A Yard Full of Surprises

This is the house just before we moved in.  We are slowly but surely adding our own personality to it and boosting its curb appeal.  We are working on a project just in front of this split rail fence at the moment..

Part of what attracted us to our perfect little home was that it sits on a large corner lot.  I'm pretty sure we have the biggest yard (back and front) on our street.  The front and side are mainly grass with some bushes around the perimeter and one bed in front and one on the side.  The back yard is about 75% rock, which I wasn't crazy about, but there is a decent sized grassy area for kids to play on and the dog loves to roll around there, and there are nice, curvy landscaped beds all around the perimeter of the yard.  I thought I could live with it for a while.

This is a view of our backyard when we moved into our home this past March.


Unbeknownst to me, there were many surprises waiting just under the dirt getting ready to reveal themselves to my  great delight!  First, the bushes all around the perimeter of the front and side yard turned out to be forsythia, and there was yellow everywhere shortly after we moved in.  I have always loved forsythia. For me it's  the quintessential sign that spring has sprung.  The usual early spring bulbs were soon to follow, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and a sweet patch of grape hyacinths in the backyard wildflower bed which I absolutely must get a picture of next year!

Next up came some lovely pink climbing roses against the fence.

You can see my daughter moving in for a sniff.


The weeping willow in the back yard got its leaves and is great for giving shade to people, hostas and hydrangeas.

The back beds began turning green and giving their own show - mature white and pink azealas followed by irises, tons and tons of sublime violet colored irises and a few unusual yellow ones too.  I think I just may keep the rock back there because with the  landscaping the way it is, I haven't even missed grass.  It was also a cinch to build our raised bed vegetable garden right on top of the rock, and maintenance is a breeze.

 Does anyone know what these low lying bushes are?  They border the beds and are around the perimeter of just about our entire back yard.  They really help soften the look of the stone.

Then there's this guy, whom my friend Michelle and I have affectionately named "Devil Baby".  He is actually a mythical creature who is half boy/ half rabbit.  He's got rabbit feet and a cotton tail and is holding a baby bunny.  There was a bunch of  "garden decor" left by the previous owners which I immediately put out to the curb, but Devil Baby seems like he belongs here so I let him stay. (Plus I'm kinda scared of him)




The show has been ongoing since April.  I am looking forward to seeing if there are any Fall blooming beauties around here.  I leave you with a few pictures of my favorite place in the yard, which is the wildly beautiful cottage garden that blows my mind still every day.  Each time I walk out the door I can't help but be happy.

Purple Pallet Picket Fence

This is my favorite project we've done so far in our new home. We got all the pallets for free on craigslist so for about $20 we were able to build this adorable little garden fence. We had already built all the raised beds and wanted to make our veggie garden its own little world. Hubby took the pallets apart the old fashioned (and HARD) way with a sledgehammer. We recommend investing in a reciprocating saw if you're planning on working with pallet wood! The pallet wood was the perfect size for our pickets.

 We started out nailing each picket to two firring strips, using wooden spacers we cut to keep them uniformly spaced. Once we had all our pickets on each section we trimmed the bottom to make it straight, and we cut the corners off the tops and sanded them to get the cute dog ear shape.

 After the section was finished I painted it this perfect lilac color which looks so cute and whimsical in the yard.  Some of the pickets were more receptive to the paint than others which contributed to the quaint, imperfect, rustic look.

We used 2x4s as posts and put it together right around the garden and, not to waste anything, we made a little potting bench from the left over pallet wood.

   The garden is now rewarding us with cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, green and yellow bell peppers, serrano, habanero and jalapeno peppers, strawberries, eggplant and watermelons. In the galvanized buckets at the entrance are lavender, mint, rosemary, sage, boxwood basil, oregano, parsley and thyme. What's growing in your garden?