The Lazy Gardener

I am a lazy gardener. And no, this is NOT a picture of my garden. This beautiful garden photo is courtesy of BHG.
This photo is an example of a french potager style garden . I LOVE potager gardens and I'll tell you why. For those of you not familiar with potagers , a potager by definition is a garden that combines both edible and ornamental plants; a vegetable garden that is utilitarian in nature but designed with beauty in mind; much like an English kitchen garden, but often formal and symmetrically designed in the French fashion. That is why I LOVE potager style gardens. They include beauty and function.
Potagers are very similar in that respect to the English Cottage garden. They just tend to be a little more on the formal side.
Now don't get me wrong , I love having fresh vegetables right outside my door, but shouldn't"t it be an attractive vegetable garden?
My grandparents always planted a row of glads and zinnias in the front of their garden. Perfect for a vase on the kitchen table.
 My mother-in-law always planted marigold to keep pests away. Function and beauty.
I had my own version of a potager garden one year at the dairy farm and I LOVED it ! Unfortunately, I was the only one.
 I took 4 very large tractor tires and positioned them in a square, in the center of the square I placed a round decorative piece that was once part of a barn cupola , it was SO cool ! In each of them I planted vegetables surrounded by flowers. At the entrance I placed and arbor with two smaller tires on each side. In these I planted squash and gourds to climb the trellis. It didn't get weedy , I could mow the path in between the tires , it was BEAUTIFUL ! I would just sit in a chair and admire my handy work !
 Alas , one of the afore mentioned moves ( to town ) and my wonderful son ( he really is , but he has never really appreciated my garden skills) insisted we remove it ! No large tractor tires for him to mow around ...
Fast forward to present day.

 Again,  I am a lazy gardener. I start out in the spring designing an attractive garden , with flowers intermingled with my veggies. But it's Iowa , and it gets HOT and HUMID and I get REALLY lazy and by August , this is what MY garden looks like.I'm not the best photographer in the world, my flowers don't show in this picture. I do have cleome and cosmos planted around my tomatoes, cucumbers , peppers and eggplant.
It may not be the beautiful potager that I envisioned this spring but we have plenty of tomatoes and peppers for our omelet each morning and enough share with our friends. In the end , I guess that's what matters most.
Till next time...

What is your decorating style ... REALLY ?

I just spent a few minutes taking a quiz on bhg.com to find out what my decorating style is. Silly... The first question was " which flower arrangement would look best on your coffee table?" I could choose from a vase of roses ( pink I think), a vase of hydrangeas ( again pink) or a vase of red tulips. Hmmmm..... Now first of all I could NEVER have a vase of flowers on my coffee table, my husband's feet would knock it over or it would be in Addie's ( my 2 year old granddaughter) way of lifting the top to get to her color book and colors ( or just climbing in ). But here is the thing , of those choices , I would pick tulips but tulips are NOT in season! Where were the sunflowers, zinnias or mums .... ( did I mention I was a floral designer for several years ) Ok ,I degrees ... then there were questions about which shoe you would pick , which dog best suits you ...HUH? and this is supposed to pin point my DECORATING style!

Now let me stop right there and say I LOVE BH&G . Really I do . And I do get what they were saying.. Are you casual , a little fussy , country ?

 This is what my answers had to say about me - Polished Casual -You love to mix and match your favorites from several styles, so Polished Casual is the best way to describe your look. Crisp, fresh, and always comfortable, this approach anchors itself in neutral, subtle hues and furniture that isn't fussy but isn't slouchy either. Pair your clean-lined sofa with a dark leather wing chair or a weathered metal table—anything goes, but simplicity is key.

 I would say , as silly as the questions were , they got me spot-on! I surround myself with "stuff" that makes me happy , furniture that is comfortable and I really am trying to simplify ( easier said than done )

What would you say your " decorating style" is ? Are you a tulip, rose or hydrangea ? Me , right now I'm wishing I had a big bunch of sunflowers in my brown glass jug sitting on DINING ROOM table .

Till next time.....

My first post - EVER !

Welcome ! My name is Dawn and this is my lil ole blog! The goal of my blog is to share ideas ,experiences and maybe give a little inspiration on making your home a wonderful place to be.
In my life I have lived in many different homes. ( My family moved a LOT ) I always said when I got married and had a family , I would stay put , none of this moving all the time . Yea , right ! If you know me , you are laughing hysterically right now !
Anyhoo, that wasn't the case. I have made home in a ranch style house ( I HATE ranch style houses! I firmly believe whom ever came up with the " ranch style" concept , should be drawn and quartered  - I don't really know what that means , but it has to be bad - right ? ) In fact we lived the same ranch THREE different times ( this will be explained in future posts - promise) ! We have lived in a old farm house, hence forth to be referred to as "the big blue house"  and an old Victorian, aka, " the Cedar St. house ( my FAV , no one else's ,obviously) AND we once lived in THREE different houses in ONE summer - I am so NOT kidding !
I am here to tell you that you can make a home ANYWHERE ! You just need to surround yourself with the things you LOVE - that simple - really !
The three constant things that I LOVE and NEED to make home are :
1. My Family
2. My Stuff
3. My Plants
If you choose to follow my blog , and I sincerely hope you will, these are the things you will read about. So welcome again to my blog and I hope you find some inspiration from Making Home to make your home all you want it to be !

Dawn