Due to a system error and Thanks to a good friend we now continue our Tour.
We started here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/708871/#new
2007 Coleus Farm Tour!!!
June
Sun Coleus Florida Caldium Galaxy coleus Mississippi Summer Coleus Royal Glissade
My First Brug in the new Container.
Visitors..............
Very nice Pheadra! I love everything!!!! Oh I'm so excited to see your Royal Glissade. Juanita sent me one and I'm just getting ready to plant it. Do you have yours in sun or shade?
What is that critter????
Royal Planter is in morning sun afternoon shade,The sun fries almost everything by late afternoon. The little critter is a 'something' lizard.he and the Butterfly like to play 'catch a lizard by the tail'
The coleus farm is looking mighty fine! I love that feeder. It's filled out so beautifully. I would give anything to find one around here somewhere.
The lizard above is called anole. I have literally hundreds of them in my back yard. This past week, I've been seeing many babies, about an inch and a half to 2 inches long. I love having them in my yard because they keep the bad bug population down. Although, they do get a good guy, now and then. Last year, I really scolded this one bigtime for getting one of my beautiful dragonflies!!!
When I was learning to use my camera last year, I took hundreds of photos of lizards and other bugs.
Janet
Thats the word!!!! I was looking for Anole,I knew I knew it, only I kept wanting to put a g in it and I knew that wasn't right.LOL We have hundreds that live in the GH,I got to see my first lizard fight over a lady the other day ,They really become dinosars all bumped up and puffed up(Yall' just know I'm great with technical words huh).
Janet, In case you missed the last update before switching threads I was asking for advice on painting the Feeder this winter,Brinda said you would be the best person to ask.any advice? any thoughts or ideas? Color scheme?
They do have a tendency to get "dinosaurish" looking when they are in the fighting mode. My daughter used my camera to take a video of a lizard ruckus one day. It was one vicious territorial battle. Fortunately, everyone went home afterward. :-)
As for painting the feeder.... I have become a big fan of the Rustoleum Hammered Metal spray paints this year. As for color schemes, I'm partial to the bronze and the copper. The paint comes in black, bronze, copper, gold, silver, and green. It may come in other colors, but those are the ones I remember seeing when I went to the Rustoleum website. Here is a link that shows all of the colors available. http://www.rustoleum.com/product.asp?frm_product_id=21&SBL=1
I've used this paint on plastic and on terra cotta. Even painted some of my plaster sculptures with it.
I have no idea how many cans of it you will need for that feeder. It looks awfully big from where *I'm* sitting. HAHAHAHA
I can usually get several pretty good size pots painted with one can. I'd use a wire brush to scrape off any rust or other "uglies" from it once the coleus comes out for the winter. The hammered metal paint is wonderful for hiding blemishes though. The paint runs about $5.75 for a can. I haven't seen it in brush on form, but it may be available.
This photo will give you an idea of the colors in the "real world". :-)
Janet
Well heckfire, I went back to look at that link I posted and there is a can of brush on style paint right there. Doesn't look like a very big can though. It may come in gallons. You might have to special order it. Check with your local hardware stores about that. Each of the big box stores (HD and Lowe's) has a limited variety of the colors available.
One more thing I just thought of. Considering how big that feeder is, once it's cleaned up, you might want to put a coat of cheapo primer with rust inhibitors on it BEFORE you do the hammered metal paint.
Janet
Well although I like the hammered metal I think it would be nice painted satin white. The colors of all those coleus would just 'POP' against the white.
;)
Janet,
I'm loving that Rustoleum Hammered metal paint too. I get a lot of wrought iron pieces that come from Mexico. It is really well made stuff, but the place I get it is into the Shabby Chic look and that doesn't cut it for me. So I bring it home, brush the rust and spray. Have done several trellises for clients and a bunch of stuff for myself. I looks great and is easy to use.
Could guys please send me some anoles? I love love lizards. Have an entire bathroom in a lizard theme. OK so now you know how weird I am for sure. :))
Juanita
Well, Juanita if I knew how to corral them I could send a dozen or so. Anyone know how to trap Anoles? I too love them and they guard my garden.
Sidney
The Coleus entrance is getting a path.
Around the garden
:}
Giant Exhibition,Jade
Hey Kiddo,
That path is great. I always wondered if those forms would work. Looks like they do. Will have to show DH tonight. We have some places that I could use that same kind of thing in. Alas, I always find ways to make more work for myself. :0)
Here's a pic of something I finally finished last week.
