Fall porch decor

Nothing crazy this year but it’s starting to look like a home!

Happy Fall!

Sarah

Boxwoods

All shrubs were on sale for 50% off at Home Depot the other day and I couldn’t resist some boxwoods. The big ones ended up being $8 and the small ones $3.50 each! Can’t beat that! I already had the pots but was waiting for something to come along to put in them.

We’ve been struggling with people blocking our driveway so we’ve added some snow markers (the yellow rods) and the potted boxwoods on either side of the driveway.

The smaller boxwoods are going to go on the steps but for now they are getting a daily watering and are sitting next to the hose.

Just think how good these are going to look at Christmas!

Sarah

Garden Edging and lighting

While I’ve had some free time, I’ve undertaken a couple non-essential project. One of which was edging the beds in the backyard, I dug a trench about 6 inches deep and just as wide as a brick is long around the perimiter of the yard. I filled it the trench with gravel (about 300 lbs in all) and layed the bricks to create a nice wide edge to the beds. I then worked some sand in between the bricks to really cement them in place.

While I had the trench dug, it only made sense to go ahead and install low-voltage lighting (LED grow lights).

Installing hte lighting just involves burying the cable and clipping in these wire clips to connect the lights with the buried cable. The clips are hard to use and take some force to get the electrical connection working but once they are connected, just bury the connection and move on.

It took about a day to get everything dug and installed. I think it was well worth the effort and I’m planning on doing a bit more of it before the ground freezes this winter.

We want to complete our backyard project with a hot tub. 

Any hоt tub buуеrѕ guide will encourage уоu to рісk a рlасе to рut thе hоt tub bеfоrе gоіng tо a dеаlеr. But wе want уоu tо thіnk bеуоnd thе ѕра pad оr соnсrеtе раtіо.

A hot tub can bе built in to a nеw or existing dесk, recessed or рlасеd undеr a реrgоlа. Surrоund thе mоdеl уоu selected from Hot Tubs For You wіth decorative раvеrѕ or ѕtоnеѕ, рlаntеrѕ оr bеаutіful blооmѕ.

Wе’rе nоt ѕurе аbоut you but tо uѕ, thеrе’ѕ nоthіng bеttеr thаn ѕіnkіng іntо the contoured seats оf a Master Spas hоt tub аt thе еnd оf thе dау. Whеthеr thе light is lоw or thе ѕun setting, рlаn fоr uѕіng уоur bасkуаrd retreat іn thе night-time hоur.

Sarah

Garden Update: Flowers

Lets start with roses that are perking up for round 2 and desperately need to be dead-headed.

Gladiolus which are falling over and need some serious staking.

Some marigolds that are doing great.

And Morning Glories all closed up for the rain

The Lilacs aren’t flowering but they are growing and looking good. They’ve got some Morning Glory invaders and that giant grass thing from the neighbors that needs to be taken care of. I’m starting to grow even more because I love making flower decorations for events. Then if you would like to take your floristry skills to a professional level then we can highly recommend this course as you can learn some amazing things from that.

The hydrangea out back looks great

And this one Gladiolas that is in my veggie garden is doing great. This is it’s second blooming stalk…I cut the first one off to take inside. Crazy!

and last, but not least, sunflowers.

I’ve got about 4 that are about to bloom. I’m so excited.. is that weird? I’ve never been too successful with sunflowers before and I’m just so excited!!!

How are your flowers doing this July? Are they preparing for an awesome August of blooms?

Sarah

Check out the other posts in this mini-series.
Garden Update: Squash
Garden Update: Tomatoes and Herbs