~ Galvanized finishes ~ or a deep love for zinc in my garden ~

Linking up with Donna over @ Funky Junk Interiors for her Saturday Night Special link party (SNS 80) about "Galvanized Finishes"

Well I collect pretty & practical garden zinc containers, zinc watering cans and so on, so I just had to play along today and whip up a post that fit's the theme Galvanized finishes, so here are a few pictures about which I think that they show my love for zinc in the garden quite well:

I redocate often so nothing stays the same for too long

I showed a few of these photos already in my April garden post from May first below this post

You'll find some zinc in every corner of my deck

Love my zinc water containers and of course my zinc cold frame:

Bought the zinc drawers from Ikea some decades ago and I'm still fond of them, the still very shiny watering can standing on the zinc barrel is one of my latest zinc acquisition, also from good old Ikea:

I find the best about zinc, besides of the pretty grayish color and being very practical for sure is that it doesn't rust. I can leave my garden zinc items outside all year through all the seasons and they never get any rust. Don't get me wrong I love rusty items in my garden too, but it's also good to have some things of that you can be sure that they don't get rusty.

of course my potting table has a galvanized top

Anther Ikea zinc favorite of mine is this old zinc lantern that I have for years. The Clematis alpina montana rubens is blooming so wonderful right now:

I also love old/antique/vintage zinc of course and besides of old zinc watering cans I really like the old zinc pudding form as we call it in German which is standing beside of a zinc heart on my zinc water dispenser in the following pic:

And to close this post I share with you another picture which shows my zinc drawers quite well from the side, so pretty in my eyes, what do you think of it and do you love zinc too?

Happy SNS Saturday dear blogging friends and readers, you can find Donna's blog button in my side bar and I also played along in Marianne's "I love white and so do you" party today with an older post, that you can find here: http://carolsgarden.blogspot.com/2010/07/summer-parlor-and-finished-garden-eden.html Thank you Marianne and Donna for these fun link parties today!

Go find more zinc love now here:
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2011/05/sns-80-celebrates-galvanized-finishes.html

xoxo~ Carola

May Day May Day

Welcome back to Boxwood Cottage in the merry month of May dear blogging friends and readers!
It's high time for a garden update here I think. I'm glad you came by today, wanna come outside with me, the door is already wide open! Let's step out on my back porch, or do I better call it patio, or terrace, or deck? I must admit that I'm never sure how to call it in English, anyway it's my outside room:

My favorite spot to enjoy Spring and relax and read, all the green and blue color around me is very calming

Forget me nots are blooming everywhere right now in pots on my deck as well as in the borders, they self seeded themselves everywhere and I like that :)

My deckchair looks really weathered by now because it stands outside all year round, I'm not strong enough do bring it down in the basement in winter, but still it is the most comfortable place.

along with the bench on which I enjoy the evening sun every day after work. The vines on the trellis over the bench are just starting to leaf

but Geraniums & Pelargoniums are already in bloom and the roses in pots and borders all got buds by now

The clematis montana rubens is in full bloom on the other side of my deck, such a pretty sight every year again. I planted one at the other side too and hope it'll bloom there as well in a few years, because since my Wisteria died for unknown reasons I miss having both sides in bloom at the same time.

Lavender and other herbs and flowers are sprouting in every pot now and the cream white iron bunny is sniffing at a Heliotrope vanilla bloom. Okay let's go on:

From the deck we go three steps down into the boxwood garden where violas bloom in pots (they are my favorite early Spring flowers and they blooming since March already) and the first gorgeous high Allium balls are blooming in the borders, along with my small lilac tree and clouds of pretty forget me nots. All the blueish colors are so soothing!

My peony Sarah Bernhardt got big buds, I so can't wait for her to bloom alongside my white rose Artemis, both look splendidly healthy :)

A side view on my potting table, where I just potted two turquoise echeverias, that I had inside over the winter in two rusty urns.

Behind the fence and the potting table my old neighbors old huge lilac tree is in full bloom and scents heavenly

A look in my crowded border unter the white rose arc where it blooms from March until November

Gorgeous tulips Angelique are blooming in this border right now, so pretty and soft pink, between lot's of allium bulbs that are yet to bloom

When I turn around from here this is what I see in my other border and behind:

At the end of the border more alliums are waiting to bloom and behind the boxwood hedge my crabapple tree is blooming and my white hydrangea Annabelle has got fresh leaves, but no blooms yet, it is still too soon in the season for her.

Oh how I love seeing all the fresh green after a long and hard winter!

Here I stand behind my maple tree looking back to my deck and in the next picture I snapped a close up of my pretty ranunculus in full bloom in a pot on my deck

The birds eye view picture is from 2 weeks ago, April 11 to be exact, when the leaves on the maple tree just started to unfold, snapped out of my bedroom window. I think it shows quite well the layout of my little garden paradise

Just half of my deck can be seen in the picture above. Below is a close up of one of my garden shelves:

And a close up of my pretty pink bleeding heart, unfortunately my white one did not survive the strong winter *sniff*

Well to end this long picture filled garden post I leave you with a savory in bloom standing in the corner beside the terrace door where my zinc water container stands.

I hope you enjoyed this garden tour with me, next time it's back to my studio where I'm just rearranging a bit.

Oh and not to forget, I wanted to let you know that like so many of you I joined Pinterest a fortnight ago and got addicted immediately collecting the prettiest and most inspirational pictures from the web. You may have a look at my inspiration boards here: http://pinterest.com/boxwoodcottage/ and I also put a link to it in my right side bar. I just love pinning!!!

Until then dear friends, enyoy the merry month of May!

xoxo~ Carola

Boxwoodcottage's photostream

Boxwoodcottage's photostream on Flickr.

Hello dear friends!
Here are my latest pictures from my flickr album with garden photos, Easter crafts, Home decorations and a friendship parcel that arrived in April. April was a wonderful month with the best and warmest Spring weather one could have wished for! We had a beautiful family Easter feast at my sister's country cottage and my mum is doing very well right now. I spent a lot of time in my garden and the month just flew by. I'll do another post with new garden pictures later today.
xoxo~ Carola