Front Yard

This is what our front yard looked like last October when we moved in. Not horrible, but too messy for Keith's standards. Doesn't our house look itty, bitty from this view? You can't see the daylight basement that adds that much more.

Pavers laid, block wall installed on right for seating/raised flower beds. . . . . The house and shop will get a whole new, matching coat of paint this summer.

New white picket fence to be painted this summer. I keep thinking of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn when I think of my kids whitewashing it this summer. Speaking of Huck Finn, Keith left a couple of Huckleberry's by the fence and trimmed them back. Saturday, we went plant shopping. We decided to go with a monochromatic scheme - whites.

A Contorted Filbert. Love the curly branches. I think it adds fun character.

Keith built an arbor that has a darling little picket gate. We planted a white jasmine and a white (of course) clematis to go up the arbor. There are a variety of green mosses, a variegated holly, a creamy white heather, lily-of-the-valley (May's flower for my twin and I) and ummmm..... I can't remember. . .Keith??? I need to pick his brain again. . . .

He added a block wall on the right side of the little shop where we store our garbage cans out of sight. There's a sloping gravel pathway where we can easily wheel the cans out to the lane for pick up.

The kids and I did all the digging and planting Saturday while Keith shoveled the bark and then the kids and I raked it out. There was a little reluctance on the teenager's part because it was raining, but once we all got out there together, we had a great time - mud and all!

In the picture below, you can possibly see that it was absolutely pouring rain! It hadn't been raining that hard, but after the kids and I had finished up and Keith was putting the finishing touches on the arbor, it came hard and fast. He climbed down and ran under the cover of the shop's porch. It'd subside and he'd climb back up the ladder. As soon as he got up there, it'd start pouring hard again. He went up and down a few times and finally, on the third time, he gave up and just kept with it.

In the raised, rounded area, we'll add lots of pretty white flowers next month when it's not so cold out for them. I'm thinking a really large, old barn wood bird condo would look cute on the big stump or a pretty birdbath. I'm on the lookout for a pretty cast iron/metal one.

As a reward for finishing early with every body's help, Keith decided to head out to go fishing for a couple of hours in the light rain. The rest of us had come in and gotten dry. Unfortunately, the next day Keith came down with a fever and chills. Must have been from being soaked to the bone for so long. We're glad to report that he's better now!

A picture the next day with the front of the shop cleaned up. When Keith built it, he made the sliding door out of old barn wood and the window is a really old one from one of our previous homes. I think it even has the original wavy glass in it.

As I type this post, Keith is out in the shop making me a fun little potting bench to go where the chair is on the porch. Can't wait to see it! We'll hang the life vests somewhere else. We're also going to add hanging baskets to the posts in front of the shop. We'll show more pics of the yard as the mosses and flowers start filling in. So handy-dandy being married to a landscaper! What do you think?