Each year In May, The Kentucky Garden Comes Alive!  Last year, the garden in May was much further along, at least in respect to what I had accomplished!  This year we have had a lot of rain and this past week was cold!  Add those conditions to having Memphis visiting for several days and progress has been slow.  (Although she is delightful, I don’t know how anyone gets anything much done with an eleven-month-old baby!  Remember I raised four?)

 

   It has taken longer to paint the pots but I love the way they look.  They had to be scrubbed and dried before painting.  With all the rain, that took some time but finally, it was accomplished.  They were brought inside and painted.  (The large pots in the picture still need three coats of polyurethane.)

 

   Also, as you can see in the picture, the deck is painted white.  The white pots will pull the white color down onto the patio.  

 

   The vintage graphics were mostly found on The Graphics Fairy.com.

Since these were much bigger graphics than the original on the little pot, I painted three coats of Mod Podge on the designs and allowed them to dry overnight.   I think that helped keep the decal from tearing.   Complete, detailed instructions for making the pots are here.

 

   The next day, I soaked the design in water and removed the paper from the back.  After allowing that to dry, it seemed there was still some paper that needed to be removed.  Laying it on the counter and just wetting my finger tip, I continued to rub gently in circles and more paper came off the back.  Wanting the edges to be as thin as possible, I especially concentrated on removing any paper there.

 

   Although scissors were used as needed to cut around the first project, I think tearing helps the edges blend into the pot more seamlessly.  I also found that using the wooden handle of the paint brush to burnish the edges helped with that.

 

   The promise of a nice day today gives me hope of completing this project and planting these petunias that have been sitting here on the deck for over a week!

 

   The pink peonies are blooming.  The cloudy, rainy, cold days did not seem to affect their blooming!  I brought a few in the house to brighten up the inside!

 

  The red roses are blooming now, too!  Aren’t these gorgeous?  I love spring!

    Each spring when the irises begin to bloom, the anticipation of this beautiful, huge, purple iris blooming is almost too much!  It makes the little periwinkle blue irises look like dwarfs!  It is surely majestic standing so tall and so brilliant right off the patio.

    If you are as crazy about flowers as I am and would like to see more of the pictures from the garden, more are posted on My Humble Home and Garden’s Facebook page.  

 In May, The Kentucky Garden Comes Alive!   Although my work in the garden is behind, nature has moved forward and there are so many more beautiful flowers to see each day!  I love this time of year!