Spring and Easter Tablescapes

Every Easter, Mr. DIY makes a delicious dinner with  beef tenderloin as the  main dish. This year will be the exception because he'll be working at church and won't get home until about 12:30 or so. Because of this, we'll be having Easter dinner at our favorite restaurant nearby. 

I'll be sharing my favorite Spring and Easter tablescapes from recent years. 

 Bunnies are always the centerpiece for our Easter tablescapes. We kept bunnies as pets when I was a child, so they have a special place in my heart.

 Our screened porch is always a favorite place to eat in the Spring, especially when the trees are greening up beautifully. 

Your favorite flowers make any table special. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Hope you will have a wonderful Easter celebration!

Pam

Final Spring Basement Patio

Don't you just love the sound of a good rain? 
One where you can hear the rain coming down a good bit.... A drenching rain that soaks the ground and waters the lawn without being a gully washer. 

That's what we had last night; a good bit of rain. We sure needed it because this Spring, so far, has been pretty dry. It was overcast today, but I went out and took photos of our basement patio anyway. 

I'm currently getting  the outdoor spaces ready and staged for when we put the house on the market in May.  I didn't plan it this way, but  the basement patio was finished first. 

We had someone come and give everything a good powerwashing and the mulch was spread this year by someone other than Mr. DIY and me, so those big Spring chores were taken care of. I just had to purchase some ferns and flowers to plant. Here's the view from the french doors in our basement family room.

I purchased a new cushion and some pillows online from TJ Maxx.com awhile back. This is my favorite outdoor spot, so it has to be a comfy spot. It's below the main floor deck and is a cool spot except in the hottest part of the summer.

This is the view of the backyard from the bench. I'm going to miss this spot when we move. The garden is going to be more difficult to leave behind that the inside of the house.

I was in the garden today and took this video. All of the liriope( aka monkey grass - the green round mounds) originated from a couple of plants that a handyman brought me from his garden 16 years ago after we moved in. I divided them every year until it was a whole grove! I have even more from the same few plants in several other places in the yard. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Pam

Waiting For Spring

Spring is coming up pretty quick. It seems like this Winter was so short!

Soon everything outside will be blooming and turning green.
Can you tell Spring is my favorite season of the year here in the Carolinas?

My apologies if you have allergies.

Soon we'll be sprucing up the porch and planting some Spring flowers in containers. 
And oh, the ferns.
I love me some ferns.
Sorry for the informal vernacular, it's just how much I love them!

It's currently near 80 degrees here and I'm hoping it cools off a bit for at least a few weeks until we get the mulch put down.
Winter is so hard on the yard and it's a mess until the mulch gets spread.

Our backyard is going to look like this in a few weeks. We'll be ordering 350 bags of mulch from the big blue box store because it's on sale and bags are easy to spread.

 This year we'll be putting down some cypress chips. We only put a fresh load down once every three years because they last that long.

Oh, how I love it when the trees are all leafed out!

 There won't be beautiful heads of lettuce growing this year as we took out all of our raised beds because we'll be putting our house up for sale in May. 

 Oh, how I'll miss this view...

...and this one too. 

Hope the weather is beautiful where you are.

Would love to know what your favorite season is.

Pam

Spring Garden Tour 2015

The mulch in the garden is all spread.  

Yippee!

Check one Spring chore off the list.

I always love how fresh the garden looks in Spring once the mulch is all spread.
We waited for dyed bagged mulch to go on sale at Lowes Home Improvement and then had them deliver 4 + pallets of mulch. 

Instagram photo

Spring Has Arrived!

 If you've been following me on Instagram, you know that I always do a Spring countdown.

Spring Garden Tour

Ok y'all,

grab your favorite beverage and put your feet up for a few minutes,
because we'll be taking a tour of our Spring Garden.

Our Spring mulching is finished...

all 322 bags

(23.85 yards)

(We usually get mulch in bulk, but both big box stores had a great sale on bags, which made it less expensive)

So glad it's done!

