In the Garden: Sweet Gum Trees

Showing posts with label Sweet Gum Trees. Show all posts

Monday, March 29, 2010

Pine cones and Sweet gum

Posted by: Dawn

My kids had last Friday off from school; some workshop, in service, that sort of thing. So what to do with a free day, no snow, but bitter blowing cold? My seventeen year old didn't care, he bugged out to a friend's house and spent the night and it took him a full day and full night to recover.

My daughter and I decided to make the best of a quiet spring day.

I saw this somewhere in my travels and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

What you need: Use the skewer to poke a hole through the center of each ball,

**missing the day of photo shoot...a plentiful supply of pine cones and sweet gum. Thanks, Skeeter for the sweet gum!

use the sharpie to draw the idea,

Make sure you have glue designed for styrofoam. Oh, use the snipers to cut a well in your design.

Glue.

And...glue some more.

Estimated drying time: One day.

String one bead through the twine that you cut at the size of 6x's bigger than your biggest ball. Tape both ends of twine to the end of skewer, thread through your pre-made hole.

Cut the twine of and string both ends through the smaller ball, place the last bead on top, knot both ends together.

Time for the secret ingredient!

Three part peanut butter to one part birdseed. Coat with seed and wa-la! This feeder is up really high, just outside my daughter's window, she has promised me to tell me when a little birdie lands on it.

Until then, sweet tweets In the Garden!

Happy Birthday to Lola!

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

Thursday, February 25, 2010

They're Here

By Skeeter

It is that time of year again here in my Georgia Garden. Do you remember the Blockbuster Movie Poltergeist? That was one scary movie in 1982 and still scares me today!

The most vivid line of the movie is when the little girl is watching TV and it starts going haywire then she says, "They're Here." I have my own Poltergeist in my garden in the form of little balls.

I have talked about these pesky Sweet Gum Tree Seed Pods in the past. Some of you wanted a few and I passed them along. Dawn made Wreaths while I made Reindeer . I saw a new craft made from gum balls while in TN for Christmas. My sister-in-law had painted them Gold and put ribbon on them with her Day Care children. They were pretty little shiny Balls hanging on the childrens' Christmas Tree. That's Right, they were pretty to my eyes. But they are not pretty to my eyes on the ground in my gardens! They dull the lawn mower blades until they rot, they sprout seedlings all over the place and they are difficult to get off the grass and driveway. I personally hate the things! Although I did enjoy seeing a flock of sparrows eating the seeds recently.

The trees are loaded with them and they will be a pain in my back for about the next 4 months or so as I gradually get them up! Arggggggg...

Some Gum Trees show wonderful color in the fall but our gums have only been pretty one time in the 8 years we have lived here. Well, let me rephrase that. They were pretty during one fall and one winter. Winter being when the snow fell on them 12 days ago.

I must admit, they were pretty covered with white fluff.

The little Gum Balls were grabbing the snow as if a blanket to protect them self from the cold temperatures. Even though pretty being snow covered, I still hate the things in my yard!

I so wish I could remove everyone of those trees from our land and replace them with something more practical. We have way too many and I must continue to deal with them in my own way as if my little round Poltergeist. THEY'RE HERE, In the Garden...

Note: Cameron tells me, Sweet Gums are in the Witch Hazel family! I find that an interesting fact...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Gum Ball Art

If you have been reading this blog for a while you will know that there is one thing that I am not so fond of in my Georgia Garden. Sweet Gum trees! Arg, just to say that name makes me cringe. The trees themselves are okay because they can be pretty in the fall and provide shade in the summer. One thing I detest in them is this one bad habit they have. Can you see that habit in this picture below?

Seed pods (Gum Balls) all over the driveway and in my landscaped grassy areas of the yard. Arg, they are such a pest that we have taken the chain saw to many of them in areas where they wreak havoc. The two trees that dropped these few pods are on the list for the next Chain Saw massacre!

Being the nice soul I can be, I really do try to like the Sweet Gum Trees but those pods. Gee, what a pain in my behind they are. They dull the lawn mower blades when I fail to pick them up before mowing. Who wants to pick the things up? My back aches just thinking about it. There are so many of them. If they were pecans I could make pecan pies or sell them and make money! But these things are worthless. Or are they?

The Saints mom found a way to turn them into a work of art. Just look at the Sweet Gum Ball Reindeer she made for us!

Just look at that cute face with Acorn nose, Berry eyes, Twig antlers and Pine cone ears and tail. Other then glue, they are all natural being a gift from Mother Nature.

A sweet Gum Ball never looked so good to me before.

Crafter's, mom's and dad's looking for a fun thing to do with the kids this boring winter, get your glue gun out and start playing!

I am not sure if Mom B created this gum ball deer or borrowed the idea from another crafter but they are just down right adorable to this gum ball hater! Thanks again Mom B for the adorable Reindeer you made us!

I was out in the yard a few days ago and decided to pick up some of the pesky Gum Ball's in case anyone would like to try their hand at this fun idea or have another idea for Gum Ball's. If anyone would like me to mail you a few, let me know as I will be glad to get rid of as many of them as I can. Maybe you can come up with a fun GUM BALL ART creation of your own while not, In the Garden...

Since this post gets SO many hits I thought I'd point you all to the blogger who did this post so you can find some more of her wonderful crafts. If you liked this post please go and visit Dawn on her blog found here and called C & G Design. She is quite the crafter!

Words and photos property of In the Garden Blog and are NOT to be copied, lifted, or fed and posted on any other website. Thanks!

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