Well it’s that time of year again…….that’s right folks, it’s St Patrick’s Day!  Every year I have a huge get together at my home with tons of people.  It will be very different this year though because we have a new Trex Deck that was recently finished.  So, we have decided to entertain the mass of people outside this year.

Now, we have become experts as far as decorating the inside of our home for this party, but decorating our deck is a new concept for us.  We are a couple that loves to go all out when we do things so it’s important for us to make the best of this party.  Fortunately, our Trex deck allows for us to have a lot of people on it at one time.  This is key for us since we are planning on having an Irish band here to entertain.

Since our Trex deck was constructed with built in seating it gave us great places to set up all types of food and refreshments.  In my mind my wife went a little over board with the green food coloring…..all I said was make sure the refreshments are green! What I am trying to get across here is the fact that we could not have done some of these things if we had a regular deck.  Can you imagine what a dyed green beverage would do if it were spilt on normal wood?  Just consider that area destroyed.  With the Trex composite decking material, spills are no problem!

But, now that we have run the green lights around the edges, set up the stage, placed the food and drink we are ready to party!  Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone, and remember, everyone is Irish today!

I will have to just be as up front as possible….I am a serious garden and flower freak.  I am one of those people that do everything I can to have the most impressive backyard I can.  I mean it! I want people to visit and think they are at a botanical garden.  I have pretty much maxed out the garden, pots, fence areas, and around my house with flowers.  So I found myself going stir crazy because I had no way of adding more.  Then it hit me, flowers on my deck!

I mean I sit here and all I see is all that space on my deck rails that need flower pots! The best part about it is they won’t take up any of the living and entertainment space on the deck.  So, I’ll just break it down step by step on how I did it for those of you who are like me and want to flower your deck:

All of us want a beautiful deck, and one easy way to enhance a deck is to add flowers. By using a specific group of flowers, and limited supplies; you can easily transform your deck into a flower garden. By day, it will display one type of flowers, yet by night it will show a completely different type of flower.

This is my first time writing instructions, please be easy on the remarks.

Step 1: What you need

The amount of supplies you need depends on your preference. The plan is to plant Morning Glories and Moon Flowers in alternating pots across the rail of a deck. Depending on the size of your deck and how dense you want the flowers to be, the amount of supplies will change.  My deck is about 25 feet across and I placed the pots about 3-4 feet across. Based on my deck you will need, morning glory seeds, moon flower seeds, 8-6 inch pots, and potting soil.

Step 2: Add soil to the pots

The easiest and most obvious step, adding soil to the pots. Simply fill the pots about 3/4 full with soil and shake the pots to level the dirt.

Step 3: Planting the seeds

Now it’s time to plant the seeds. Using your finger, poke 3 holes in the soil about 1/2 inch deep. Drop 1-3 seeds in each hole and cover them. You need to put Morning Glories in half of the pots, and Moon Flowers in the other half. It is easiest to separate the pots into rows to do this.

Step 4: Arrange your plants upon the rail.

Take your pots and place them on the rail in an alternating pattern. Starting at one end of the rail, if you put a Moon flower first, then put a Morning Glory next. Keep doing this all the way down the rail.  Put the pots about 3-4 feet apart. If you want the flowers to be closer together, move them closer.

Well, that’s how I did mine….hope you enjoy doing yours.  Later

Clifton remains a small town in a sea of suburbs, with its historic Main Street lined with white picket fences, rustic lanterns, and barrels full of flowers. Most of the homes in Clifton are over one hundred and twenty years old, and the town itself has no traffic lights or direct postal service. The U.S. Department of Interior declared it a National Historic District in 1985. Because of its quaint charm, but proximity to metro areas, the town draws in artistic types, like the writer Jeff Arch, who was said to be living in a house on Clifton’s Main Street when he wrote the screenplay for the hit movie, Sleepless in Seattle.

As small as it is, residents of Clifton still want the modern joys of an outdoor deck added to their homes. A deck built with Trex composite decking material will last as long as the historic homes, with low-maintenance throughout the year.  With an average of 202 sunny days per year, a deck in Clifton offers plenty of time to enjoy the fresh Virginia air year round. Even in the cooler winters, snow and ice removal is a breeze on a Trex composite deck. With so many designs and styles to choose from, a custom built deck in Clifton adds to the historic charm.