Side Yard Vines

If you haven't noticed, I have rarely done posts on our poor, pathetic backyard. Well, there are several reasons for this, 1. There is SO much to do, we don't know where to start, 2. Our vision is a bit pricey, and 3. We love our front yard so much we just spend a lot of time out there. Well, I have had enough of the neglect. Even though I'm 22 weeks pregnant I can do some sprucing.

I found two kinds of plants that I love and noticed seem to do well in our neighborhood: lavender and siskiyou pink gaura. They love sun, so I lined a few of them along our fence to turn the barren landscape into something a bit more inviting.



These siskiyou pink gaura's will one day look like this:



Today they look more like this....again, patience, one day they will be beautiful.
With those 3 planted, I asked John to do the heavy lifting and get our beautiful, Passion Flower Vines planted along the fence. Easy enough right?

Here's a close up of the Passion Flower.



Not so easy, turns out. Our french drain pipe runs along the whole side fence. Doh! We wanted to plant these vines here to give us something pretty to look at, other than our neighbor's house, when standing at our kitchen sink or looking out our large kitchen window. Well, John came up with a great idea that allowed us to plant our vines.

He built planter boxes for them to place along the fence. Jack, as always, was right by his side to "help".





Daddy lets Jack use the drill all by himself :)


John added a back so as not to rot out the fence, and a bottom so that the roots don't harm the drain pipe. This is what we ended up with.

Once we attached the trellis we wove the vines up to the latticed topped fence.


After a solid 24 hours in the ground, this is how beautiful the flowers looked this morning.
Grow vines grow! I cannot wait to see how beautiful all our plants will be by next year. Happy planting!

Front Yard Facelift

Welcome to the new, spruced up version of our front yard. I've added a new welcome mat, I've decided that those brown grassy type ones are less than ideal for hardwood floor entries. I was always sweeping up the grassy bits inside. So I opted for this one made from recycled plastic and rubber, $12 at Kohl's.
I made a little flare for the front door, still non the hunt for a fun little bit of ribbon to add to the bottom left, but looks fine for now.

And I finally committed to plants in the front yard area. More hydrangeas and ferns. I think they'll look great as they grow and gain some height. Love the way it looks.


Kind of a boring shot, but thinking that they'll look great once they mature a bit. I noticed that people always plant too closely and everything gets crowded. I spaced them with enough room to mature and with the idea in mind that I can always plant some annuals to brighten things up. Have a great week!

Yard Progress and Completed Fence

Feeling morning sickness? Pregnant? Might as well tackle some outdoor yard work to fend off the yuckies. Several weeks ago, I removed the tanbark, black plastic and giant ivy roots from our flower bed area in front of the house {notice the unpainted fence in the background} Here is some follow up.
Bye, bye tanbark, hello planting area.
Bye, bye roots, hello blistered hands :)


This root was GIGANTIC! Who knew ivy roots grew so big?


And today, it looks like this. I still have to add more plants {lookin sparse} but haven't made time for that yet...maybe after the Buddy Walk planning is over.


Here is the pretty painted fence that John {and I} worked so hard on. It really adds a lot to the front yard area.

Love the added bonus of a fully fenced in, safe for kids play area too.

Here's what it looked like right before John painted it, and one below, of what it looked like the day we bought it.

It needed so much help! Thankfully, now it looks a whole lot better!

Thanks John, you're the best! It was tedious, and I know you hate painting fences, so THANK YOU!

New Fence and a Plan

While I was away on a whirlwind visit to see a friend, John decided to redo our picket fence (aka, the playpen) in the front yard! We still have to paint it, but for just over a days work later, we have a wonderful, soundly built fence! Special thank you to John's dad, Mike for helping with the project and to Cathy for being on Jack watch.

He built a new gate, so it is now an official playpen! There's no more running around the block attempts without mama by your side anymore, Mr. Jack.


Some of the fence was still good to go. Almost all of the posts we're kept, but most of the pickets and horizontal supports were replaced.

New side gate too.
And I contributed something new too. Front yard landscaping plan...and a plant :) The entire front was rose bushes (yuck, sorry, but I can't stand roses) and a Camellia that we kept, on the far right. I have decided to buy another Camellia to put under the left window as well. I bought a Hydrangea (our wedding flower) to put in between the two Camellias. I still have yet to find the same variety Camellia, but the search continues.

The only issue with the plan is that the plants are predominantly green most of the year...with our green house, green lawn and green tree. So still looking into either some small planters to place on top of the brick mini pillars, although they seem like they'd be begging Jack to knock them over, some hanging plants to add some color, or planting a small flowers throughout the area until the new plants are larger. Ideas?

New Hydrangea acclimating to it's new home, hope to plant it in the next few days. I was hoping for a white one...but since none of them had flowers, I guess it will be a surprise.

A Little Zip and Polish to Our Entry

This weekend was filled with little projects around the house and we feel SO accomplished! Here is the new looking entry: new porch light (same 2 new lights on either side of the garage door as well.), and new house address numbers.
Just another "before" reminder.

A little closer look
They're the numbers that are raised off the siding, I really like them and think they contrast nicely with the house paint and trim.

Lights on either side of the garage too :)

Speaking of garage, we had a successful garage sale on Sautrday to get rid of the piles of unwanted items we were planning on dropping off at Goodwill.A profit of $100 later and some organization and cleaning we can now park a car in our garage! Most of the pile on the left is going to Goodwill and if anyone's in the market for that AWESOME fridge, let me know...it needs a new home :)

I feel good and grateful to have had such a productive weekend, house is looking better and better, next step spruce up the front yard playpen {picket fence} and landscaping!

New Paint Job

John decided that enough was enough and that he was going to tackle the exterior painting Memorial Day Weekend. He hired a guy from their company to help out for the two day feat. Jack joined Daddy for a little more prep before the painting was started.

Jack is pretty much in heaven, pretty sure John isn't :)

Now this is where Jack pouts...he can't play outside while they're painting, tried that last weekend during color sample time and he had paint from head to toe.

He's miserable, must help daddy!

At least he gets to watch!
Some of the prep and finished color on rear.

Jack finally is set free.


These two guys single handedly transformed our house from worst looking on the block to, not so shabby in just 2 days.



And the finished product...
Just need to pick out some new lights for the porch and either side of the garage door and we're "done" for now with the exterior. After lighting, new picket fence...it's the only thing shabbying up our yard. Thank you. John, you're the best!