Late summer backyard tour

Hello!! How was your weekend? Wonderful I hope! Sorry for the absence last Friday – I was traveling home from an amazing trip to Des Moines Iowa. I got to visit the Better Homes and Gardens headquarters and was pinching myself the whole time.

I’ll tell you more about that trip soon, but for now I’m enjoying no more travel for quite some time. I LOVE to travel am such a homebody as I get older. Now that I’m home for a while I feel like I can really tackle some projects I’ve been putting off.

One of those was cleaning up the outside this past weekend – we tend to let things go during the summer. Although I have no excuse for it this year since it’s been so lovely. Usually I can blame the heat and humidity for my laziness but not so much this year. Just lazy. :)

I cleaned up the patio and deck and did some fall planting in the containers and figured it was a good time to share the backyard. I shared it early summer last year and we’ve added quite a few plants since.

Our backyard isn’t tiny but it isn’t large by any stretch. And it has a big slope that made it hard to use. We had a deck installed soon after moving in and then our patio was added a few years ago as our yay-we-are-finally-out-of-debt present to ourselves. ;)

I took a lot of pictures, bear with me! I just love it! Here’s the view on the side of the house as we walk to the backyard:

Those tall maples to the left used to be in our front yard and we replaced them about eight years ago because they would NOT grow. They grew all skinny and weird and looked horrible. We had the landscapers put them in the side yard, not thinking they would do any better. But now they are HUGE. I mean, almost taller than the house. And the newer ones up front still won’t grow. Don’t get it. :)

My limelight hydrangea to the right is doing AMAZING this year. Gah. It’s so beautiful and still growing!:

The burning bushes lined up on the left are doing OK considering the trauma from this winter. After one of the many heavy snowfalls we walked out to find every single one of them gnawed down to half their size:

They were SO big and beautiful – turns out some hungry bunnies sat on the snow (that was half way up the bushes), ate the buds, and in the process gnawed off every. single. branch. I’m surprised the plants came back, but they did. It will take a few years for them to get back to the size they were last year.

To the right are some of my (many, MANY) hydrangeas:

These aren’t getting as much light with those trees blocking most of the morning sun so I may have to move them. One is only blooming underneath, which is totally weird. The other is doing well:

Love those pink blooms!

Last year we added a few trees to the backyard around the patio. We get full sun back there all day so we’re always trying to figure out ways to add some shade. The river birch are SO beautiful!: 

I’ve always dreamed of having them in my landscaping. I’m obsessed with their peeling bark. They are a lovely “light” tree but do shade well.

Remember, here in about a month to six weeks plants will go on sale and it’s a perfect time to purchase and plant! I got my PeeGee trees years ago on clearance --they are probably my favorites in the backyard:

The one on the left has fully bloomed, the one on the right is still finishing up. See how heavy they get when they bloom? The branches bend almost to the ground and the trunk bends as well. It’s because the blooms can get as big as my head. :)

It scares me though – I feel like they might just snap, so I may stake them to take some of that pressure off:

In the fall those white blooms turn the most gorgeous pinkish green color I’ve ever seen. I adore them.

Around the corner to the back I have more hydrangea and another river birch:

There are four hydrangeas just right there. I’m unabashedly obsessed. :)

Most of those rocks were put in when we did the patio and goodness…who knew how expensive rocks would be?? I added a few more a couple summers ago when a friend was redoing her landscaping and getting rid of a bunch. I was happy to take them.

I have a favorite rock. Is that weird?:

This is the only rock that grows moss every year. The moss grows between the pavers on the patio too and I’m in love.

Here’s a view to the patio from the back of the yard:

See those big fat hydrangea blooms on the right? That’s happiness right there. :)

This is one of my favorite views as you come through the other side:

And as you come around the corner – two of my peonies are here and a start to a butterfly garden:

We have very little grass in the backyard – it’s mostly mulch. Mulch is awesome because it’s low maintenance but the mulch bill makes me sob a little bit every year:

On this side of the yard I have knockouts, some evergreen bushes and another favorite, the lamb’s ear:

The knockouts had a rough year because of the harsh winter. They did OK, but not nearly as well as most summers.

