Blooms

Summer has SUDDENLY arrived in Texas so that means 100+ degree temps and lots of dying plants and grass. A lot of my annuals are starting to wither away, but other plants are fighting to stay alive. I went ahead and snapped some pics just in case they die off in the next few weeks... #blackthumb

We planted some Russian Sage flanking our garage doors last weekend and I cannot believe we waited so long to figure this out. I think they look great against our house colors and I can't wait for them to get big and bushy! They are supposed to be drought tolerant and perennials...we'll see. 

Our big pecan trees are full and green, too!

My hydrangea are turning colors...this one has been green for a while, but I'm thinking its going to turn pink eventually. See the pink on the edges? They change colors depending on the soil acidity and there is a house down the street that has a bunch of pink hydrangea, so I'm thinking that's what we are in for. Can't wait for them to make up their mind!

I relocated all of my petunias to the back where they get more sun. They should be annuals (right?) but as long as I give them plenty of water, they are happy! Also, #patternmixing. :)

I love green onions but we don't seem to use them fast enough and they go bad. Here's a tip - stick the roots in water and they will grow! I had them cut down all the way to the blue sticker, so everything else is growth. Love this tip!

..and this is my bloom failure. I picked this orchid up from TJ's for $5 a couple months back. It did fine and was independent for a good 45 days but suddenly it shriveled up and the flowers died. The bottom still looks alive so I just chopped off the flowers and moved it to the windowsill. Crossing my fingers it comes back! Any orchid experts out there want to chime in?

Fresh flowers, as usual. :) I picked these up for $1.49 at Kroger on Saturday. LOVE!

We have ivy surrounding our house, and it has decided to start taking over this flowerbed. I'm totally OK with it right here since it's bare anyway, but should I be concerned about it popping up all over our back lawn? 

Everywhere. 

I hope some of these blooms stay alive into next winter. I love lush, green plants!

The one where we plant a tree

I got the sweetest gift from Mark - he promised to buy and plant a tree in our backyard! That was on our anniversary...6 months ago. SO the time finally came that I dragged him out of the house and down the street to Home Depot to "get me my tree, dangit!"

Yep, I forced him to pose at Home Depot. I then made him turn in his man card.

I'm not sure why he was so worried about how we would get it home...

I swear, I'm going to have like 2 total pictures of my kids...but I'll have a million of that time we planted a tree!

After a small amount of research, we decided to go with an "autumn blaze" maple tree. I crack up every time I say the name, but it's supposed to have 'exceptional' fall color which was basically my #1 requirement for my tree.

Breaking ground!

I touched the top of the tree and said "goodbye! grow tall and strong!" 

I'm so weird.

I was very helpful.

Motley LOVES her new tree! It's like a sister to her.

SO I REALLY wanted to get a picture in front of our tree and continue documenting it on our anniversary to see how it grows. Easier said than done, my friends. Check out our little photobomber...

She is insane. Anyway, here we are on day 1 of our tree journey! I'm so excited to watch it grow!

Phase 1 yard overhaul

Mark and I have been discussing our plans for our landscaping recently. It's definitely been at the front of our minds, because after I put in about 2 hours of yard work on Sunday after lunch (details later), Mark was ready at 5:30 to head to Home Depot and start what I'll call "phase 1" of the process. 

This is what we've been living with:

We have a LOT in store like ripping out concrete, changing the flower bed shapes, laying in a path, putting down a patio, and building a pergola. But for Sunday night, here's what we accomplished:

We started by clearing out the ground cover that was in the bed to the right of our back doors.

We picked up four common boxwoods at Home Depot as well as 8 bags of cypress mulch and 18 7x7" stone pavers.

This side of the yard is the bane of our existence. TOTAL overhaul coming soon!

First, I planted the boxwoods while Mark leveled the area under the kitchen window.

We want a dedicated place for the grill out of the way and off of the 1960's sidewalk, so we laid down pavers with about 1" of space in between.

I took a break for photos, clearly. ;)

...and Mark posed for a Home Depot plug. (not sponsored, but wish we were!)

After everything was planted and set, I filled in the pavers with as much fine dirt as I could. We were winging this, so we might come back with sand to really set the stones, but so far this has worked. Then, Mark laid down the mulch.

Details, people!

And there she is!

Y'all, this is SUCH an improvement to what we had. 

SIDE NOTE: Yes, the beds look really bare right now, but only because we went quickly to Home Depot to grab the boxwoods. They didn't have the rest of the planting I wanted, so we will go to a nursery soon to get the rest of the items. In the meantime, we have a dog that likes to get muddy and dig in mud, so we wanted to make sure we mulched the freshly dug up beds to deter that. Soon this will be lush with flowers and grasses. :)

I really can't believe we got all of this done AND went to the store in 2 hours. I can't wait to see what our yard looks like in a couple months! Get ready, it's landscaping season!

...I'm SO sore...

Outdoor updates : part one

The last few weekends (excluding the most recent) we have had some really good weather here in north Texas. I got a little carried away and picked up some bright flowers and décor to spruce up the front of our house.

 

I found this sign for 50% off at Hobby Lobby and thought it would be perfect for this wall on our front porch.

 

 

Down the road, I have plans to paint the floor and the ceiling and add a chair or a bench plus some pillows for an extra cozy feel, but for now this sign does the trick!

 

 

The sign does double duty when we have the windows open. It really makes the porch feel like more square footage, and it should be treated as such!

 

 

If anything, the picture above shows how far we really have to go before our landscaping is complete. Crossing my fingers for a big change after the summer!

 

Also on the agenda was changing out the wreath on the door.

 

 

This is the first yarn wreath I made and it's still one of my favorites! I just added some black and white chevron ribbon and it was just the touch it needed to SCREAM 'me'. Love it!

 

The previous owners left this pot when we took over the house and it's been sitting with weeds in it for a while. I just bought a big pallet of pansies (super cheap) and put them all together.

 

 

 

 

I'm hoping I can keep them alive through the summer!

 

We have plans to really dive in with our landscaping this summer. I'm probably a little ambitious to think of what we can accomplish, but I hope it's an improvement on what we have now!