Refreshing the Large "Welcome" Pot for $0

Is this the saddest "Welcome" pot you've ever seen or what? It sits on the patio in front of our front porch.

The other day I felt motivated to tackle that pot. I worked on the "Welcome" sign first. I got out my gold metallic paint pen that I use for various projects, mostly greeting cards.

I pulled the sign out of the pot and decided to free-hand the edge first to see if I could keep my hand steady enough to do the lettering, as well. I was basically going over the original gold on the sign.

Once the edge dried, I bit the bullet and tried going over the "L" as it seemed the easiest of all of the letters. When that went okay, I did the rest of the letters. It turned out good enough. This is the great thing about redoing very large spaces like the outdoors. When outdoors, most people don't get close up enough to see where little flaws may be, but instead focus on the overall picture. It's a welcoming impression that I was after, after all.

Once the gold paint dried, I gave the sign two light coats of the Rust-Oleum clear coat to seal against weather. If it lasts a year, that's great. I'll redo the sign next spring, if need be. I now know I can do it.

While waiting for the sealer to dry, I amended the soil in the pot with some fertilizer and topped it with a couple of inches of potting soil, then went in search of plants for the pot. I moved the tiny hosta from the "before" pot to a nice spot in the ground near other tiny hostas, so he won't be lonely. I found this gigantic hosta as part of an even larger clump of hostas in the backyard. I divided off a chunk with the spade and settled it in the pot. I started a bunch of these autumn marigolds from seeds I'd saved 2 summers ago, and they were ready and waiting for a place to grow. It's just a simple planting, but it looks way more welcoming than before.

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And the finished "welcome" pot. Now doesn't that look heaps better than the "before" pot?

P.S. The pot's sides are spotted with moss. I saved myself some time and labor and left the moss in place. I like to think of the moss as "charm".

The Second Harvest for My Garden

Following up on Cat's (Catherine Emerson) article almost 2 weeks ago, I'm planning for and starting seeds for a second harvest (mid-September through late October in my area).

I keep a memo in the notepad on my laptop outlining my late season gardening. It identifies potential second harvest spaces in the garden, what could go into those spaces, and by when I would need to get seeds started. 

Like probably all of us here, my gardening space has limits. For some vegetables, I only get one type from start to harvest before the cold weather comes back. With others, though, I can squeeze a second planting in after summer harvests. This includes the three planting troughs on the deck (spring planted turnips, beets, and Swiss chard), the patch with the garlic, and the patch with the sugar snap peas. The rest of my garden vegetables won't finish in time for a second planting.

Being on the deck where early spring warmth gets trapped, the troughs are planted early, with the first crops finishing in late June for the first trough (currently turnips, will be Swiss chard), early to mid-July for the second (currently beets, will be mache), and early August for the third (currently Swiss chard, will be turnips). Even with the early August trough, I can still plant a second crop in time by starting my seeds indoors under lights and transplanting the seedlings when the first planting finishes. I'll work in some extra vegetable fertilizer granules into the troughs before adding the late season plants. turnips to chard,  So far I've started seeds under lights for the later harvests of Swiss chard and mache.

The garlic will be dug sometime in late August, leaving me enough time to grow a quick green like spinach. And the harvested pea patch won't be planted with next year's garlic until late September or early October. So I will need a quick growing vegetable for the second harvest in that space, such as radishes.

Sound confusing? Trying to maximize my garden space feels a bit like some sort of shuffling game.