{reveal} landscape tips

Last week I showed off our summer landscaping project. Today I'm back to give you a few landscaping tips we learned from our yard adventure. Here's the house, again, in all its cuteness:

And here are all the plants ready to go into the ground!

Landscaping tip #1: Create a color scheme. This is something I learned from talking to my gardener friends about landscaping. Color schemes help pull the look together. They can be wild and crazy or they can be monochromatic -- I've seen beautiful yards in both. As you can see above, we chose predominately white, yellow and green with pops of red. Next year I'd also like to add some oranges. Pretty much my only rule for our front yards is no purple/blue flowers. A huge bonus about having a color scheme is it will help direct your thinking when you're standing among hundreds of beautiful plants at the nursery.

Landscaping tip #2: layout your plants before digging. This one saved us and is especially important if you don't have a landscape plan to guide your digging. We repositioned our plants about a dozen times before we settled on a layout we liked. The picture above isn't even the final layout! So, please don't dig until you're happy with your layout. It's much easier to move a pot then replant.

Both these tips I did not find during my extensive online research. They were simply from talking to people. So, I hope you find them helpful as well!

I am so excited about how this will look a year from now! I'll leave you with a few detail shots:

Happy weekend!

garden, year 2

I'm back with year two of my garden adventures. Last year was my first year growing food, well, anything really. So I was excited this spring to branch out a little and get a little wild and crazy with the garden. Well, wild and crazy for me. And then the rains came. And didn't stop for about 3 months. Oy. Naturally, my little garden freaked. It was drowning! But I'm happy to report that the sun has come out finally, and we had our first harvest:

Spinach (oh yum), green onions and two of the cutest strawberries ever. Oh and they were delicious as well.

Source of the strawberries.

The wild and craziness this year was experimentation with seeds. I know not all the crazy, for experienced gardeners, but this novice has never grown from seeds and was little nervous. My neighbor is a great gardener and talked me into it -- and has patiently answered all my questions. Such as, how do I know when to pull up my carrots? Or beets? I tried to pull up an onion the other day. Not so much ready yet.

We have rogue cats and squirrels in our neighborhood that delight in torturing me digging up anything I plant. So up went a little fence to protect my seeds. It worked like a charm! Above, carrots and onions (from seed!).

Beets. Are they're leaves gorg? And, round 2 of cilantro. We lost round 1 in the great spring flood.

Swiss chard. Yum. This one I started way later than the other seeds, so it's a bit smaller. I'm itching to start harvesting! {Please disregard the pesky weed poking his head through. He's been properly disposed of.}

Tomatoes! We had some major tomato problems last year. After a lot of research, I found a few ways to change up my soil. Crossing my fingers it works and I have healthier tomatoes this year.

We unsure if round 1 basil will make it. Isn't that just so sad!

I know other parts of the country have had their own weather woes this spring. How are your gardens? What are you growing?

{renovate} landscaping: curb appeal

We're making some big changes to our house's curb appeal.

Of course, our potted flowers are back. A little burst of color is very spring-y and welcoming.

But, we've also been doing a little of this:

We're landscaping our front yard! Last weekend, we rented a sod cutter, tore up a lot of our grass, and sculpted it for plants.

As a reminder, here is how our house looked when I moved in nearly two years ago:

And here it is after nine-hours of crazy hard work:

Confession: I'm a little nervous. I've never landscaped anything and I'm worried it'll look ... weird. But I am excited to get plants planted in the next couple weeks and I'll make sure you're all along for the ride. Hopefully I'll pass along some tips I'm learning to help your landscaping adventures.

I wish you could actually see all the dirt covering these laborer's tired, but happy, faces. It was messy friends.

weekend

How was your weekend, friends? I have to admit, I miss the weekend. Already. Normally my weekends are friday-sunday, but I actually worked on friday and it threw off my entire weekend. As in, made it entirely too short!

Enough of my whining. I have a couple things to share.

First. I planted flowers! And, I want them to grow. Quickly. Now. {Please.}

I planted dahlia bulbs.

And, peony bulbs.

Second. We had a couple friends over for dinner and the recipe I tried was outstanding! I first spotted it over at Suz's blog blog and it looked so good. And when I discovered it was a PW recipe, I knew I had to make it soon. Who doesn't love PW? 

Oh goodness. This was a hit! Make this soon. Recipe here. I know. There's lots of butter and heavy cream. So worth it.

Third. Have you seen these notebooks? So much cuteness.

Fourth. Am totally loving the festive vibe this little ensemble creates. Beautiful!

 

Happy Monday!

{inspired} I couldn't help it . . .

I know it's not time to plant yet. But it's 60 degrees and sunny here today (are we the ONLY ones in the country with nice weather?!) and it's hard to remember that we'll still have some pretty chilly weather to deal with before I can plant any lovelies in the ground. But I couldn't help myself. Last night I just had to start looking at which flowers I would like to welcome into my yard this spring.

 

  

Dahlias (both two above) are a MUST for me this year. They are my favorite.flower.ever. They remind me of my grandmother and were the basis for all my wedding flowers. Last year I missed them completely and was so sad. I have a big problem remembering that bulbs need to go into the ground in the fall! So this year I'm going to put in a few plants and then hopefully remember the bulb thing when it's time.

  

And of course, peonies! I bought a couple peony plants last year and am so excited to see what they do this year. The flowers are simply amazing and I wish they had a longer blooming season.

  

The above are digitalis. Beautiful, right? I want to create a cutting garden of sorts, so I'm looking at all different types of flowers that not only add texture and dimension to our yard, but also to a bouquet.

  

There are a couple places that I'd like to see climbing flowers. Clematis is my favorite. And, from what I understand, grows quickly! Perfect, because the spots where I'd plant climbers need to be hidden ;).

  

Begonias! Love! Another reminder of my grandmother. See a theme here? She was an amazing gardener. I wish I had 1/90th of her green thumb. Did that even make sense? You guys know what I mean.

 

Last year I completely fell for hollyhocks. I discovered them, randomly, on a business trip and have been wanting them in my yard since. I love the name, for starters and they're just so cheery!

So, here's where I need help. These are just some ideas floating around my head. And, I'm by no means a gardener or have any clue about flowers for that matter. What is your favorite flowers? And, what are some other flowers I should plant to create beautiful summer bouquets?

friday {love}

I learned the coolest new thing this week friends.

 

You can force tree cuttings to bloom! Am I the only person who didn't know this? I put these twigs in my paper whites to help them stay straight, and was so surprised when they budded. So when the paper whites died (frowny) I threw the twigs in water and sure enough, they bloomed this week.  

They make me so happy. Next year, I'm collecting cuttings for this purpose alone.

I hope you all have a relaxing and inspiring weekend!

weekend goodness

Happy weekend!

Isn't it amazing how fresh flowers immediately brighten a room? *Love*

What are some things you do to give your room a quick change and refresher?

happiness

 Is seeing new life emerge in the middle of winter.

**Love.this.**

mmmm. summer harvest.

It doesn't get much better than this people.

The monster tomato bushes are not disappointing.

Yum.