I love the colors of Fall. The reds and yellows of the changing leaves are truly one of the prettiest sights here in Georgia.
But Fall means the end of the blooming season for most of the beautiful plants here, at least for me. I do not have a green thumb, nor the patience to learn which plants grow here year round. But that doesn't mean I still don't like some color up on my front porch. I just don't want to spend money on plants that have a shelf life of about 3 days! Seriously.
When I lived in San Diego I was able to grow just about anything. Here, not so much. In fact, I may be on the most wanted list for herbicide. Our first Christmas here I proudly purchased my poinsettias and put them out on my front step. By the next morning they were dead. I had no clue they were sensitive to cold. After all, they are Christmas flowers, right? Snowy nights, fa la la la la and all that jazz. Ummm, nope. Turns out they are tropical flowers and while we may plant them outside after Christmas in California, in North Georgia they are strictly in door show plants.
Thankfully for me, there are silk plants!
The Mister spent the weekend repainting the front porch (3 mismatched gallons later... long story...). Now my spiffy clean porch needed some seasonally appropriate color. So I trounced on down to Michael's to buy a hanging basket. Whoa!! Sticker shock soon got a hold of me. The least expensive one I could find that I liked was around $60.00. And I have 4 arches that I wanted to put baskets under. Even with a 40% off coupon that would still make it ( multiply by 6, divide by 10, take off shoes to count on toes...) too much! I needed a plan B.
Then I remembered some baskets I had picked up from Wally world last season on clearance for about 3 bucks each. I found some small "potted" silk mums on sale at Michael's for 60% off ( a whopping 3.99 a piece!). For good measure I picked up some floral grass, too. Then I trounced home to gather my supplies:
I put the "potted plants" in the baskets. They were a good depth, but the baskets were quite a bit wider. To solve that, I took crumpled news paper and put it inside plastic grocery bags and fit it around the base of the plant to make it more stable.
Then I hot glued some of the floral grass to the top of the bags. If you've never used the floral grass before, take a tip from me: don't try to pull it apart with your hands. All it will do is make a not so lovely mess on your floor. Use scissors instead to cut in to pieces and separate gently with your fingers. It really isn't necessary to use the grass if the baskets are going to be hanging, butI'm anal I wanted it to look more finished.
Ta da! Here are two of them hanging on my front porch. Loverly. Best part (besides being easy and cheap and kill proof) is that in December I can pull out the mum and pop in the fake poinsettias that now live in my basement...
But Fall means the end of the blooming season for most of the beautiful plants here, at least for me. I do not have a green thumb, nor the patience to learn which plants grow here year round. But that doesn't mean I still don't like some color up on my front porch. I just don't want to spend money on plants that have a shelf life of about 3 days! Seriously.
When I lived in San Diego I was able to grow just about anything. Here, not so much. In fact, I may be on the most wanted list for herbicide. Our first Christmas here I proudly purchased my poinsettias and put them out on my front step. By the next morning they were dead. I had no clue they were sensitive to cold. After all, they are Christmas flowers, right? Snowy nights, fa la la la la and all that jazz. Ummm, nope. Turns out they are tropical flowers and while we may plant them outside after Christmas in California, in North Georgia they are strictly in door show plants.
Thankfully for me, there are silk plants!
The Mister spent the weekend repainting the front porch (3 mismatched gallons later... long story...). Now my spiffy clean porch needed some seasonally appropriate color. So I trounced on down to Michael's to buy a hanging basket. Whoa!! Sticker shock soon got a hold of me. The least expensive one I could find that I liked was around $60.00. And I have 4 arches that I wanted to put baskets under. Even with a 40% off coupon that would still make it ( multiply by 6, divide by 10, take off shoes to count on toes...) too much! I needed a plan B.
Then I remembered some baskets I had picked up from Wally world last season on clearance for about 3 bucks each. I found some small "potted" silk mums on sale at Michael's for 60% off ( a whopping 3.99 a piece!). For good measure I picked up some floral grass, too. Then I trounced home to gather my supplies:
I put the "potted plants" in the baskets. They were a good depth, but the baskets were quite a bit wider. To solve that, I took crumpled news paper and put it inside plastic grocery bags and fit it around the base of the plant to make it more stable.
Then I hot glued some of the floral grass to the top of the bags. If you've never used the floral grass before, take a tip from me: don't try to pull it apart with your hands. All it will do is make a not so lovely mess on your floor. Use scissors instead to cut in to pieces and separate gently with your fingers. It really isn't necessary to use the grass if the baskets are going to be hanging, but
Ta da! Here are two of them hanging on my front porch. Loverly. Best part (besides being easy and cheap and kill proof) is that in December I can pull out the mum and pop in the fake poinsettias that now live in my basement...
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Mindy
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