We finished mulching the flower beds late this year.

A few years ago we started too early and were finished in March. You'd think we'd know by now that April is the best month to get this job done.  The weather is still cool and the perennials haven't popped up yet so it's easier to spread the mulch.

It was near 90 degrees (with a lot of  humidity) a couple of days that we were working in the yard. 

On to the tour:

Let's start in the front yard. Our youngest daughter's boyfriend got us off to a great start and spread the mulch in the front flower beds.
Thank you Blake!

It was a big help. 

I trimmed all 25 of the shrubs in the front by hand the day before and cut out 3 shrubs with my new pole saw.

I tell ya, I was ready to cut all of the shrubs down when I was about half way through trimming them. 

This photo shows what is seen from the front yard, looking into the back.

Our "North" garden raised beds are just beyond the Bradford Pear tree hiding behind two Cleyera shrubs.

This year I expanded my herb garden.

A few years ago I planted mint in a container in the ground to contain the roots. The oregano is doing really well and both the mint and oregano are perennials pretty enough to put in a flower bed.

This year thyme, cilantro and two kinds of parsley were planted. I plant basil ever year, as well.

Oregano...

 Mint

These are our North garden raised beds and the wood planters  Mr. DIY made for me  last year.

We've already been harvesting broccoli and snow peas. Potatoes and garlic should be ready next month.

Cucumbers and squash are about 8" high.

Turning around toward the house you can see a long line of hostas. They are the first plant to come alive in the Spring.

Now we are back up "topside" on the side of the garage looking down into the backyard.

Our "South garden" veggie beds are to the left along side of the house.

Walking down the hill into the backyard...this is one of the easiest photos to take in the morning because the light is perfect. Photos taken from this part of the yard show the true color of the yard and need no editing at all.

Everything from this part of the yard looks so green, even the lawn which is at least 50% weeds.

We've had a few difficult summers and the grass has had a hard time.

Ok, seriously, this is the last one.

Back up on the deck looking down into the yard...

you can see the garden path leading down to the patio in the woods and my childhood playhouse.

Looking a bit to the left...

...a bit to the right...

...and a little more to the right.  

If you'd like to see how the garden before we did any work, you can click HERE. 
It wasn't always a backyard oasis. It was REALLY rough!

When I look back at those before pics, it's hard to believe. 

My parents gave me the little blue playhouse for my 5th birthday. It's painted just like our first home back in SoCal. We brought it with us when we moved to North Carolina.

We've changed things up over the years. When our girls were little, their swing set was where the paver patio was and the playhouse was farther back. The path used to wind around to the right and then continue almost to the creek. 

We use a yard of cypress chips on the path. The chips last a long while and we only have to freshen it up every other year.

When the weather is nice, we love having friends over to have a fire in the fire pit. Just wish we could get rid of the mosquitoes in the summertime!

Mr. DIY installed the patio in the woods pretty much all by himself. I think I helped a little. I remember we had a pretty big pile of sand and our girls played in it. I vaguely remember a pretty cool photo looking through a tunnel in the sand and I'm going to have to dig that up. (I think it was before digital photography)

This stone frog sits in the ajuga growing near the edge of the paver patio.

Begonias and a trailing vine do well in a shady spot beside the patio.

I love this spot....

Stepping back into the mulched area...

Looking back up the path toward the house...

My favorite outdoor space is under the deck. I'll have to show you that space another time.

Do you love hostas as much as I do? They are easy to grow from rhizomes. I think I bought 3 bags of 8 hosta rhizomes and planted them in the Fall about 12 years ago. When the plants got bigger, I just divided them until the back of the house and the North side along the house had a long line of hostas.

They are so pretty.

Deer don't seem to bother the hostas planted near the house.

...another hosta near the  patio under the deck.

Well, you made it to the end of our Spring Garden Tour. I hope you enjoyed it. 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting our garden!

Pam