Outdoor Tour Part 3: Porches & Planters

I'm back with another installment of this 4 part series on the outdoors around here! My apologies that this is this week's only post - but spring brings a busy time around here! I also had a fun public speaking event this week so I was busy prepping for that! (Welcome to my new readers from East Zorra!)

We've already covered my veggie garden, and my flowerbeds - and today, we're moving onto my Porches & Planters - which at this point don't have a lot going on yet! But, even though I have uninspiring planters & porches right now, I hope to inspire you all with  my plans for these areas.

In Part 2: Flowerbeds you saw this same shot of the front of our home. At this point we have 2 Adirondack chairs up there, and 2 nice big permanent planters. We live on a hill, and none of our decks/porches are covered which makes it hard to put anything up there that might possible blow away. Everything you're seeing in these photos is screwed to the deck boards!

We just hung this screen door back up about a month ago - I not only love the look of it, but I also love that a breeze can flow right through the front of our home, to the back - where there is another screen door. Sometimes it actually gets TOO breezy in the house, if you can believe it!

This past winter I had my front planters filled with greenery from around our farm, magnolia leaves from the local greenhouse, and some gorgeous tall birch lengths that hailed from my brother in law's property up north. We filled the planters with sand first - then lodged the birch & greenery into the sand - which froze once it was cold enough, and thawed just in time for me to remove it all in February. It worked perfectly - and that sand is staying in the planters for the summer too!

 Above: Last summer I filled these planters with overflowing red & green potato vines, and some little tangerine colored flowers. I know you can barely see it, but this is the best I've got!

Last October these babies held burnt orange colored mums!

 

2 years ago Fall, they also held mums, but those planters you see are now on our back deck. 

Here is what I WANT my front porch to look like. :)

Front Porch by ambiancedecor on polyvore.com

Tip: A large graphic area rug is a FABULOUS was to dress up a porch or deck. Since we generally don't get to use as much drapery or fabrics (unless you have an outdoor sofa! lucky you!) - we can use area rugs to add some much needed drama. So I am loving this look... but we'll see;) Money doesn't grow on trees around here. Does it at your place??
Our front deck is BY FAR our favorite place to sit for a coffee in the morning, break in the afternoon, and after the kids go to bed in the evening. Once our Beechnut Tree is in full leaf, it is shaded most of the day - and nice & breezy usually. Let me show you the view...

 See why it's our fav??

Let's head around to the back deck...

Not a whole lot goes on here, other than me hanging out laundry, sadly. It's a great sized deck... but it's uncovered and SO HOT in the afternoon & evening sun, and the flies FLOCK to this area as soon as any speck of food comes shows it's face.

We used to have a patio set and for about a year we tried eating supper back here - but we have SO many flies on the farm that it just didn't work.

 

This is the view off of our back deck. It's pretty.... and we just don't get to sit here often enough!

 

These are my naked babies!! haha. Oh and you can see one of the planters and what they were filled with last year. I have a small boring area rug I often throw out there, and some second hand chairs - generally to just fill the space.  The deck box usually holds soccer balls, outdoor toys, and lawn chairs. I'd love to do up a design board for ya'll for this space... but it just feels pointless since I KNOW I'd never spend the bucks on making this beautiful - as we don't and won't spend time out there. Long term plans involve this deck disappearing anyways... so one more reason to just "leave well enough alone"!

We DO have one new addition to our back deck this year though!! Remember this post where I talked about some small projects I was working on that weren't finished? It alllll started with this pretty lady:

 

In her unfinished glory she was still quite pretty. I contemplated back & forth over painting it black, or staining it dark brown. The addition on the back of our home is white siding, like you can see above - so a white screen door wasn't an option for me. Since I HAD dark stain leftover from staining our hardwood floors and my office desk - it won out in the end. 

A simple wipe on - one coat on each side - did the trick.

I finished it off with 2 coats of Outdoor Varathane on each side.

And let it dry for about a week.

Then StevieBoy and Construction Worker BooBoo completed Operation hang the screen door! BooBoo arrived in full construction gear.... tool belt, tool box, and hard hat. I mean really, I couldn't have HAD a cuter install. ;) And for free? It was a win/win friends!

And she's looking mighty pretty I might add! Even MORE than her beauty - I love that we have an incredible cross breeze through the house now. The front door, and this back door are just about parallel to each other through the house - so this works in our favor!

As you can see I have yet to fill those planters - I am thinking something white and flowery this year.
But like I said... money doesn't grow on trees;)
Aaaaand like I asked earlier... does it at your house?
Can I come prune some?

Have a fabulous weekend!
xoKahl

Outdoor Tour Part 2: Flower Beds & Around the Yard

First off, I forgot one little extension of my veggie garden from yesterday! These little guys!

 I picked up 6 of these little stainless pots from IKEA a few months ago - 3 for the toyroom craft station, and 3 extras (they were only .99 cents!) knowing I'd find a use for them down the road, and sure enough I did! My little indoor herb garden consists of Basil, Cilantro and Rosemary - my 3 staple herbs!

Moving on to my flowerbeds! To say the least, they've changed a LOT since we moved in here. I wish I had before pictures for you, but that was before I started blogging and never took pictures of anything. (lol... or everything like I do for YOU now!)

Let's talk a little about flowerbeds in general shall we? I LOVE my flowerbeds. I do. But a green thumb I do not have. Starting from scratch I don't have a CLUE what to buy, what anything is, or what to put where. I don't love digging and planting and spending endless days in dirty clothes with dirt under my nails (I assure you, my gloves are on at ALL times, let's be real here) under the 30 degree ozone depleted beating sun. (I do like the tan though... ha!) But do I love how my flowerbeds look after? yuuuuup. So in the end, I do it because it's worth the end result. I have to say, I am lucky my mother in law lived here first and started these beds so beautifully so that the poor little semi-city girl who moved onto this awesome farm 6 years ago had something to work with! THANKS MAMA LUCY! xoxo.

