Small House Garden Playhouse in Its Summer Glory

White Oak Studio Designs
by White Oak Studio Designs
Flowers surround the garden playhouse in the Small House meadow garden this month. In fact, of all the gardening seasons in SW Michigan, August is when the playhouse and its flowers really shine. Our playhouse sits in the shade of the meadow boarder under a small white birch tree. The little structure holds overflow toys for our granddaughters and becomes a playhouse when they come to visit. This meadow garden was inspired by a prairie I once saw and has been almost fourteen years in the making. It was once a large mowed yard where I planted perennials and added bark chips to create a boarder. I like to decorate and display the playhouse in various seasons and in heat of August it’s the flowers that steal the show!
Curving pink step stones leads the way to the playhouse. Black eyed Susan's, daisy's, daylilies and other hardy flowers add a cottage feel the boarder and provides flowers all season long for visual beauty as well as the pollinating bees, wasps, moths, birds and dragon fly's.
The newly planted climber is growing up a sturdy metal repurposed plate rack I purchased at a second hand shop. No maintenance!
Two child size chairs on the petite porch calls to us to come and sit a while. An old camping shovel had been painted and repurposed as a door handle.
The painted and carved birdhouse was purchased at a Native American powwow. The colors and design represents the spiritual beliefs of the artist. The steel horse shoe is a tradition of safekeeping for a structure.
The west side of the structure has a newly planted climbing vine and is surrounded by day lilies and fieldstones.
The playhouse is nestled into the meadow boarder just outside the White Oak art studio and faces our ranch home in the distance.
The curving meadow garden sit on the rear of our 5-acre property nestled up against the woodlot behind us.
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  • White Oak Studio Designs White Oak Studio Designs on Aug 09, 2014
    Rici, I live in SW Michigan and some years the deer come and eat all the flower buds. This year I put out stakes with Irish Spring soap on them and haven't had any trouble with deer. Could be the soap or it could be that this has been a wet and cool year and they don't have to come to my garden to keep hydrated!
  • White Oak Studio Designs White Oak Studio Designs on Aug 09, 2014
    Thank you my friends. It's fun to share!
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