Making the Garden Pretty in Day & Night

 Hello Readers. Fall is here and the trees will turn colors soon and look glorious but my flower garden looks dry, dead and depressing. I wanted to have something pretty to look at it the garden but what can survive the fall weather? What could look good like day and night? It might sound unusual but what about a vintage bike? Don't close out the tab! Let me show you what I mean.

 Day and night.

The current state of my flower garden is not good. There used to be tulips and daffodils, peonies and day lilies, a cherry tree and a butterfly bush. But now everything has gone dormant and it looks dead and empty.

This sad tired peony has seen better days. It won't look better until spring when it comes back and blooms.

The garden will never look pretty with all these dead looking plants.

 

I cut the stems down to ground level with some pruning shears.The cuttings can be composted over the winter. (My son's soccer goal was in my flower garden for some reason. I put that away too.)

 

  I used the kiddie pool to hold all the cuttings. It was easy to throw them all in there and drag the whole thing to the compost pile. It was a big help.

 

I hung a small string of solar powered lights I had from the low tree branches.

 

Using solar powered means I can put these lights anywhere. No electric outlets needed! I made sure to put this small solar panel at the end of the string in the sun. It needs to get the sunlight to charge itself everyday. (As you can see my lights are getting old but they still work great.)

 

I wrapped the string of lights around and between the branches so it would stay up in the tree even on a windy day. I know fall will blow in with some cold weather and I don't want to have to rehang this.

 

I found this vintage bike on the side of the road a long time ago. (It had a sign that said "FREE".)  It is going to make a really fun focal point in my garden.  Instead of a bike you could also use items like a child's wagon, a tree stump, or old outdoor chair or table. Anything to set the plants on or around.

 

I added a basket to the front of the bike. I wanted to put something pretty in the basket.

 

I had 2 ideas for flowers and I decided to show you both ideas. I put some artificial white flowers in a basket and put the basket into the bike basket. I know some people do not like to mess with real flowers. And I know fake flowers really bother serious gardeners. 

I put a rubber band around the end to hold the stems in a bouquet position. 

I separated the flowers to make the whole bouquet look big and full.

 

I also went to a farm stand and bought a real living white mum plant to go with arrangement.

 

I put both my floral choices on display. Make the floral choices that works best for you. I like the white combination and it fills in my empty garden nicely.

When the lights start to shine at dusk the whole arrangement looks very sweet. It is nice to have some soft lighting in the backyard at night too. I have to water the mum plant but otherwise I don't have to tend to this at all. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update- I don't like gardening that much but I enjoy this lovely little spot.