Refreshing

With summer officially here, it’s nice to know that the time and energy we spend the last couple summers beautifying the yard is starting to show the fruits of our labor.

First the raised bed under our pine tree.  While it’s mostly Hostas right now, I’m on the look out for some partially shade perennials.  I’m also looking for creative garden ideas- maybe some antique benches, barrel or something fun.  Soon the Morning Glories will begin to creep their way up the arbor and show their sweet smiling faces to me 🙂  What you can’t see and what  neglected to take a picture of is the rhododendron on the street side of the pine tree and the Hydrangea on the corners.

The raised bed along the garage was started, but on the rights side was a crowded Lilac bush that was struggling.  We transplanted that at my parents and finished off the bed with some pavers that were lining either side of the front steps (which we replaced…scroll down).  Again keeping with the perennial theme, I planted an over-abundance of iris’ both purple and yellow in here and lined the back edge with hollyhocks.  Last year I just planted Holly Hock seeds, so I was pretty impressed to see them make strides this spring.

I’m in love with these iris’ and pretty shocked they appear in my flower bed.

As I alluded to earlier, we replaced the sinking cement steps lined with pavers.  Instead my handy man of a husband built a the steps and small platform at our front door.  We opted for the recycled plastic boards to prolong the life of the steps.  Also, insurance requires a railing for any new stairs built so I selected the white columns and slats to make it seems finished.  I’m still waiting for the lattice on the sides to officially finish the project. This pictures also shows a bit of the landscaping we did along the house in the backyard.

Finally the backyard and some of the blossoms that have made it to light after just greens last year.  To top it all off, the husband is sprayed the grass to get rid of all the weeds.  I love knowing that all the time, sweat and money we invested into the yard is really paying off and fun to sit and enjoy.  If everything goes according to plan we’ll have double the plants next year, as I’ve planted even more perennials and a few more sets of seeds 🙂  Sun- keep on shining…and that is a direct order from your queen 🙂