The holiday Monday saw Dave and I attempting to put out all our garden ornaments. We’ve amassed quite a collection of things over the years. This year saw a several new things….all from our thrifting adventures.

I don’t remember where we got these two neat plant holders, other than it was as two separate thrift stores, a few weeks apart. I think they are meant to hold several small pots, but I decided to try something a little different. I lined the compartment with some doubled hessian, and packed it tightly with soil. I planted some strawberries in them, so we’ll see how they do.

I’m happy to announce that Gertie had made her debut on the porch.

She’s still a naked goose, but I’ll change that just as soon as I can. I’ll probably start with something simple like a nice summer bonnet.

And Susannah looks just as beautiful in place as I imagined her. She is now the star of the driveway garden.

She’s sitting over the impenetrable roots of the Euonymus that use live there. I pulled it out early this year with the hopes of replacing it with another shrub. However, the roots were so thick there was no way we were getting them out without a stump grinder. Thankfully, we’d already found Susannah, and Dave was working on her restoration. I knew she’d be just the thing to cover the area.

I planted her up with some Bacopa to trail over the edges, and a big beautiful Gaura. It’s a new plant for me – one I’ve never heard of though apparently they are native to southern North America. They are also known as Beeblossom, – it’s those beautiful pink floral stems waving back and forth. It should bloom all summer. It’s a tender perennial, so it’s hard to say if it will make it through the winter… but it was so darn pretty, I think it was worth the risk. It’s like it was made for Susannah – just like she was made for that spot!