Rain and Summertime Blooms~

Y'all we have had some serious rain here in Atlanta lately. While I do not care for the strong thunderstorms we've experienced most recently, the rain has everything so lush and green this year.

I thought I'd share a few backyard pictures with you today.

Our hydrangeas are huge this year, and the colors so vibrant.

Love the deep crimson and yellow combo of the daylillies.

Our pots started out with just tiny plants and are now full and overflowing.  Potato vine is one of my favorites as it really does well here.

The petunias are gonna need a clip soon as they are getting a little "leggy".

Our Koi just keep getting bigger.  And yes, that would be fishing line across the pond.  We are in close proximity to the Chattahoochee River and the Heron love our Koi!

As I mentioned in an earlier post this week, our herb garden has really benefited from all the rain we've had.  Our sage plants are enormous.

This was our herb garden back in March.

And now.

And, knock out roses are always a win here in the hot south.

Our cherry tomato plant is huge this year as well.  We have already enjoyed handfuls of them.

And, this is my new favorite spot to enjoy it all.  This is the swing #1 built for us for Christmas.

I hope you can get out and enjoy a bit of nature this weekend.

Back Yard Update!

Whew...it feels good to sit down with a nice glass of white wine and just chill.

We spent the day in the back yard...pea gravel, boulders, mulch, blood, sweat, tears , Mickey D's sweet tea...

I guess I should let the pictures speak for themselves~

Bed filled with hydrangea (back corner-hard to see), flox, peonies, and daylilies.  Will most likely have to divide next spring, and move to another bed.  Product of all the rain last summer!

Bar area.  We built the bar a few years back after seeing something similar in Better Homes and Garden magazine.  It is made from cinderblocks and 2x4s.  Top is stained with deck stain, and the columns were painted with Rustoleum Renew.

A closer look...

Our knock out roses are blooming like crazy, especially now that they get more sun.  Our neighbors had to take out their leland cypress trees due to disease that were along the fence, so the roses are now in full sun.  My hydrangeas close by are NOT happy however!! They plan to replant trees, so for now I will leave them and see what happens.

Our pond.  My brother contracted someone he knew to build the pond (bare bones), and he landscaped it for us.  We finished up the project literally the day before our oldest's graduation party in 2008!  I think I still had some dirt under my fingernails.

The waterfall...

Hostas underneath our deck steps.  Cannot wait for them to fill out.  That is if the darn squirrels would quit digging around them!!!

We have a stepping stone pathway close to the pond.  The boulders in the bottom left corner will be a part of a rock garden I am building to help with a drainage issue next to the steps.

Hostas and ferns near the pond.  Again, cannot wait til they are all this big!!

New pea gravel patio area. The boulders were added for a border as well as to allow rain water to drain.  We plan to put a fire pit in the middle and surround it with some chairs.

Our veggie and herb garden is taking off nicely, after it was toast due to a late frost crazy Atlanta weather.  Even our rosemary is coming back (bottom left).

The hydrangeas on the hill are just starting to bloom.  I love these, petite blue blooms.

Our blueberry bushes.  This is after we cut them way back last fall!  We can't eat them fast enough.  Lucky for us, #2s beau LOVES them and will waste no time eating his share!

Looking back from our new pea gravel patio toward the pond.  A little better look at our pathway.

Arial views are always fun!  Here is the bar area...

Pond...

View from the side of our deck.  We hope to replant several trees soon.  We lost 20 leland cypress last year to disease.  Just beyond the tree line you see is still a lot of property, currently covered in just pine straw.

New porch pillows.  This is where I plan to park my rear for the rest of the summer once all these yard/house projects are done.  Windows go in tomorrow and then paint is next!

We could not have done this without childlabor our sweet girls, and #1s "the keeper".  They worked their tails, arms, legs, whatever moves off!!!  We did feed them lunch afterward ;-)

Hope you enjoyed the back yard tour!  

I am linking back to  the Best of the Nest

Anniversary Flowers & Something "Silver"

Thank you so much for all the sweet anniversary wishes.  We had kind of a low key day, which was fine by me.  I have had jury duty all week (however, have not had to report yet), so that kinda put a damper on making any firm plans.  We plan to celebrate in a couple weeks.

