"The Spring Project"

Fall and Winter Planning, Then It's Time...

The summer is the season when we live outside and traverse every inch of our yard.  By the end of the summer, we have many ideas about changes we want to make for next year - the mix of plants, vegetables, flowers, shrubs, trees, new planters, architectural elements or a pathway. Change is inevitable as nothing remains static.  Our plants continue to grow and spread much as we try to keep them in check. Throughout the fall and winter we think about how we want to engage with our environment. Researching, reviewing, and planning. 

As soon as the last frost gives way to spring flowers, the time is upon us to execute those plans. We take into account what winter has delivered to us by spring.  There are many emotions that greet us as we near the start line ready to commence implementation of "the project."  The process of planning gives us time for ruminating, imagining, examining alternatives and dreaming about what the finished product might look like. There is a freedom in the planning that allows for possibility in what might be.  Once we make the investment of time, materials and/or labor, there's no turning back. "The project" has begun.

The arrival of the heavy equipment (shown here) sets the plan in motion. Our "spring project" involves planting some white pines against a barren hillside to provide sightline interest and to relate visually to mature white pines that were planted years ago by the barn.

What are you working on this spring? 
Please share in comment section below
or use #myspringproject on IG.  

Good luck with your spring project!

Winter Meets Spring

Fleeting Moments 

Fleeting moments of transient weather. 
By mid-afternoon all snow gone. 
Time spent watching nature work her magic.
Spring force too strong for winter's remnant.
Beauty in transition.

Monday morning, March 21, 2016 
Photos by TB

Today's Inspirations - Greenhouse Envy

In no particular order these are the things I'm looking at today and contemplating for home. Thrilled to have found so many great inspirations for inside and outside from gardeners around the world. 

Living Willow Structures

 Via Bonnie Gale

Considering something like this tucked away in a clearing of willows out behind the rock outcropping below the small pond. Living willow structures are often found in gardens in England.  

Finishing a room with plants

via @eddie.herzog

What's not to love about this picture.  Love the composition of this scene with the woven natural textures below and the Blue/White against the white flowers.  Fabulous table and backdrop needless to say.  In search of great baskets for plants to bring greenery inside the house. Finishes the room.

Moss Pots

via @juliaronchigardendesign

Just saw these this morning and thought they would be great for early spring centerpieces.

Myrtle Topiaries

via @debbytenquist of @loithai featured by Martha Stewart

After reading up on Myrtle Topiaries came away with serious greenhouse envy (takes 5+ years to get it to look like this), but armed with a source in southern Maine to visit this summer to pick up a few of these beauties - Snug Harbor Farm in Kennebunk. Stay tuned for road trip photos.

Here's a video with Martha Stewart on making your own topiaries.
Supposes you have your own greenhouse to let these lovelies grow for a few years to get ready. Martha Stewart on Making Myrtle Topiaries.

Enough inspiration for the day, back to real life.

Winter Whisper of the Garden

YOUR GARDEN IN WINTER

via Pinterest

"And when wind and winter harden
All the loveless land,
It will whisper of the garden..."
-Oscar Wilde

via @silverinthebarn, Virginia

@silverinthebarn displays her winter garden beauty and challenges us with a quote from an old dowager: "Spring is a hussy!" (pronounced "huzzy" the way older Southern ladies often do.) "Anyone can have a beautiful garden in spring, but to have one in winter should be your goal." 

via @pjknyc1 from Central Park Shakespeare Garden, New York


Send us photos of your winter garden!
sliceofexurbia@gmail.com

Winter Containers

Repurposing Fall Cuttings

As the fall flowers faded with the first frost, we came up with a new solution for our otherwise empty containers. We repurposed evergreen cuttings from around the property and branches from the woods to give containers greenery for the winter months. Looks great! Can only imagine how good they will look against a snowy landscape....

Google Maps and Me

Home is where the heart is?

No, it's where Google maps puts the location marker.  Google maps had the location marker for our home somewhere out in the woods on our property.  As a result, navigation directed all visitors to an adjacent street behind our property.  Inspired by my daughters to be a change agent, it finally dawned on me that perhaps I could change my little piece of the navigation world. 

I posted my dilemma in a Google maps forum and quickly got two responses.  I was able to submit a change to the location marker for my house with an error explanation and move it closer to my driveway entrance. Who knew that for three years a change to this frustrating situation was in my control.  Google Maps approved the change and in two days we are back on the map as living on our own street.  Three years of cursing the navigation system that imposed this on me, and all it took was my own input to make the system more accurate.  Lesson #1: Ask for help in navigating the system! The Google Maps forum community quickly came to my assistance with the information I needed and provided me the link to submit my update. Google Mapmaker

Technology continues to change the world as we know it. Remarkably though information still is only as good as the local input received. Lesson #2: Technology gives us the vehicle to broadcast that local information. Little actions have impact. Make your mark.

That Which Inspires

En Plein Air - A French expression that means “in the open air” is used to describe the act of painting outdoors with the artist’s subject in full view.  With portable paints and easels, the Impressionists found they could capture the momentary and transient effects of natural light and the elements by painting en plein air. 

It is a reminder to us how the same scenes we see each day are altered by the changing conditions of sky and sun.  How much do we notice? The artist catches every detail and nuance with their skilled eye and talented hand. A moment in time is captured on their sketchpad or canvas.  

View our photos on instagram of the beauty of the changing elements at @sliceofexurbia.

Images via Slice of Exurbia