New projects 2009 Now the turn has come to do something about the front side of the greenhouse and the large flower bed in the slope. Here's how it looked like last summer. All winter, I sat and pondered and made up drawings of how I wanted it to look like. I will make a paved semicircle outside the greenhouse and a wall around the flowerbed which will have a slightly different look. Here I have peeled the grass off and dug out for the semi-circle. A lot of soil must be dug away at the wooden stairs. I tipped the soil where the grass was in the past. The soil will be used later when the wall is in place. The foundation is leveled out and packed. Now the stones will be placed. Now the semi-circle is completed! I just have to fill up with sand between the stones. Here you also can see how the wall is started. I use the same type of bricks that I have used in the other flower beds. The wall will be higher in the start and become lower and lower toward the stone steps. The first part of the wall is finished! All perennials must be dug out before I can finish the wall. Later I will put some of them back. The wall is finished! The old soil is mixed up with compost. Luckily, I had plenty of compost soil that I saved specifically for this. I also bought 25 bags of cow manure that I mixed in. Now I have "planted" some stones so I have something to walk on when planting and weeding. All the perennials are in place. Several of the old and lots of new ones, which I planted seeds from during spring. A table, chairs, and pots of flowers makes it very cozy. Here I will sit and drink tea or juice when I read a good book on hot summer days. We'll see when I will do the flower bed beyond the stone stairs. I have plans for it too but it will have to wait one year or so. The pots, I did cast the last summer is nice in the corner together with the zinc barrel. This year I got a nice little concrete mixer. God, how easy it is to mix the concrete! This year I have cast a lot of stuff. This is one of two larger pots, I did cast in hypertufa (mixture of cement, peat and sand or perlite). I used perlite for that make them lightweight. As a mold, I used a large plastic box (purchased at IKEA) as the outer shape and a paper box as the inner form. The paper box I covered carefully with tape to protect it from moisture, so it would stay together while the concrete is hardened. I put some stone slabs to support the pot. When you are doing casting, one begins to look for objects that could be used as a mold. One day we went to a shop where I saw a bunch of soft rubber balls with knobs on. Then it struck me suddenly that they could be used as a mold if you cut off the valve and turned it inside out. We also had a mini beach ball at home. It cut it up too! When I filled a ball with concrete, I dug a pit in the old sandbox (which was supposed to be removed several years ago) and put down the ball in it. The balls  was then left to rest for a few days before I picked them up and cut a straight cut down the side of the ball and then pulled it off. The balls, I reused several times. I just put some tape on them to hold them together. This is some of what I have casted this summer. A closer look at the knobby balls. How cool they look like! The beach ball became really cool! Check out the wrinkles! A large bird bath cast using a rhubarb leaf. Big and heavy! Bowls in plastic has been used as a mold for these. The big round pot to the left is cast in hypertufa. Hands and feet cast in sand toys and drops cast in bowls of varying sizes. Here I have used a tube of cardboard as outer shape. I sawed the pipe into short pieces and taped them all the way around for protection.