Here’s the view from the other side of the house, looking back:

I have big plans for this side – hoping next year I can make that happen. :)

Our favorite place to be in the fall is on our patio – this past spring I found a little pergola on clearance that I placed at the entrance:

Earlier this summer I moved some furniture around on the patio and deck and I like it SO much more this way. Now the sectional (craigslist find years ago) is down here:

I reworked the small tables that went with it years back and now they are the coffee table in front of it – you can see how I did that here.

This weekend I moved the chairs by the fireplace around just a bit and that little change made such a big difference!:

We used to have the chairs on the sides with the table down the middle but this is SO much more comfy. Now everyone is near the fire – love it:

Sitting out here with the fire going and a glass of wine…it doesn’t get much better my friends:

You can see more of the deck in this post. I love the furniture moved around – we finally moved the potting bench up near the table so I can use it as a buffet when we entertain:

And here’s a view from the back door:

Gardening has become a passion of mine since we added the patio – I find it incredibly satisfying. The upkeep takes some time and can be hard work, but it’s worth it to me. Over the next few years I want to learn more so I can “layer” some more plants into what we already have. I love the full look of an English garden and want to try to incorporate that feel.

It’s a space I’m really proud of – the backyard is our little oasis and we absolutely LOVE our it. Can you believe fall is almost here? Even though we’ve had a pretty mild summer I’m so excited. Do you have an outdoor space you love?

Fireflies in the trees

So I’ve wanted to do this little project for the longest time, and I finally got the courage up this weekend. It involved one little part that totally had me intimidated.

I’ve always wanted to hang DIY glass lanterns along the trees in our backyard – I’ve seen it done with mason jars and regular jars and I’ve planned to do it for years. But I knew it would mean I’d have to drill a hole in the bottom of the glass to do it.

Otherwise they will fill up with rain water and I’d have to dump them regularly and I know myself and myself would never do that. So they’d become little mosquito breeding grounds and those guys like me enough as it is.

SO. I knew all along I’d need to drill holes in them to avoid mosquito production and my well being. :) I finally bit the bullet and just did it this weekend. My original plan was to use mason jars, but I didn’t want to put a hole in the ones I have because I use them quite a bit during the fall and holidays. So I took a trip to Goodwill, where I’ve gotten EVERY ONE of my mason jars over the years, and they had none. None!! Well, I did find one itty bitty baby one marked at a dollar, which just annoyed me so I put it back.

You know how I feel about Goodwill prices lately. :)

So I was just going to use food jars and wire, but then while shopping the other day I found some super cute mason jar versions for $2.99 each (Kirklands). For that price it was worth it to just get them instead of DIYing – they had cute wire already and everything. They are SO much cuter than a jar too!

Here’s what I ended up needing to drill the holes:

The drill bit gets hot so you need to have water near the spot you’re drilling. You can do that by just pouring it constantly, but you need three hands to do that. (Or you can stop constantly to pour.) I found the easiest way was to fill a bucket just higher than the height of the jar.

I picked up a drill bit just for this, and it was pricey at $18, but I know I’ll use it for other things in the future. There are two types of glass cutting bits:

I used the one on the left. From my understanding you won’t be able to use these on tempered glass, so don’t try it on that. (It just won’t work.)

Getting started was the hardest part. I was seriously wondering if I’d be able to even do this because the bit kept skidding all over the place. You need to start at an angle at first, not flat – so the bit can get a grip on the glass.

This pic was a little later when I had straightened it out a bit more, but it gives you an idea of how I did it in the bucket.

Once you get that grip it’s easy, but that’s the hard part:

Those half moon shapes are where I started. Once you get those going you can straighten out the bit and put it straight down:

By the way – use gloves, eye protection and if you are not doing this in a bucket of water, I’d use a mask as well. With the water there was no need for that.

