Glass Flowers

I thought I'd share with you the glass flowers I made and have on display on the fence around our vegetable garden. 

You may have seen them on some garden junk forums.  I didn't want to drill them, so I just glued them together with Lexel.  They are usually made by drilling a hole in the center of each piece and then bolting them all together to a stem of some kind.  The stems can be made with copper or pvc pipe.  Then you can pound a piece of rebar into the ground and slide the pipe on top and display them in the garden.

I tried very hard to get the glue to hold so I could display them in the garden on posts, but it just didn't work out.  The glue could not hold the weight of the glass flowers.  The flowers have been just fine hanging on the fence...no problems with the weight of the glass pieces against themselves.  On the larger flowers, I'm using plate hangers to attach them to the fence and the smaller ones I am just using a piece of copper wire formed into a loop to hang them from the fence.

If you can find truly colored pieces of glass at reasonable prices, then go for it.  I find colored glass to be much too expensive in my area of the country to use as garden junk.  Just one word of caution; make sure it's not painted as the paint will flake off outside over a short period of time.

Greenhouse and Veggie Garden

It just occurred to me that I have never posted a photo of the finished greenhouse and fence after it was constructed.  I will still be painting the fence the same green as the doors and trim on the greenhouse and hope to get that started soon.  I kind of like it natural, but I know it will last longer if I get it painted. 

I also hope to take some time and start decorating the greenhouse on the outside.  I've added some glass plate flowers to the fence (I will post pictures of those later) and hung up a 60s butterfly on the front, but have lots of little goodies to add.  I will post soon as I get started on that project.

If you missed how we constructed this greenhouse, please check out our pages on the website about how we constructed it out of recycled windows, doors and other materials.

Western Tiger Swallowtail

August seems to be the month for butterflies in my neck of the woods.  The swallowtails seem particularly active this month.  More so than other years past, I think.  This one was really enjoying the Phlox paniculata in the butterfly garden.  The phlox plant was right next to a butterfly bush in bloom, but the Swallowtail clearly enjoyed the phlox much more. 

I must admit, I have not felt the urge to take too many pictures these days.  Not sure why that is.  But I'm glad I took the time to follow this little guy around and got quite a few nice shots of him.

The Monarchs seem to prefer the coneflowers.  It's been such a weird year for plants.  We are 3-4 weeks ahead in the blooming season and I fear I won't have anything left blooming next month.  The Black-Eyed Susans are still hanging in there and the Rudbeckia Maxima's are looking great, but not sure how long that will last.  At least I have several hydrangeas that will be turning pink.  That will have to fill the void since my annuals have not done so well this year.  I think it's been too hot and dry and I have not been good about watering.  I have a small patch of zinnias that are finally taking off.  They are planted around a little White Spruce to help keep the weeds at bay while the tree is getting accustomed to finally being in the ground after several years in a container.