Sod-Top Gardening

It's hard to believe it is almost June, and I am so behind in my gardening.  As always I have such good intentions to get started earlier each year, but here it is the end of May (I should of probably named my blog The Happy Procrastinator). 

Grass grows especially well in my garden area, and to get it all turned over and ready to plant is definitely not the fun part, and so I didn't even get around to getting the garden prepped or planted at all last year. 

I read somewhere that turning over the garden just stirs up the dormant weeds, which must be true as my garden is thick with weeds, and especially gives me a good excuse not to do that task anymore. To have minimal weeds the article recommended laying down layers of newspaper and covering with a thick layer of dirt.  

Martha Stewart has instructions and video on how to create a Sod-Top Garden.  

I had planned to do this task in the Fall, so my garden would be nice and ready for Spring, but ..... here it is the end of May! 

I don't get the newspaper so I am trying a different paper method. The hubby scored me a large end role of 7 foot wide heavy duty paper, which made quick work of covering the grass.  The paper was then soaked down with a hose, and then covered in a thick layer of compost.

Ta da! no more grass in the garden.  

In Martha's video it talks about being able to plant right away, so we'll see how it works out.

As you can see painting the arbor and fence is definitely on my to-do list.

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Flower Power

I was thrilled when all 3 of my boys decided to attend a church prom. I had so much fun preparing for the event; shopping for outfits, making props for a planned photo shoot, and making corsages for their dates. 

I had never made a corsage before so I spent many hours searching the net for inspirations and instructions on how to construct one. I really liked the techniques shown on You Tube by Flower School http://www.youtube.com/user/FlowerSchool

where you can find instructions for several wrist corsages. 

I didn't copy any of her designs, but found they really helped me understand the concept of putting a corsage together, and I especially loved her cold glue technique.

To make the corsages extra special I bought a variety of sparkly beaded stretchy bracelets to attach the corsages to, so the girls could have a memento after the flowers are gone. 

On this one I use blue thick floral wire, and painted the edges of the orange roses with silver glitter glue. (Wire and glue found at the Dollar Store)

I found a glass beaded necklace on clearance for a $1 at Walmart which I cut apart for the beads.  I then strung the beads on floral wire double looping through the bead to space them out and hold the beads in place.

On this one I glued the beads to the end of piece of wire and then corkscrewed the wire stems.

I left this project until the night before the event, and I was really getting nervous wondering if I was going to be able to pull it off since I had never tried something like this before.  Once I started I found it was a great creative outlet, and with pretty flowers how can you not succeed.  

Thinking back on it now the hardest part was probably picking out the flowers.

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