The-Artistic-Garden's Blog

This Bird Suet Recipe Will Save You Money and the Birds Will Love It!

Since cold weather has descended upon most all of the United States, our little feathered friends are now either flying to warmer places, or staying behind. I tend to feel sorry for the little guys who have to brave the cold, frost and snow. (How do they keep those skinny little feet of theirs warm while clinging to frozen branches?)

I have been making this homemade bird suet recipe for years. And not just for cold weather, either. It will hold up surprisingly well even in hot-hot temperatures. Continue reading

A Reader Shares Some Garden Gnome Photos

I received an email the other day from Pat, one of the many The-Artistic-Garden friends who contact me to share their ideas and photos. Pat thought we’d all enjoy seeing these gnome photos, and I agreed. So here goes:

Hi Claudia,
Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your web site and also to send you a photo of the gnome display my step-dad has in his yard. The round balls you see are something he got years and years ago from a place where he worked. I have no idea what they are made of but probably cement. Continue reading

A Frustrated Hypertufa Trough Maker Seeks Helpful Advice

I received an email this week asking me:

A friend and I tried one of your basic hypertufa recipes without adding the fiber mesh. Our results are very crumbly. I think we goofed by not using it, right? Where does one find fiber mesh? NewLearner

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My reply:
Hi NewLearner:

I hate to say it, but I don’t believe the lack of fiber mesh in your basic recipe was the cause for a crumbly failure. Sounds like the amount of water you used and/or wrong proportions of ingredients was your problem. Continue reading

Metal Garden Art Fish Welded by an Alaskan Female Gardener – You Go Girl!

I love it when I see women break away from fearing heavy-duty type industrial equipment like welding torches! Yeah, I don’t care what is said about “we’ve come a long way, baby!” in terms of women’s lib (is that terminology dating me, or what?? Yes … I did march up 5th Avenue in NYC many moons ago, screaming “What do we want”? Equality! When do we want it? NOW!!!” But I digress…) I find that many woman are still very hesitant to pick up anything more menacing than a paint brush. Continue reading

A DIY Idea for Constructing a Wooden Garden Gate -
An Element of Functional Art for Your Garden

Hey everyone. I’ve had this photo in my files for some time now (yup – I save up photos as I stumble upon them if I think they’ll be of interest to y’all ) and am trying to clean up my “to be filed” folder. I decided to post this today because for a lot of us, the temperatures are dropping and Fall weather is starting to kick into gear, which means the leaves are starting to drop off the trees. Continue reading

Sometimes These 2 Ingredients are Hard to Get Your Hands On

I often get asked by many hypertufa and concrete garden art enthusiasts where to find “silica fume” and “poly fibers”, also referred to as “fiber mesh”. Depending where you live, it may or may not be very easy to lay your hands on this stuff. Continue reading

A New Book Just Released on Garden Gnome History

I received a very nice email recently from “Twigs Way”, the author of a new book about garden gnomes, asking if I’d be kind enough to review it and make a mention about it on my blog. Continue reading

This “Good Luck” Garden Gnome Kept a Huge Tree
From Toppling & Causing Damage

I’ve got an informative page on my website about garden gnomes that caught the attention of an artistic gardening friend, Bill. He was kind enough to share the following story and photos with all of you that read my blog. I told him of course we’d all be interested! . Continue reading