An Aging Process

Be sure to use a matte poly clear coat once the painting is done.

I don't know what it is about patina that speaks to me.  Maybe it's the implication of age and wear.  Maybe it's the admiration I have for the way nature works whether we want it to or not.  Maybe it's that patina keeps it real.

I came across a tutorial at Imparting Grace for using a paint technique to instantly patina terra cotta garden pots.  Of course, I don't tend to enjoy following directions to the letter, so I ended up playing around with the process a bit.

Once the faux stone paint was applied and sanded, I went back in with watered down acrylics and a small paint brush to mimic the natural exposure of the pot to dirt and mossy growth from the garden.  I kept the colors soft and neutral--earthy browns, dark greens, charcoals.  In the end, each pot was a little different.   

The process was pure soul therapy.

The Deck Garden Experiment

This summer was a soggy one in our part of Wake County.  The mosquitoes were particularly vicious.  At one point near the middle of July, I more or less retreated indoors and cursed the weather pattern, the humidity, the heat, and my lack of physical endurance.  Bleck. 

 

My corn plants out in the potager loved the extra rain, but my container gardens on the deck?  Not so much.  Poor things.  As the summer wore on, they began to sulk--which limited production. 

 

The deck garden in early June.
 

Ocimum basilicum

'Boxwood'

boxwood basil

 

I'm obsessed with boxwood--so naturally, I had to adopt several of these for the deck garden.  The basil was glorious this year. It was one of the success stories for sure.  The tender stems of the bowood basil plants can be used along with the leaves.  To me, they taste very much like classic sweet basil.  I adore their mounding habit.

  

Lobularia maritima

'Carpet of Snow'

sweet alyssum

 



 

You know from earlier posts that sweet alyssum is one of my favorite companion plants. Here, it is spilling over the front edge of my City Pickers Earthbox that I purchased at Home Depot, sharing space with tomatoes and basil.  I like the casters on the earthbox--they make it easy to move around on the deck.  I painted it gray to blend in with the color scheme I had going on this year, and added a top coat of faux stone speck for texture.   

 

Lycopersicon lycopersicum

'Tami G' hybrid

grape tomatoes

 

The plants are trellised with a bamboo tripod I secured at the top with jute twine. 

 

Cucumis sativus

'Picklebush'

a bush variety that does well in containers

 

 

Hello, baby cuke. 

The helical coiling of the little tendrils always makes me smile.  I used another bamboo tripod in this pot.