Back Yard Sneak Peek

As you dudes know, Matty and I have been hard at work making our backyard inhabitable. Over the past several weekends we've ripped out the hot tub, trimmed back the deck, replaced rotting trim, repainted the trim, REPAINTED THE ENTIRE BACK OF THE HOUSE MYSELF NO HELP FROM MATT, installed sun shade, and planted some green things in the grass. For the very first time ever in my life.

Because this is only a partial view of the yard, I'm calling it a sneak peek, because that's what a sneak peek is, a preview. ahem, another blog.

Oh, this is also a before and after

Here is a nook at the back of my house as of last week. Before we took the hot tub house down I had never even ventured into this part of my yard. Once it was exposed I realized it needed serious work. First, Matt replaced most of the trim, I started doing some spot painting to fix dings and damage but quickly realized that I needed to repaint the entire thing. Had I known this from the start I probably would have repainted my house a new color but, as it stands, it's the same old green just so fresh and so clean clean.

Once the house was ready I was ready to put plants in the ground.

I've always been pretty good at keeping potted plants alive but never before in my life have I planted something right smack-dab into the earth.

I did 2.2 seconds of research online and half listened to Erin as she dished out advice, hopefully that was enough to keep these babies alive.

First I spray painted an outline around the semi-circle I wanted to dig out (hello, my genius idea!) then I dug about 1.5 feet deep. I then poured in alternating layers of native texas mulch and the dirt that I had dug out. I mixed as I poured so everything got tousled. Then, voila, I threw in some plants.

Here's what I planted (all plants are texas-weather friendly):
lily of the nile
fortnight lily
Canna lily
Stella de Oro Daylily
Australian Canna Lily
Bamboo Muhly (not bamboo) (also the coolest once it gets big)
Plumbago

The rocks that are outlining the little garden actually came out of the ground when I was digging. We've got a ton of limestone around here and while it's a pain to dig it up, I didn't have to spend a dollar on edging

If I'm a really good plant mommy, one day it should look like this Texas landscape. You know, in like a week or something.

Backyard Inspiration

Ever since the back porch demo last weekend, my mind has been racing with ideas for our backyard.  Seriously, I woke up at 5am Tuesday (thank you Rowdy!) and I could not fall back asleep because my mind was racing with ideas on how to best beautify our new outdoor retreat. Due to an annoyingly intrusive work schedule, I have yet to lay hands on the newly exposed soil but (hooray!) Erin and I have an outing to the Natural Gardner scheduled this week.  I'll give you a full report provided it's the shangri la of landscaping that I envision.  While I'm there, I plan to keep a few images from my outdoor spaces inspiration folder in mind:

Let's keep in mind that it's the feeling of these spaces not the exact look that i'm going for.  Much as I would love a crazy stairwell over my lovely exposed concrete wall, I don't think I'm going to get either structure.

I have wanted  a pergola covered in vines for as long as I can remember.  It had been my plan to build one at this house.  In fact, part of the reason our backyard demo took so long was that I was waiting for my husband to have the time to build one.  Reality finally set in and I realized that my children's children would probably off to college before Matt ever had the time to construct the pergola of my dreams.  I decided the sun sails I bought were almost as good, and the fact that they can go up immediately make them even better.

Oh, but for the record, don't you love this picture?

I can't even find a spot to hang my new chair, much less a crystal chandelier, but I do still love the structured greens in this photo.

I want a pool.

This is my very favorite style of landscaping.  Slightly structured chaos, lots of overlap, mixed textures, native grasses, lush without being tropical, zero shrubs and not too many flowers.  It's pretty much perfect.  Raise your hands if you think a novice planter like myself can recreate this look.

And here are a few more random images I like:

And that is that, I will keep you dudes posted on progress.  But I do promise that this won't become a landscaping blog.

YES

Spaces I wouldn't say no to. In no particular order.

Are you guys starting to get that I really love to lounge around water?

This one just makes me giggle.  There is no way I would swim in that green lake, but that pool has my name written all over it