OH, and use a cordless drill. No water and electricity please. :)

When you get the bit going it’s not bad at all – you just have to be patient. You don’t want to push too hard, just let the bit do it’s thing. I’d say each time took about 30-45 seconds of drilling once I got a good grip:

Here’s what you’re left with:

I got overconfident by my fourth one and pushed too hard:

Nice. I was pushing the drill too hard and it pushed through. So just be patient! Patience is really not my thing.

I seems intimidating but honestly it wasn’t bad at all. Having the glass under water was a huge help because I wasn’t worried about the bit getting hot or glass flying everywhere. Overall it was actually kind of a cool DIY.

I’ve had little indoor/outdoor tea lights from IKEA for a about a year for this project:

By the way, I used the wire from the jar that broke to make another lantern with a jar from the fridge. :)

I hung them from the trees along the back:

And waited for the sun to go down:

I have these tea lights in white and yellow and love the yellow out there – I feel like they look more like fireflies or something. :)

I can’t find the lights online at IKEA though. I hope they still carry them because I want more:

Now I want to do this along the whole length of the yard – how pretty!:

I want them everywhere. ALL THE JARS.

Of course we have to turn on each light but that’s no biggie –- we won’t use these every night. I’m pretty much in love with them though:

I’ll be making more but will be raiding the fridge for jars to the do the rest.

I love how they turned out and love that they’ll have very little upkeep – I’ll probably have to clean them every month or so, but they are secure (I made sure not to hang them too close to each other so they won’t bang together during storms) and will drain easily.

I knocked two things off my list – a project I’ve been wanting to do forever and a DIY that I’ve always been too intimidated to attempt. :) Here me roar.

The possibilities are endless now that I know how to drill through glass. Have you ever tried it? I’ve seen tutorials on cutting wine bottles and that looks interesting as well.

The peony, beauty of spring

It’s one of my favorite times of the year – peony season. :) It’s a downright shame they only bloom for a week or so once a year!

I don’t even know why I picked up our state flower to plant a few years back – I saw them blooming at the nursery and thought they were lovely, but I didn’t fall head over heals until last year when the bigger plant really started producing:

Now? I’m obsessed. If they bloomed all summer I’d have them everywhere, but for now I stick with hydrangeas. :)

There are a TON of peony varieties – in the thousands really. There’s a great list you can check out here. I’m not even sure of mine, but I am pretty sure this one is the Hermione. The scent is heavy on these – absolutely intoxicating. I’ve never smelled a flower like it.

I have two bushes that haven’t bloomed in years and they finally did so this year – I was surprised to see the hot pink version when they did:

I only got about six blooms between the two but it’s progress! These darker pink flowers didn’t smell as much and they aren't nearly as big as my lighter ones.

The lighter pink blooms fall to the ground because they are so big and heavy. Just simply gorgeous! There are two things peonies need – full sun and a cold winter. They need the cold to create buds, so those of you in the south will probably get a gorgeous green bush and nothing more. :)

You can cut it down anytime after the blooms are gone but I leave it throughout the summer and fall because it’s such a big, lush plant.

Many of you on FB and Instagram (where I shared their progress) mentioned the tiny ants that live inside them. I don’t have too many, never have, and I’m not sure why. But I’ve learned a trick to get rid of little critters on my cut flowers:

I give them a bath in some soapy, cool water. I went a little heavy on the soap here by accident, you don’t need quite this much. But I let them soak for at least a few minutes:

Mine were starting to wilt in the heat a bit and then the water makes them look even worse but don’t worry, they’ll bounce back!

Before I put any cut flower in a vase I always cut off any leaves that would be in the water – leaving them can turn the water gross fast. I rinsed the flowers very lightly (they look so delicate but are strong!) and then very lightly tapped them against the side of the sink to get the water out and to puff them back up again.

Within a few minutes after drying they had perked back up and looked better than they had outside!:

I love big blooms and I cannot lie. :)

I have six or so in here and it’s crazy full:

These have been going strong for the past few days and I’ve got a few more that were just opening up that I’ll bring in soon.

