphiniums look almost as good as mom does.

This lilac tree was the perfect spot to add some simple candles in their overhanging branches.

And heading back to the house, one of my mom’s favourite gardens, the Austen Rose garden.

The Austen roses are uniquely fragrant and full. This beautiful pink one is “Abraham Darby”, and won mom the best of show Rose basket at her club last year!

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This weekend my mom, Marie, held an open garden for her Horticultural Society. I was born and raised at the house she lives in, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the garden look as beautiful. It was overcast, but the rain held off as Mom escorted dozens of people through her little Eden. The house itself is quite majestic, with all it’s glittering fieldstone, white bargeboard details, and the cedar shake roof. It’s over a century old, and boasts a rustic country charm that just can’t compare to new houses. And the garden adds to it’s glory. One of my favourite recent additions is the white garden, at the front of the house. Three years ago, my Mom and I both added one the same year, perhaps I’ll try and show you mine soon too.

It really is amazing how many white plants there are, once you start looking for them. This is one of my favourites, foxgloves.

More of the white garden, including delphiniums, fever few, and white creeping phlox.

At the front of the house there is also a small rose garden.

It’s amazing how restraining yourself to one colour or one type of flower has so much impact.

My mom has also gone to great effort to create the most beautiful and uncommon planters. None from the garden centre here!

This beautiful wrought iron pot sits at the front door.

On the corner this beautiful combination of purples and blues.

This urn is a feature of the front garden, created by the mason who built the house. It’s gorgeous, overflowing with lots of colour!

At the top of the driveway are several pots with amazing combinations of annuals, and perennials that get over-wintered in the veggie patch.

And for all who think that shade plants are boring, look at this stunning perennial group of plants! I also love the cream ceramic pot they’re in.

Sometimes, it doesn’t need to be complicated to be stunning. I love this topiary with double white impatiens around the bottom, in this amazing cherub stone pot, that sits at the entrance to the kitchen, off of the driveway. All these various pots are in the front, scattered in different locations creating focal points and adding interest.

Along the front side of the house there are beautiful clematis and hollyhocks stretching up towards the sun room windows and ready to bust into bloom. The sun room sits here at the very front of the house. I remember playing in here as a little girl, and now it’s my Mom’s favourite breakfast location.

Fairies play in the window now!

Between the driveway and the neighbours fence is another sweet shady garden.

There are lots of plants here, some are ferns, hostas, solomon’s seal, perennial geraniums, violets and a few trilliums and jack-in-pulpit in the spring! Amidst this woodland feeling garden, there is something a little unexpected, “Mango Tango” calla lilies. These are a tropical flower that will have to be dug up and over wintered inside, but they sure are an unusual pop of colour here.

The Mango Tangos look great with this orange garden ornament too.

On the other side of the driveway and barn that once housed carriages and horses a hundred years ago, there is an arbour that leads to the back garden and the veranda.

We’ll continue the tour in the back yard tomorrow, there’s so much more to see.

Thanks for visiting our open garden.

These are one of the sweetest projects I’ve ever made, and I was so excited about doing them. We made one for each of my little girls, and one for me so I won’t turn into the bossy mom who controls the craft project by making very strong suggestions to her kids about colour and placement choices…I’m sure you can’t relate. They were so cute, that I even made one for my own mom and her garden!

I have heard of and even seen fairy gardens in the past and thought they were cute, but didn’t like that they were hard to see in a flower boarder garden, and often became grown over. That problem was amazingly solved when I saw a version at Pink and Green Mama, where they made the garden in a container. Perfect for the deck, where it can be easily played with and admired. (Just don’t touch Mommy’s!)

I decided to use dollar store bird houses for the fairy houses themselves. I wanted them to look more like fairy houses, so I sawed off the bird perch and replaced it with a fairy door, made out of a small sawed off piece of a paint stick.

I nailed the little paint stick door on with a small finishing nail, and left the nail protruding slightly to look like a little door knob. I also removed the eye hook from the top, and I replaced them with small flags made out of a wooden skewer and a piece of ribbon sewn on.

I was inspired by my Christmas Glitter Houses to add a little glitter to the the fairy houses. After they were painted, I glittered the roofs and doors, and then applied several coats of clear Lacquer to make them more weather proof. I love them in all their happy pastel colours.

I used vintage galvanized steel wash basins for the gardens, as well as some enamel ware. The one for my Mom is done in a large Terracotta pot, to fit in with her other pots.

After planting several small plants around the pot, we covered the rest of the “yard” with moss, and created a small pathway to the front door with pebbles.

The clotheslines are made from two wooden skewers, some kitchen string, and mini-clothes pins from the dollar store.

I got so excited about the fairy gardens, that I wanted to include a few more little details, and I thought that a miniatures doll house store would be a great source of mini-garden pieces. At the miniature store I found this pretty little watering can, some baskets, and shovels.

How cute are these little rubber boots!

This fairy must have left them outside of her door after a long, hard day of work out in the garden.

Another fun detail was to use the stamped spoons I made here, as a welcome sign.

This pot has a fun toadstool mushroom in it. I found these brown ones at the dollar store.

I spray painted it bright pink.

After the mushroom was painted pink, I added glitter dots. When I lacquered it, the finish crackled slightly, but I thought it added a little realistic mushroom texture.

I love how sweet it looks as a shady spot for a garden fairy to rest on this cute little metal chair, also from the miniature store, with her mini shovel propped up against it.

My little girls each made one large garden in the galvanized wash tubs, and I did mine in several other little pots. I love the way the pots look all clustered together, like there is a new fairy sub-division in town. Time to put up the “For Rent” sign and see if any fairies move in!

This post is linked up at Whipperberry, Blue Cricket Design, Beyond the Picket Fence, and Tatertots and Jello.

I’ve joined The Magic Onions Fairy Garden Competition, check out all the other amazing fairy gardens and be inspired!

I am so excited to finally be seeing some glimpses of warm spring days. On the weekend, I made it to the garden centre for a some pansies. I planted them in some pretty little containers with some pussy willows that I found on my walk (always walk with clippers). I arranged them on my back deck with a few little garden ornaments, my new outdoor rug which is so soft on the feeties, and my much loved muskoka chairs. They were a popular spot on Easter Sunday as Mommies, and Aunties watched little ones play in the yard.

It’s raining today, but you know what they say, “April showers bring May flowers”. Here’s to sunshine and blooms ahead!