The Porch

This is our porch---last Fall. We had to take down many vines and other porch decor because we  painted the house and had a new roof put on it. And there are still some things left on the porch from all the weeks of de-construction and new construction, maintenance and repairs. And as you may be able to see we have more work to do.

Our porch has a large roof over it. Flower pots and wind chimes hang wherever I can reach or find a nail. I like the porch to be inviting, cool-shady in the hot months, woodsy in the colder months. These are some of the things I have done, for the most part, without spending any money:

 *Mini marigolds, which surprised me by coming back year after year,  provide a bright orange and yellow border to our rock pathway to the porch.
*Virginia Creeper and Clematis vines hide unfinished porch rails and faded plastic pots. I train these to cover areas that aren't attractive. The Creeper turns bright crimson, with purply-blue berries that the birds love. *Later the leaves fall off to reveal a tangle of woody vines giving the look of an enchanted house mid-forest in a child's book, especially when we have the Christmas lights up.
*We got the Creeper from someone years ago, stuck the pots on the sides of the porch and now they are trailing all over, putting up new shoots that mix with other vines and flowers on our porch. The original pots are still there, hidden, where the roots grew anchoring them to the ground.When they need thinning, as they do now, we share with friends.
* I save and dry branches my husband brings home to burn. I either tie them together in a circle to make wreaths, wind them around plastic pots with flowers in them to hide the fading plastic or stick the dry branches in a container for decoration.
*The porch was never finished with the planned planter/bench so we have improvised by re-purposing our old wooden chicken feeder and filling it with trailing plants and flowers.
*I do sometimes buy flowers from a friend's greenhouse but love to save seed from spent flowers and let  the seeds that the wind blows grow where ever they land.
*Buying annuals every year can be quite expensive so I save food seed to grow house plants which I often bring outside in the spring.I have tall avocado plants and glossy, bushy plants grown from citrus seeds of all kinds. I start these in the kitchen and take them out in the spring bringing them back inside for the colder months.. I have some grape seed and several squash seeds I have saved for next spring.
*Pumpkin and other squash seeds are easy to save and grow quickly covering areas I want to hide from view. I take them out of the squash, rinse and allow to dry on towels. When dry I rub them between my hands releasing some of the squash flesh to add  to a spice jar to sprinkle in soups adding a wee bit of nutrition and pretty flecks of color and flavor.
*Sunflowers not only provide food for us and the birds, but hide more imperfections and they are also great stakes for  pole beans. Ours grow outside the daylight basement, up the sunflowers to the back porch post and all I have to do is go outside on either of two levels of porches to pick what I need.
*Of course trading slips, bulbs, and thinned out berry brambles, and even roses with friends is a wonderful way to add color, interest and even food to the landscape for free.
*We have collected bagged leaves from town, with homeowners' permission, after they have bagged them up  for city trucks to collect on the streets. We have gotten several trees, irises and other flowers and plants hidden in the leaves we use to enhance our garden soil.
*My husband and our son used to mow around Lupine growing wild in our massive lawn areas for free bouquets throughout the house.
*My husband is a landscaper who specializes in rock work. He has used leftover rock  to make a pathway and stairs up to our porch and  we encourage moss to grow between the rocks and other places it volunteered.
*After the frost takes the flowers and plants I cover the empty pots with pine cones that I get for free, usually from someone who is giving away bagsful. I  use cut boughs from our Christmas tree to decorate tables and planters outside adding old candles that will no longer light because their wicks are covered with wax, a few ornaments that have lost their tops and pine cones to cover, hide and make the entry to the house more inviting.
*I thoroughly enjoy changing the porch seasonally. I love to have friends over in the warmer months for iced tea and talk as the breeze comes down the canyon and the deer come down to  feed, or in the Fall when the geese and ducks glean in the rancher's fields the other side of our fence.I often take something cold to drink and some sliced fruit to my husband when he is working in the garden or on our property. We sit on his parents' old metal porch chairs, setting our tea on the re-purposed wooden spool, and we  talk, and watch the wildlife. We take satisfaction in the way the property looks and the intoxicating scent of our volunteer Mock Orange trees that pop up every year and the freshly mown lawns.

The goal is to make the porch a little oasis where we can catch the morning sun, cool-off in the afternoon and early evening shade,  gaze at the multitude of stars or marvel at the Northern Lights. Bringing beauty to and creating an inviting portal to a home need not be expensive.

Tomorrow...........the porch after dark..............