Rose Moss, Red Birds, Cleomes and Rosebud
family, flowers, how-to projects
Most of our houseguests are here and the visit is in full swing. My brother-in-law and his family, including a 5 year old who has decided to be Twinkle’s trainer (they have met their match in each other, both are constantly in motion) and a 5 week old baby. Life is exciting around here right now!
I did get all the cleaning done in my studio and transformed it into a dining room before they arrived. But barely! I was up til 4:30am, and they showed up at 7:30, after having decided to drive all night instead of stopping at a hotel. At least we were all equally tired!
While our cottage guests are out doing a bit of visiting, I took a calming, quiet breather in the garden and watered some plants. I was happy to see how big the rose moss in the bird cage was getting.
The rose moss has some filling in to do yet, but is getting a good start. I chose that to plant because I knew it could tolerate heat and didn’t need a lot of moisture, since this was a shallow planter.
I always plant rose moss in my vintage cement swans for the same reason.
To make a bird cage into a planter, all I did was line the bottom with coconut fiber and fill it in with dirt. I dug up some good compost from the garden, added quite a few plants, maybe 10? and then put in a couple of old cement red birds, one is missing a beak, but I still love him. 
I could easily become the crazy old lady with too much yard art and more junk in the flower beds than flowers if I am not careful!
And look, my cleomes have started to bloom! Definitely one of my favorite garden flowers. They are so sturdy and easy to grow, and always reseed themselves. Yet, they have such a dainty look about them.
Here is a photo that Sissy sent to me of her cleome garden. Doesn’t it look like a fairy land??
Well, I hear the sound of 4 small children and a baby getting out of the car, the guests must be back. I get to go and hold the little 5 week old girl now. Her name is Sydney, but she has such a sweet little rosebud mouth, that of course, I have to call her Rosebud. She still has that little old man look about her, but with that mouth, I can tell she’ll grow up to be beauty. And she is a cuddly girl. With 4 older sibs, she gets passed around a lot!
