Pinterest

Some of you may be aware of Pinterest, the long and the short of it is, a sort of library of photo's that are of interest to you, sharing by pinning them onto particular interests boards, in this instance mine is on gardening.  But if you have a certain interest i.e. art or books you will find a wealth of knowledge.  Be warned though it can be very addictive.  When you pin someones photo and put it on your board they receive an email telling them that they have shared with someone else.  There are links to people's blogs and some share their knowledge on that particular photo.  Not all of the photo's on your boards belong to you, they are shared.  In a lot of cases when someone pins something off your boards they have similar interests to you.  When I receive emails regarding pinning I will go onto their boards to see if there is anything that I like and pin it onto my boards.  Sounding complicated, you can jump from one board to another following links that you like.  You can also get a lot of visual and written information and following is links that have given me inspiration for my garden both visual and written ideas.

 Since following Pinterest I have developed a love of succulents.  An ideal plant for our hot dry climate.
I have grown to appreciate the subtle differences in colours and shapes.  In the photo above is a topiary that we made yesterday after getting plants and two old wire hanging baskets for 50 cents each, find the plants a lot cheaper at the swap meet.  The challenge was putting the topiary together, hoping that it will stand up and not fall sideways.  In the end we packed some of those porous bricks that are easy to cut, we wedged them around the wooden stake after wiring the two baskets together to form a ball.  Cut a opening at the top just big enough to fit your hand in.  The most expensive part was the sphagnum moss at $9 a block, this I was advised to soak in a bucket of water with a couple of tablespoons of Seasol, I used one and a quarter of the blocks, may not of needed to use that much, but was unsure how it would hold inside the ball when the special soil for succulents and cacti was added.
As you can see so far it is all holding together, I can add more plants as I get them.  Eventually the whole ball will be covered in plants and you won't see the moss.  I am not sure how my colour and shape co ordination has gone but was caught up in the process.  The white and grey pot was a bargain at $1, apparently has paint flaws, but as I am into the imperfect, it suited me fine and I got two.  Have to get John to drill a hole in the bottom, they are concrete which I also like.

another idea was adding lovely old cracked or broken china to give a contrast to the plants

 and below the idea of an old cupboard attached to the wall with plants and nicknacks for added interest

Other ideas swimming around in this head of mine is making your own pots, paving stones decorated with mosaics, now can you see how addictive it can be.  Lots of money saving ideas.  Great for when you can't sleep and cheaper than buying books to get ideas. This is a link to my Pinterest library if you want to go and have a look  http://pinterest.com/jackymcfarlane/ easy to set up and is connected to Facebook.