This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
Thank you for all your support over the years!

A Little Something Festive

May 27th, 2014

Way back when I was going through my Christmas decorations I found a box of grapevine stars that I no longer used.  I thought about sending them off to Goodwill but decided to hang them outside in the summer for festive decor.
stars in tree 1
Yesterday I hung a few grapevine stars and a few strands of white lights in the apple tree right outside the front door.
stars in tree 2
I’ve been wanting to add a little eating area in the garden with a string of bistro lights. It will be a few years before I can realize that dream, this is almost as good.
stars in tree 3
stars in tree 4
I’m quite pleased with the results, it’s very nice. I think I might put a dimmer on the lights to make them a little less bright. Too bad the bugs are so bad or we could sit out under the tree during the summer for an evening cup of tea.

Do you add any kind of decor or fun things to the garden in summer? 

8 Comments to “A Little Something Festive”
  1. Laura @ Raise Your Garden on May 27, 2014 at 7:27 am

    Ohhh, I wish you had donated these to the Goodwill so I could pick them up – Just kidding. The stars look so elegant.

    My husband just picked a bird bath out of the garden and it looks quite charming in our backyard beds.

    Reply to Laura @ Raise Your Garden's comment

  2. daisy on May 27, 2014 at 7:51 am

    Your stars and lights look lovely.
    We don’t spend much time outside in the summer here. Too dang humid. But I love the idea of hanging twinkling lights in the garden!

    Reply to daisy's comment

  3. Sara on May 27, 2014 at 8:14 am

    These look great! I’m not the best at garden decor but I picked up a little solar LED light set at the holidays, and put it in the hoop house. It didn’t get enough sun to glow more than a little while in the winter, but now it goes most of the night. I’m thinking of picking up another string for my garden gate.

    Reply to Sara's comment

  4. Nebraska Dave on May 27, 2014 at 8:19 am

    Susy, ha, my creative skills don’t go much beyond chainsaws and retaining walls. I do have some creative friends to advise me to get the blah out of my life and instill some bling. I did think about using some of the twinkle lights to make the living poor man’s patio a little more festive but I’m not sure that I’ll have the time for that. The late spring here has set my project schedule way behind. The harder I work to catch up, the behinder I get. More things are being added to the ToDo list than are coming off. Now that Bradley’s out of school, all the time goes to entertaining a nine year old that’s filled with non stop energy. So pretty much every thing gets put on hold until the end of June when he leaves to visit his Dad for about six weeks.

    Have a great festive day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  5. whit on May 27, 2014 at 10:47 am

    Oh so lovely way to decorate your front door. I have bistro lights on my list too. I love the idea of the solar LEDs mentioned in the comments here, might have to try that with our kiwi arbor out in front of our kitchen window.

    The decorating I am doing these days is with flowers. I just planted some hydrangeas that will clean up the look of the front of the house, from the inside and out. We are installing some garden boxes with pansies and strawberries on the deck rail, and the fushia baskets are hanging right outside the kitchen window and guest room windows.

    I’ve always wanted to make a fruit tree gazebo…I hope that can be added to my done list one day. But first we will need to battle a healthy crop of horsetail in the area.

    Reply to whit's comment

  6. Randy on May 27, 2014 at 11:37 am

    Maybe a couple of bat boxes would help keep the bugs down.

    Reply to Randy's comment

  7. Amy on May 27, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    I love to watch birds in the birdbath. Some just stop for a drink, some take a short little dip and some get in there and really flap around, soak themselves then do more flapping to dry off. I find it very entertaining. It must be kept rather clean though or they will ignore it. I try to change the water every couple days and scrub it once a week.

    Reply to Amy's comment

  8. Chris on May 28, 2014 at 2:21 pm

    It looks like a screened in patio or porch might be a future project at your place…nothing like sitting out in the evening to enjoy the summer breezes and sounds. :) We’re lucky we don’t have any annoying insects to bat off…too cool for them here and no standing water. I have goldfish in the pond, so if any mosquito larvae do happen to hatch out…they get gobbled up! Do you have any bats around? They are also fun to watch at twilight along with the dragonflies.
    Love your grapevine stars and tiny lights! And very cool photos of them. I keep string lights up year round on our porch…pine cones in the winter…dragonflies now! :)

    Reply to Chris's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

Admin
Read previous post:
Thank You

Close