I'm at it again...painting. I painted my first fence when I was four. It was a whitewash job at our little Palo Alto started home in 1948. I'm sure I had as much on me as on the fence but my dad let me do it. I had a red bandanna on my head so I probably didn't get any on my hair.
I'm still painting fences these days, only this time it's lath on our "garden room." The paint is Miller Storm "boxwood" which looks blue in the shadows but is really a deep blue-green that works well with bright green vegetation...a much improved product over drippy old whitewash! The light color panel on the right is the natural cedar, weathered for one year. It would turn dirty gray if I didn't paint it. So today I gutted it up and painted it. It took about 2.5 hours using a small roller and a 1" brush for all the edges. I have one more panel the same size (4'x7') to finish up the project.
Unseasonable warm temps (high 70's) have lured me into this chore ahead of my planned schedule in May. Seems like we're getting warmer temps earlier in the spring. Global warming? Nah, couldn't be THAT!!!
We've added a new arbor to the garden. This one "anchors" the greenhouse into the garden scheme. It all started when I saw a photo of a potting shed with an attached trellis, lush vines sort of obscuring the lines of the building. Of course we couldn't attached anything our little plastic greenhouse...it had to be free standing. I wanted something for clematis and possibly a rose to climb...the idea being to blend the plastic greenhouse into the garden flora. Good idea, no?
I dug 2 postholes...the first on the right side was easy digging but I ran into a black plastic pipe about 8" down on the left side. Turned out it was the telephone company line (we discovered this after my under-gardener sniped one end of the pipe..."Oh look, there are wires coming out of it...oh drat, oh sh..t!). The next day, an appointment with the Century Link man, a much enlarged hole and some splicing cannisters and some paperwork declaring the line "abandoned," I had to move my posthole inboard about 1 foot, still allowing the greenhouse door to open fully. I did plant the clematis and rose and painted it "boxwood" green with Miller Storm, my garden paint of choice.
So I thought, (still not over my "bright ideas" phase), I'd paint the other arbor. Of course it has 2 clematis and a New Dawn rose fully grown on it...how hard could it be? Several puncture wounds later, I managed to get paint on most of it and most of me.
There's something about an ugly old cedar fence that makes me want to run screaming to the Miller Paint store...so I did (maybe not exactly screaming)...I bought yet another gallon of Storm, the great fence and deck paint they sell. The color is "wet sand." I could have thought of a better name but yeah, it's the color of....Anyway, it covers these hideous cedar boards quite well. 
This is a close up of part of the 20' bed I put in along the newly painted fence. I don't have to worry about deer or wabbits in the backyard so I can "treat myself" to whatever plants I fancy...this time hydrangeas and ferns. Some of the "dirt" is compost that we hauled from the dumps...they make it from the yard waste that folks bring them, (including us several times). It is aged and blends in well.
Only 39 more boards and another gallon to go and I'll have the entire fence painted!
Just before the first winter storm came in, I decided to paint our neighbor's hideous fence that runs along our driveway. It's the first thing you see when you turn into our parking area. This is perhaps one of the World's ugliest fences and we have to look at it every time we go out front. It all looked like the far right and the far left panels...multi color cedar boards.
I just wanted it to disappear into the background so I went to my favorite Miller Paint...and bought a gallon of "Storm" stain in "wet sand." The young clerk tried to talk me out buying it...He said, "You should wait until spring to do that!" He had several good reasons why.
I looked at him and said, "Look, you might as well learn this lesson early in life...never try to talk a woman out of something when she has the bit in her teeth to do it." The more mature male clerks at the counter just nodded in agreement.
So I got two nice, 55 degree hours in full sun for the painting and several more hours for it to dry. It did soak up the paint so I still need another gallon to finish this section off and then do a second coat. I also plan to add a horizontal 6" green stripe running the full length near the top of the fence, just because. Now all I need is another nice day...Stay tuned...
