How To Freshen Up Your Garden Chotchkies This Spring

If you love gardening, odds are you probably fill your garden with more than just plants and flowers. I happen to love fairies. I have quite a few small ones that spend their summers in a little corner garden in my backyard. Oh, did I mention that there are other assorted little chotchkies like squirrels, chipmunks, frogs, and mushrooms that also reside in this little enchanted fairy kingdom? Thankfully, the only freshening up any of them need each spring is just a quick soak in some soapy water to make them all sparkle like new again! Then it's back into the garden they go. Easy enough for small ch0tchkies  ...,.

Did you notice that along with the small chotchkies in the photo above, there is also a rather large garden fairy and a rather large birdbath? Well, this year I decided that they were too weather beaten for just a simple wash and dry. Time for a complete make-over!  Here I go!

First, a light sanding with Scotch Brite Pads or fine sand paper will give the surfaces a nice, smooth finish to work with.

Now it's time for painting. I have a whole assortment of brushes, but I find that using four brushes in varying sizes will do the trick!  And I always make sure that one of the brushes is a slender tipped brush that will be used just for fine detailing. For the paint, I use acrylic craft paints. Craft paints come in many varieties ... all surfaces, gloss, semi-gloss, matte, and even in an outside weather resistant formula. I'm not particular. I buy what's on sale, but I never skimp on the finishing clear coat. I find that a good quality satin finish clear coat spray gives me all the durability and shine I need!  And now that I'm finished, let me show you the results!

                                                                                   before

                                                             
After! I don't know if you noticed in the very first photo, but my garden fairy's wings had been removed so that I could respray them with gold-toned paint! And now the birdbath ...

From faded  and worn

to vibrant and refreshing!

Hmnn ... I just noticed something else that definately needs to be freshened up. I guess the next spring project on tap will be sanding and restaining the decks!

It's November! Time To Clean The Garden Chotchkies

If you're anything like me, you probably had added statuary, fountains, bird baths, decorative pots, and other chotchkies to your garden landscape in the spring or early summer. Now that it's November, its time to clean them up and put them away.

All you need is a garden hose or watering can, a large plastic tub, a small cup, warm soapy water, and some cheap toothbrushes. I like to clean my chotchkies ... also known as chachkies and tchotchkes (take your pick) on my back deck.  Makes less of a mess than if you do it in the house.

Let me start with my favorite garden fairy. By the end of the season she was looking pretty dirty and a bit weather worn.  First, I gave her a good dousing with the garden hose.  Then I filled up a large basin with warm soapy water and let her soak in it for awhile.

After about 5 minutes, I took her out of the tub and rinsed her off with the hose.  A word of advice - the spray from the hose will not get out every bit of dirt.  That's what the toothbrushes are for.  Then I dipped a toothbrush into a small cup (also filled with warm soapy water) and scrubbed every little nook 

and cranny well.  Then another good rinse from the garden hose and ... done!  Let air dry and pack away until next summer.

One down and  ....  only thirty more to go. 

Happy Gardening ....