Juanita
Juanita,I love that Ball it is too cute,The path form is great to use it is so easy,one bag of mix to one form.mix, pour, lift, Done.
That is a really nice path Pheadra and a really nice ball Juanita.
You both inspire me all the time.
Sidney
I too am drooling over the path & ball. Both your girls are certainly workhorses when it comes to gardening.
Pheadra, I enjoyed your updated tour. Everything looks so nice and healthy.
Guess I forgot to say I put the farm tour on my laptop background.
;)
Such a fun ball! Love it
Alice
Nice pictures Phaedra. Where did you find the form? I'm thought about using those before. Yours looks great and doesn't seem too difficult to do. Wonder if I can talk hubbie into a new project.
Juanita--the ball is gorgeous. How hard is that to do? Is that mosiac tiling?? Two years ago my friend and I almost signed up for a summer class to learn how to do that.
Wish I would have. Buying stuff like that is usually really expensive and I'm sure its the time involved.
We bought the form at Home Depot,This is the only one they had ,but the picture and website shows several different ones.
http://www.walkmaker.com/walkmaker_patterns.shtml
edited to add link
This message was edited Jul 9, 2007 12:38 PM
The gazing ball believe it or not is an old bowling ball with glass mosaic over the top. Saw the idea somewhere in a book or something. Since I used to do stained glass I have a ton of it around and thought I could use some of it that way. I'm trying to get the stuff together to do one with all mirror glass. I have this idea in my head so we'll see. Need another bowling ball first though :)).
Hot as the devil here today. Stay cool everyone.
Juanita
Juanita, Your mosaic ball is beautiful! Have you checked out the Mosaic and Stained Glass forum
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/glassworks/all/
here at Dave's? There are quite a few artists on here that post lots of photos of their pretty glasswork. Wuvie, in particular, is a master (I didn't really want to say "Mistress"! HAHAHA) of all things glass. She does a lot of projects just like you are talking about.
There is also an Artisans forum with lots of excellent ideas.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/artisans/all/
Phaedra, I love that walkway you've begun. The rest looks fabulous also! Connie and I have talked about making some hypertufa stepping stones. Neither of us have ever done hypertufa, but we both are itching to play in the mud. :-) Was it fun to make those stones? We have looked at a few of our hardware places here, but not found the mold we are looking for. Dont' ask us what THAT is, but we'll know it when we see it. For that matter, we haven't found ANY molds. I'm glad you said that HD has them. I love yours! I'm seeing some stepping stones in our futures! HAHAHA
I just checked out the link you provided and from the looks of it, you can make them one right after another. That was one of my concerns, that we'd have to wait hours, if not days between stones.
I recently bought some wrought iron trivet shapes from Hobby Lobby ridiculously cheap. I was planning on just laying them on my mulch. But then I thought, duh, it would get covered up in no time and they'd need some kind of support. Perhaps we could use those as our molds. :-) Hmmmmmmmmm (excuse me while my mind gets to turning and I call Connie about this new idea.:-) )
Janet
July 26th 2007
Your coleus just get prettier every time you take a photo! :-) Yours must be in shade. I see you have Persian Shield also. Unfortunately, I've killed 2 of those this year. I don't know why I keep losing them. One of them is doing good and it's got dappled shade. My sister's is 4 times as big as mine.
Janet
Janet,Yes most if not all are in shade.and my Persian Shield really isn`t growing much
he seems to have had a stop growing period its been that size awhile now.
Glad to know someone else's Persian Shield looks bad. I never grew it before this year and so far it has been pretty much a disappointment. Sun or shade doesn't seem to matter. i had seen it in a garden last year and it was gorgeous. So I got a flat of 15 4 inch pots from the wholesaler in the Spring. Have them in containers and in the ground at several of the commercial locations I do and they are just plain uggglleeeee as Brinda would say. :0)
Juanita
Pheadra, your last pic posted is fabulous! Is that Beckwith's Gem? I love that coleus so much and I also have Beckwith's Gem, but holy cow...it is some of that kind of ugleeeee! Here's a pic of it. Think it needs some fish emulsion? LOL
Brinda,it is Beckswith,but it took awhile to regain its color after over wintering.
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