Hubby presented me with this beautiful bouquet of flowers.  If you know me, I much prefer mixed bouquets to say a dozen roses.  I love all the different colors and textures.  And, the lilies smell divine!

And then because it was in fact our "Silver" wedding anniversary, we picked up a little something Silver.  Meet the newest addition to our Koi pond.  So pretty when the light hits him (her?) just right.  Let me just say, photographing a moving target in water is hard! So excuse the somewhat blurry picture.

Hope everyone is having a good week.  Hard to believe we've had the "baby" home from college for a week already.  I have a feeling the summer is going to fly by.

Chachacha...changes~

I think I mentioned awhile back that we would have some landscaping projects to tackle in the near future.  Well, that would be because of this...

Before:

You can see where our fence was in relationship to the garden (which we just expanded with two more boxes up front).

Just outside the fence (left side) we had to take down around 12 or so Leland Cypress trees that had succumbed to disease.  When we moved our fence to where it is in this picture the trees were already there, so we fenced inside of the tree line not on our property line. Since they are now gone we decided to move our fence to just inside our property line (meeting up with an existing post at the top where our neighbor had tied in for privacy with our permission) and because they had planted a tree that was right on the line.  It is a pretty tree and healthy, so why have them take it down.

During:

You can see the new section of fence being constructed quite a bit out from the existing.  It widens at the top.

After:

A lot more yard!  If you look back at the before you can see how close the fence was in relation to the pear trees and the garden.  My brother, who is a landscaper, needs to come out and regrade the hill and then we will plant.  We have already purchased a couple cedars and a few fruit trees for the space.

I know our dogs will be in heaven, especially our Cairn terrier who loves to run.  Our 13 year old Golden may never get up to the top of the hill these days! Bless his heart, bad hips.

Blueberry Season!

This is one of my most favorite times of the year, blueberry season!  We have had a few bushes in our yard now for quite some time.  This time of year, we can't pick them fast enough and the girls can't eat them fast enough.  One is currently out of town and the other working, but both know come this weekend a blueberry feast will be taking place.  They like them plain and au natural!!!!

This was the yield from just one day of picking!   Our bushes have gotten so big that we can't even reach the top branches anymore.  Our friends the Robins love them too however.  And, we are all about sharing!

Playing In The Dirt~

Been a bit MIA lately.  We've been busy playing in the dirt!  We recently had my brother resod our backyard, moved our garden and established a new one (that meant moving over 100 of those brick concrete stones used for landscape walls), regraded the side where the stone path was (that meant removing the steppings stones, grading, then moving them all back), moved a few perennials around to make room for more grass (rather than pinestraw beds), sprucing up our planters with new spring/summer annuals, and oh...we had to rebuild our entire arbor over our hot tub due to the feast some carpenter ants had! 

All while under a time crunch...our daughter's graduation party is this Saturday!!

Okay, I won't bore you with words any longer...take a look around.

The new herb/vegetable garden.  We used Greene's raised garden kits from Home Depot.  Super easy!!

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme!

Pizza anyone?  Fresh Oregano and Basil, YUM!!

I purchased plant markers from my local nursery, and using my handy dandy label maker I printed out labels for each herb/veggie and applied it to the marker.

One of my all time favorite herbs to cook with!

Our hydrangeas are in full bloom!

The new lawn!

Landscaping around the pond.  Our hostas are huge this year!!

A view of the pond.

The waterfall feature.

These guys will eat you out of house and home!  They swim to the edge the minute they see us and expect to be fed.

The bar we built a couple years ago. We have plans to paint the concrete posts in the near future.

Our hibiscus.  It is beautiful when it blooms.  However, the darn caterpillars LOVE it!!

Lilies we added this year for Mother's Day.

More hydrangeas.  This picture doesn't do the color justice.  They are the deepest purple.  Funny because the plant right next to them has blue blooms!

Outdoor candelabra.

This year I planted several of our containers with foliage only and LOVE them!

Hope you enjoyed the backyard update!  We are in the midst of getting ready for our daughter's graduation party on Saturday, and it is crazy around here.