Miniature Garden at the Washington Old Soldier's Home
Operation Spark Joy continues! Steve and I headed south to the Old Soldier’s Home in Orting, Wa., to check in on the garden and to decorate it for the Fourth.

Miniature Gardening at the Washington Old Soldier’s Home

Hey! It’s working! The response we’re getting from our miniature garden that we built on behalf of The Miniature Garden Society at the Old Soldier’s Home in Orting, Wa., is collecting some terrific feedback! As we mentioned in the first blog, and as I was reminded of when I was speaking with one of the staff members, the staff is enjoying it just as much as the residents are. Lol!

But, I didn’t prepare for the one “being” that loves it too: SQUIRREL! I knew they were a bit of a pest from the feedback from the other gardeners, but I didn’t expect to lose entire plants to them. Our go-to method to deter these critters is cayenne pepper, (see our squirrel-blog here,) but it’s a public garden and I will never be sure who’s going to play in it. I am going to try planting larger plants instead, with deeper roots.

Anyway, here are the updated photos, click to enlarge (but I’m not sure this works on all platforms.) If you want to compare them to the initial planting, it’s here. You can see a lot of the more-fragile plants didn’t make it – and they were mostly Sedums that didn’t have a lot of roots at the time. An interesting lesson.

Miniature Garden at the Washington Old Soldier's Home
Our farmer’s fields will start to look better in the fall. The silo is holding up well.
Miniature Garden at the Washington Old Soldier's Home
The micro gravel around the base of the silo was completely gone, so we hid the board with soil instead.
Miniature Garden at the Washington Old Soldier's Home
What Hens and Chick were left were a bit tattered. I haven’t found out why they aren’t doing well compared to the rest of the ground covers. We’ll fix them next time! :o)
Miniature Garden at the Washington Old Soldier's Home
This chair was one of my experiments for my new Gardening in Miniature Prop Shop book that is making its way to your local bookstore – or find it up on our online store here. I found an easier way to do the stars that became the project in the book.
Miniature Garden at the Washington Old Soldier's Home
We met Gus this time and he told us that he keeps people from touching the garden all the time – he told us to keep our hands off too before we told him what we were there for. We’ve since named him “Gus, the Guardian of the Garden.”
Find out how to make this Tree Dress that is very quick and easy to install, from our bestselling Gardening in Miniature Prop Shop book, click the ad above!

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