gardening and landscape
Our Deck Is Ready For Summer
It’s almost Memorial Day, the unofficial kick-off to summer in the U.S., and our deck is ready for summer fun! And by fun, I mean eating. I have my priorities. Most of our dinners in the summer are eaten on the deck. Then there are the Double Ds. Drinks and dessert. Those are best enjoyed on the deck in the summer too. We’ll often turn on the party lights and sit on the deck with a drink in hand as the sun goes down and the temperature becomes tolerable pleasant. New Jersey summers are not to be trifled with. They can be hot, humid, and let’s not forget about the…
Solar Landscaping Lights: A Literal Glow Up For Our House
I have a bright idea. Let’s talk lighting today because our Colonial Farmhouse has received a literal glow up with the addition of some solar landscaping lights. One of the perks of living in a rural area without much light pollution is that we can see the stars on a clear night. One of the downsides of living in a rural area without much light pollution is that it’s dark at night. I mean really dark. Dumb ways to die dark. In a ‘better light than never’ decision, I added solar landscaping lights to our, well, landscaping last summer. Every night for almost a year now, I’ve looked out the…
10 Fun Gardening Finds
Friends, I am delighted to dig into today’s topic and share 10 fun gardening finds with you. This is an aspirational post for me because I’m delusional convinced that I might grow to enjoy gardening if fun and pretty things are involved. I’m not a one trick peony, I mean, pony, so it could happen, right? By the way, I’m using the term gardening loosely here. If it has to do with plants and I thought it looked neat then it landed on the list. Here are 10 fun gardening finds that caught my eye. COPPER TRELLIS I was today years old when I learned a circular copper trellis was a…
Considering More Rhododendrons For Our Landscaping
I’m considering adding more rhododendrons to the landscaping directly in front of our Colonial Farmhouse. I know it’s not necessarily newsworthy to tell you I’m thinking about doing a thing but I haven’t decided if it’s a good idea and even if it is I might chicken out and do something else. Yet, here we are. Honestly, if someone else wanted to take care of the landscaping decisions for me, I’d be so happy. It’s just not a topic that gets me excited. Unfortunately, there is no one else. I double and tripled checked. I’m stuck with myself on this one. We currently have three rhododendrons. One to the left…
Check Out These Old Photos Of Our House
The most amazing thing happened a while back. The family who used to live here gave us a few old photos of our house from the 1980s and 1990s. The previous owners were the caretakers of this home for almost 50 years before passing the responsibility onto us. We’re so grateful that they loved this home as much as we did and did the best they could with the resources they had to keep this old gal standing strong and solid. I thought it might be awkward meeting one of the kids (now an adult) who used to live in our house. What if they hate what we’ve done? But…
How We Made Our Front Door Look Bigger With Paint
Let’s talk about how we made our front door look bigger with paint and only paint. Once again, the MVP of DIY saves the day. If you want to be all technical about it, I can concede the primary purpose of a front door is to allow access to a home. However, you and I know that the REAL purpose of a front door is to make a darn good impression on all the people who regularly see it like the Amazon driver, the UPS driver, and the FedEx driver. What?!? Am I hearing you correctly? Folks other than delivery people come to your house. Regularly?!? Huh. You must be…
How Our Landscaping Survived A Dry Summer
Our neighborhood group chat discusses things like power outages, bear sightings, contractor recommendations, and how our landscaping survived or didn’t survive a long, dry summer. So, the usual. Most people I know would categorize New Jersey summers as hot and humid with plenty of rain. That combination lends itself well to New Jersey being nicknamed the Garden State. Fess up! You were thinking of a not-so-nice nickname for New Jersey, weren’t you? It has plenty of those too. Ha! New Jersey has certainly been hot this summer, but also very, very dry. We started the summer with everything looking lush. Yes, it really was that electric green. Then we ended the…
Painted Chainlink Fence Hack
Need a painted chainlink fence hack? You’ve come to the right place. If you’re reading this blog post then it is probably because you have an ugly chainlink fence that is driving you batty. You’ve probably wondered a million times if you can paint that chainlink fence and how much of a pain in the paintbrush is it going to be? You can paint pretty much anything. The question is whether or not it will hold up. In a grand, tedious experiment, I painted our ugly chainlink fence one year ago and discovered a hack that might save your sanity and a whole bunch of wasted paint. Here’s the hack,…
What Happens When You Set Flagstones Directly On The Ground
What happens when you set flagstones directly on the ground? It depends. That’s such a terrible answer, right? We are not experts, but we do have experience setting flagstones directly on the ground when creating paths. I’m sharing what we’ve learned here – the good and the bad. Hopefully, our experience will help you make a more informed decision when deciding to DIY or hire a pro to build a flagstone path. Keep in mind that our experience is specific to soil and weather conditions in New Jersey. Where you live, conditions, and, therefore, your experience might be different when setting flagstones directly on the ground. Remember, this feedback is…
Adding Magic To Our Deck With String Lights
Am I the last person on earth to add string lights to their deck? It kind of feels like it, but I know that’s an exaggeration. Not everyone has a deck or a backyard, so I feel extremely blessed. We’ve spent the last three years working on our outdoor spaces. It occurred to us during the long, cold winter that maybe we should stop and enjoy those outdoor spaces once the weather warmed up. Otherwise, what was the point of all that work? Although the more time we spend enjoying our outdoor spaces the more projects we dream up to tackle. Because that’s what you do when you’re relaxing, right?…