So... let's get on with Part 2 shall we?

When you come down our back steps, there are flowerbeds on the left AND right. 

 Boxwoods flank the steps to the deck, and to the right is a tall thriving cedar, and a couple different varieties of hostas.

 To the left is one long bed that runs the span of this side of the house. 

We've moved a lot around over the years, and I am finally 100% happy with how everything looks on this side! I am an organized flower bed kind of girl. I like balance, and repetition - and I like my plants with some space between them - I ain't no English garden girl! I recognize this is not everyones style - but it's mine!
Some of the plants you are seeing in this bed above:
-LOTS of hostas (4 different varieties) which are super slow maintenance, gorgeous in color, hearty, and are a great filler.
-Various shades of pink Tulips, my favorite flower.
-Yellow Iris (the taller spiky one just behind the rock)
-Red/yellow lilies flanking the Yew tree. Goodness... I just noticed it needs a serious haircut!
-2 Incrediball Hydrangeas flanking the lilies

We mulch every other year because of the expense - so you can see this year there are some patches of dirt showing through. That will have to wait for next year sadly!
There is nothing better than a freshly mulched flowerbed though is there?
Although maybe the fact that barely any weeds show they're dirty little faces when there is a thick layer of mulch keeping them at bay IS better?

Oh, and those 2 windows above this bed? The one on the right is the Bootroom. The one on the left is the kitchen sink window. Capisce?

  

Moving on up the side of the house. Above is where the addition meets the original brick structure. From right to left you're seeing a boxwood, Yellow Iris, tulips, 3 hostas & a cedar tree (which isn't doing very well...) The first window moving right to left is the bathroom (see the striped roman shade in the window?) and the second window is one of my office windows.

 

 Above you see a decent sized Sand Cherry Tree, 2 hostas & some small flagstone pavers that lead up to where my watering hose usually resides. Again, this is one of my office windows, the one directly behind my desk.

 Just past the sand cheery are 3 overgrown yellowish bushes of some sort. I used to trim them, and they used to look nice. I don't know what happened. *sheepish grin*

 

If you come around the front corner you can see that the bed wraps right around the front of the house and up against the front porch. Just yesterday we filled in that bare spot in the front there with a couple more hostas split off from the ones in the side bed.

These above .... are the Pièce de résistance. The butter on my bread. The cheese on my cracker. My Peony plants. They are HUGE MONGOUS. Maybe too large?? CAN a peony plant be too large... I ask you!? I argue not.

Above you can see how they're looking as we speak. Even pretty now.... all soft layers tucked into a perfect little crimson orb - luscious & full of life... awaiting the moment to erupt into bloom.
Wow.
That sounded sort of... sensual.
What can I say... I love my Peonies!! *blush*
Anyways, this is what they look like full bloom. Wonderous. I. can. not. wait.

Moving onto the left side of the front porch (we'll cover the porch & planters in a later post remember?).

 For the most part, the left side mimics the right side, but on a smaller scale. A couple lilies, hostas, and the big Peony. And another overgrown yellow bush that's in even worse shape. eiii. Our downspout drains into a little rock bed here as well.

 To the left of the half dead yellow bush is a VERY much alive Lilac bush. mmm. Another favorite.

They're budding right now, and this photo is a reminder that I need to go out there and snip some for my kitchen table:)

After this is where things get a little sketchy. But as you all know... my "Be Real" policy is in full effect - so from this point forward I vow to not even TRY to stretch the truth. ;) Remember in my last post how I said some things just gotta give to keep my sanity?? This is one of those things. Let's round the corner shall we? *cringe*

 The one thing we have going for us on this side of the house is the fabulous vine we planted 2 years ago. It's doing very well and will eventually cover a lot of this side of the house, which I love. Our long term plan involves this side of the house being our entertaining area - french doors, a pergola of sorts & a patio. So the vine was our way of getting a little "sumthin sumthin" going on this side of the house.
It's not working.
But I assure you... I can imagine it all in the end. Work with me here :p

 I'm not sure.... can one call this a flowerbed?? yikes. All of the wires and tubes you see are either phone wires, satellite wires or propane runs. The yellow one runs from the 2 propane tanks, to our gas fireplace in the living room which is on this inside wall.

 It just ain't pretty. The window you see is one to the right of the fireplace in the living room.

 Just past the propane tanks is another "flower bed". or.. grass bed. Just close your eyes and keep walking. Please.

The window above that weed flower bed is the big kitchen window. You're seeing the back of my Buffet in the window. I can get away with this because it's on the back of our house and no one sees it because at this point we spend no time on this side!

 Just around the corner at the back is one more flower bed. It's seen better days - but it's not as embarrassing as the previous photos! It just needs a few plants divided, a good edging, weeding & mulching. Basically just a little TLC I haven't found the time for yet.
The window you're seeing here is the toy room! I'm hoping this is starting to make sense for what is where in our home:)

One more wider shot of the back of our house again. Back door leads into the Boot Room:)

This post is getting a little long, my apologies! But I have ONE more flowerbed to show you!

 It's hiding back here.

 And it's in daaaangerous shape.

 But I don't care. Cause Hammie lives here. Hammie the Hammock. *sigh*. Doesn't a hammock always evoke a sigh?

 Thoughts on this flowerbed? IS it a flowerbed? A weed bed? A wood pile? A rock pile?
I give up.
I think I'll go visit Hammie until LooLoo wakes up;)

 

Have a wonderful weekend. Lay in a hammock if you have time - I know I will be;)
xoKahl