"The soil may be too wet for gardening, but as long as it's not raining I can at least do something about these non-living elements in the garden. It's time to get out the sponges and go."

"Yes - I said sponges. Not those flimsy little sponge brushes that they sell in the home improvement stores, but good, natural sea sponges. When I worked in theater I did most of my paint work with sponges and could achieve a fair imitation of anything from marble to fieldstone to stucco. Now I let them do the same kind of magic in my yard. Oh - I use a brush for a few things, and I'll need a few cans of spray paint - but sponge work is faster and a lot more fun."

"Take those "stone" benches scattered around the yard. They're cast concrete, of course - all that the budget will allow. But with a bit of spray paint and a sponge they can be transformed into a creditable imitation of the real thing."

"I begin with a couple cans of metallic spray paint - whatever is on hand, which may be bronze or silver. I spray a few patches of each color randomly over the surface of the bench, letting it cover in some places and merely misting others."

"Then, because our native stone is sort of buff and gray, I sponge on a grey colored latex paint (outdoor grade). I don't need to cover everything, and I do want to go a bit thin over the metallic paint so that the glint will shine through."

"Finally I take a buff brown paint, thinned with one part water to 4 parts paint, and wipe it over the whole thing. I wipe thinly in spots to allow the grey and metallic paints to glimmer through. If there is any carving on the piece I use a brush to cover it and then wipe off the highlights, leaving darker paint to collect in the recesses - and then lightly sponge that color back over the highlights. If it looks too heavy I wipe with a rag. When it dries I can always sponge on a bit more thinned buff or gray, if I think it needs it - but essentially, I'm done and the bench looks like it was carved from native stone."

"Over by the pond we have used old cobblestones instead of native stone; these appear much more gray than the fieldstone in the main garden, so I reverse the process and use the brown as an undercoat and the gray as a topcoat."

"Now for the arbors. The big debate of the season is what color they should be this year. I've heard tastemakers like Rosemary Verey and Penelope Hobhouse pooh-pooh greens and absolutely forbid the use of white. But they don't garden in the same light that I do in Northeast Pennsylvania. I remember falling in love with the green used in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris and coming home and painting all the furniture Paris green. In our light it absolutely GLARED at me - hurt the eyes - so I used the green as the basis for a faux verdigris paint job that was so convincing that people really thought we were lounging around on copper outdoor furniture. I'll tell you how to do that on a "

", as it sounds rather involved although it is really quite foolproof. But verdigris won't suit a solid wood arbor. No way will anyone believe it's metal of any kind at all."

"Right now it is a misty gray green that I rather like - but I also rather like experimenting. I am strongly considering using that silver-green as a base for a soft grey."

"Since painting a large structure like this complete with rose canes can be complicated, I rely on my trusty sponge to make short work of it. Use the fine grained portion of that natural sea sponge and just dab it all over. A bit off the bottom color will come through, but it will look more like dappled light that anything else. And sponging is REALLY fast! Just make sure to vary the direction of the sponge as you dab."

"You may ask why I don't just brush on a solid coat of paint and be done with it. I'll tell you - after years in a century old house with cracked and dented walls I've discovered that a broken finish like sponging or rag-rolling hides a multitude of sins. Cracks, dings, bumps and knotholes in wood, which would show up with plain paint or stain, disappear like magic when you use a "broken" one."

" One of the reasons I am leaving that hint of green is that the cast aluminum furniture will be done in verdigris this year. It always looks so soft and so much like a natural weathering process that I prefer it to any solid color process. And the pale bluish-green color reflects the light so it's safe to sit down with bare legs even on hot days."

"However,
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