Picking up the Pieces

...of broken plates that is. So what are all those plates you might ask. Well, I had a bright idea, well ...Mrs. Brown (my 80 year old garden buddy) had an idea and I just copied her! I didn't actually break the plate on the bottom row, to the far left....I actually kept it. It was pretty cool, so I spared it!Mrs. Brown uses old plates to create a border for some of her flowers beds! I thought it was just great, but didn't see how it could work for me. I couldn't use them on the exterior edges of the flower beds because the weed eater/mower would break them. Last night I had an epiphany..LOL!!! I could use plates to line the walkway within one of my larger beds!

So I went to my favorite place...Sage Consignment, and got to digging around for plates! Don't look at the prices on them...there was no way I would have paid that much for each plate...I got a deal ;-).

Maybe I should have consulted with Mrs. Brown prior to me beating on plates with a hammer. Now that I am looking at her pictures...I don't think she broke hers. I broke mine.

I placed each plate in a towel and lightly tapped each one. I completely broke 3 before I figured out the best way to do this. This plate above, as you can see, did not want to break! It was by accident that I discovered the best way to break them in two. If you hammer lightly on the bottom rim....it will crack right down the middle. Well almost all of them will, some went into 3 or 4 pieces. Some are much thicker than others.

In the end....most of them broke really well, and exactly like I wanted!

and then you can tell the ones they didn't break like I wanted them to!

I then loaded them back into the box, and toted them over to the area I wanted to line. The ground is really soft from all of the rain yesterday. This made it really easy to push the plates in the soil. I only had enough plates to get about a quarter of the walkway lined.

I just think it is too cute...now I can PROMISE you The Hunter will HATE it, and ask me what I was thinking. But...who cares! The next thing I am going to do is mulch the entire bed, then put pebbles down the walkway to fill it in. The mulch that was in the bed, washed away each time it rained. Hopefully by creating an edge with the plates, it will keep everything in place. I will also be getting some rocks sometimes soon to use as a border on the outside edge of all the beds in the back yard. This is something I have always battled with. I like a border, but have yet to find one I like. I finally found someone who would deliver stone fairly inexpensive. Most people around here will only deliver a dump truck load (which is 27 tons!). I need roughly 2 tons of rocks to line my beds.

I swapped trellises around today. The clematis was getting to large for its old trellis, so it got upgraded to a larger one. I HOPE I didn't stunt its growth by moving it. I removed each tendril so carefully. It took me about 30 minutes to get it un-tangled off of the old trellis.

Here is a shot of the large bed, with its new plates. I think the rocks will help it pop, and give it good definition. You can see my garden helper...Peaches to the right!

It will look a million times better once I fill the walkway, and mulch the bed.

Have any of you ever used plates as a border, or know someone who has? I have also seen bottles used. I visited a garden during the summer that had well over 100 bottles used as a border. She stuck them neck down. Her neighbor apparently like to have a sip or two, or by the looks of it...MORE, of wine every night.She gives her a bottle a day! Apparently I need to find a wine/beer drinker and steal some bottles.

I will be pulling up spent flowers soon. The vinca is about to retire for the year. It will be pulled up, and replaced with pansies and snapdragons. Daffodils are popping up already and will be blooming in January. I am excited about them blooming since I planted over 100 of them last year. Free flowers are the best!!! The daffodils were all free, I found them at the hunting camp. Hunting definitely has its perks!