Rockin' Hummingbird Garden

I was recently asked to join the Lowe's Creative Ideas Garden Club to work with an awesome group of bloggers to help promote Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine and website! Each month, for the next seven months, we are assigned projects to complete for this promotion. I have never accepted ads on my blog or done anything like this before but I love Lowe's and I thought this was a great fit for Robin's Nesting Place. I enjoy the creative challenge and it is also a huge personal blessing allowing me an opportunity to do more gardening than I would otherwise be doing due to limited funds. I hope that you will enjoy the projects that I complete on behalf of Lowe's Creative Ideas!

Our first assignment, for the month of May, is to turn an older/or non-traditional object into a unique and decorative planter or refurbish old planters. I have already completed two projects and hope to have a third by the end of May!

My first project is a "Rockin' Hummingbird Garden"!

I bought this old rocker at a church rummage sale last year for $3.00. I had lofty visions of restoring it and for $3.00 just I couldn't pass it up! I already have two white rockers on my front porch, so this one was placed out back on the patio just waiting for a little love and attention.

As I was pondering this month's project, I wanted to do something unique that I had not seen before. That is no easy task considering my addiction to Pinterest! I love hummingbirds and butterflies, so my natural inclination is to do something to attract more to my garden. And so the idea for a Rockin' Hummingbird Garden was born!

I removed the old seat and back from the rocker, aggravating my asthma with the dust and mold spores. After a good cleaning with bleach the rocker was ready for primer!

I already had the large container that fit perfectly into the seat! It was pretty old and ugly and  needed a good scrubbing to be prepped for the Valspar Plastic Paint. The two smaller pots were purchased from Lowe's.

 

 

So I primed and painted my old rocking chair and the plastic containers! 

I attached an old lamp harp to the back of the rocker for a hummingbird perch! 

I had to have these petunias that I saw at Lowe's! Purple with the perfect complimentary green on the outer edges! They will be beautiful once they grow and start trailing down the rocker!

I planted verbena, salvia, and Superbells! A lot of red to attract the hummingbirds!

As soon as the project was completed the hummingbirds were enjoying it!

Here is a before and after collage!I hope that you enjoyed seeing my rocker transformation! Here is a link to Lowe's Creative Ideas please visit to get more ideas for your home and garden!

Disclosure: As a blogger for Lowe’s Creative Ideas Garden Club Network I was provided with a Lowe’s gift card to purchase the materials for my project. 

Facebook!

I am really behind the times getting my blog on Facebook, but it is finally there! It has no entries right now but I have something exciting in the works and will be adding to it regularly in the future! I have a personal account but that has been a way of keeping in touch with loved ones who live in Alabama and Louisiana that I rarely see, it is a little intimate for my blogging buddies! Now that I have finally taken the leap, I'd love to be friends with you!

This in my precious mother-in-law, Nell! She has had Alzheimer's for about seventeen years. She recently had pneumonia and we really thought that her time with us had come to an end. At the hospital there was talk of transferring her to the hospice center. She wasn't quite to that stage yet but they did place her on hospice care again, (she was on hospice several years ago). When she was released from the hospital she only weighed 66 pounds!  This sweet picture was taken only a couple of days after returning to the nursing home. She is an incredible fighter with an iron will to live! Taking care of Nell and starting a new job has kept me busy! Now that she is stable and doing well we aren't having to spend quite so much time going back and forth to the nursing home! I actually had some time to work in the yard today!

The peonies are starting to bloom! That is my favorite time in the garden!

Potting Bench featured on HGTV Garden Blog!!!

 

Thank you Meagan Francis and HGTV Garden Blogs for featuring my DIY potting bench! That was a sweet and special honor!

 We are enjoying record breaking warm temperatures here in Indiana! According to the extended forecast, it appears that they will continue through the remainder of March! Spring weather came on so quickly and with temperatures already in the 80's, things are growing rapidly! I've not had time to properly clean the flower beds!

I don't think I have introduced you to the newest member of our family. This is Piper! She is actually my daughter's kitten. She was adopted from the Humane Society in December and quickly made herself at home!  She is quite the talker and demands a lot of attention to the point of tormenting! I call her "Baby" because she is so needy and has the tiniest little meow that reminds me of a newborn baby. They, (my daughter and her two cats), will be moving into a place of their own some time in the next few months. It will be awfully quiet around here without "Baby".