gardens galore

Now that summer is arriving, I dream of a yard that resembles an oasis. Of a place where Chris and I can relax at night while enjoying cool summer breezes. Or, a great place to entertain friends on crisp fall nights. Since what we actually have is a sad, weedy, unkempt yard, I'll keep dreaming. Right now, these are fueling my dreams: Great set up for a backyard party (delete play structure). My mind's idea of *The Secret Garden.* Yes please. Love the hanging lanterns. Fantastic atmosphere at night. The above two are the same yard. The balance between manicured and textured and enveloped makes me swoon. Couldn't you just sit here for hours reading? Love the lanterns. Love. Great veggie layout. These pots are so fabulous. Love the texture. Succulents have been quite appealing lately. Cute. Love the lights and seating arrangement. Great ambiance. I found all these lovely inspirations at Apartment Therapy's *My Great Outdoors* series. There are so many more for all you looking for your own outdoor inspiration.

like a weed . . .

I have a garden update! Mostly because I'm a little shocked about how amazingly well things are growing. Neither of us are *gardeners* per se. But we both love fresh organic produce, and we don't love paying premiums for it. When we first planted, we went back and forth about what to *feed* our little plantlings. Chemicals were out. But were we both too busy to really research what we should feed them then. So we chalked this first year up to experimentation and just left them as is. No food. Good soil. Lots of water. Apparently they're liking the environment we gave them. Here are the tomatoes two weeks ago: Doing well, but there space around them and you can still see the wire supports. Here they are today: No spaces, no wires to be seen. It's a jungle in there! I can't believe how much they can grow in that short of time. And, we have fruit! I can't wait till they turn red. I'm a little obsessive. Checking a couple times a day to see how they're doing. I wish I knew why they were thriving. I'm a little in the dark, but I'm super happy they're doing well. And, just for fun, here our enormous cucumber plant. Oh. wow.

yee-haw!

It happens every June. Work gets busy. Really busy. But, this is no excuse to neglect this space. I have tons of pictures to show you. I have projects we've been working on. Garden updates. Inspirations. And, I itching to play show and tell. But first, I'm going to share my weekend, because it fun. So fun. And, so relaxing. Just what I needed for crazy June. We went to our first ever rodeo! There were great friends. There was great food over an open fire. Oh yes. Those are oysters. There were calves. I wanted to take them all home. So cute. There were rodeo princesses. Oh, and there were cowboys. These little guys were just too cute. JJ the rodeo clown kept us very entertained. And there were horses. Beautiful. The older cowboys were pretty nice also. Aaaah. Loved. this. weekend. More inspiration to come later this week.