It’s always an internal struggle for me when they bloom – leave them outside and enjoy them there or bring them in? But of course I end up bringing them in so I can see them all day. :)

If you are in the right zone (the further north the better) these are incredibly easy plants to grow – I do next to nothing every year. The larger one has produced quite a bit the past couple of years, I just hope the other two follow suit soon.

Love them!:

Do you have any tricks for getting the little bugs off of flowers? Do you grow peonies? They are everywhere here in Indiana – so pretty. There are varieties in pink, hot pink, white and coral. They tide me over nicely until my hydrangea start to bloom (any day!).

Have a great weekend my friends!

Outdoor living

Hey hey! Hope you had a WONDERFUL holiday weekend! You can tell summer is approaching in this household – it’s getting harder and harder for us to get up in the mornings and my posts are getting later and later. ;)

This weekend was just gorgeous and I’m just so thrilled to have nice weather again! I worked on the deck and patio quite a bit this weekend -- moving things around, planting and working on little projects here and there. Loved it.

I got a bug to move some of the outdoor furniture around the other night and I love how it came together. I’ve mentioned before that I rarely move furniture around inside because our house layout just doesn’t allow for much of it. But it was so fun to tackle the outside – we’ve had it the same way for nine years now.

First of all, let’s have a moment of silence for our beautiful gazebo that used to be on the deck:

Sniff. It was so darn pretty.

Then this happened:

We got that dissembled last year and then things got boring. :)

We left the furniture over there with the fire pit and it’s been like that since early last year. We didn’t want to replace the gazebo just yet because I’m afraid the same will happen again. I’d like to do something more permanent like a pergola, but we’ll leave it as is until we figure out what we’re doing with possibly expanding the house.

So. This is how it looked Saturday morning:

Not bad! I was just craving a change. I’ve always wanted to move that table over where the gazebo used to be but never did since we liked having the seating area under there.

We built the deck in three sections that are on different levels – not sure I would do that again. But it does add some interest and makes the areas feel like different “rooms.” Since we don’t have any structures to work around now, I went for it and moved the table and chairs over to that bigger area and I LOVE it:

The old rug used to be red and white and now it is just…beige. ;) It didn’t hold up well so I grabbed a new one at Lowe’s. It’s a bit boring but I looked at Garden Ridge, Lowe’s and Home Depot and didn’t see a great selection of outdoor rugs this year. I figure it’s a good backdrop for more color anyway:

I LOVE having all that space around the table! Oh my goodness. The kids always play around the table and it always worried me in that middle spot before – with the chairs pulled out there wasn’t much room to walk around it.

Now I’m considering moving my DIY potting bench over next to the table since we use that to serve food and drinks at parties. I think it may work better up there and there’s plenty of room.

I was just going to move the furniture that was over where the table is now over to the middle section, but remembered the whole thing could make a big sectional. We never had it as one sofa under the gazebo – I realized it would be a perfect fit on the patio if I put it back together:

There’s still so much I want to do out here! Beyond some new plants and small projects I want to sand down that tabletop and restain it – the sun has not been kind. (You can see how I made that table here.)

But I really dig that sectional there – it’s a perfect fit!

I moved the sofa that was down on the patio up to the middle section on the deck with the fire pit:

It works so much better. I don’t worry about the kids now – especially over by the wide stairs going down to the patio.

Here’s a better look at the different levels on the deck:

I feel like this layout is so much more conducive to socializing and it flows much better out to the patio:

Every time we are out on the deck or patio one of us says how much we love it out there. We are so lucky to have this little peaceful oasis for our family.

It’s ready for summer and so am I!:

I think moving furniture around (inside or out!) is the cheapest way to make a space feel brand new. Do you have outdoor spaces that you’re prepping for the summer? Is it finally warming up where you are?

I shared my favorite “staycation” spot over at my friend Kate’s blog last week – can you guess where it is? ;)