Defining the Space

The backyard makeover madness project continues! 
(Read where we left off here.) Are you getting sick of it yet? We are the ones living through it and while it's exciting to see progress, we are eager to get the yard into usable shape for the summer months.  

Over the weekend our yard went from this…

to this.

I'd like to tell you that we slaved all weekend creating and edging new beds, laying pine straw and generally giving the yard the overall cleanup its been craving since we moved in, but it wasn't us. We had family visiting instead.

Side note: John made this recipe and it was Yum!

Truth is, sometimes you have to weigh the time and energy vs. the overall cost and decide where your priorities lie for each project. In this case, we decided to hire in to save ourselves, what would inevitably be, most weekends this summer trying to get the yard in shape. 

Anywho, now that we've established that, back to the project at hand - the planning and planting of the new backyard beds. As you can see, we went for an undulating shape to add some interest to the property line. In my opinion, there's not much worse than a straight bed running the length of your property line. Talk about boring! You've got to treat your outdoor spaces like your indoor rooms. You wouldn't just line the walls of a room with all your furniture, now would you!?! 

Unfortunately, one of our biggest issues at hand is this awful, dead hedge which is maintained by our neighbors. Initially, our thoughts were to rip the whole thing out and start afresh, but now that the beds are defined we can see that there is enough space to simply add our own privacy screen. Yeah for that. But what to plant?

Maybe Cameillas - wouldn't that just be a beautiful hedge?

A cameilla hedge, or any hedge for that matter, will be a pricey number so we'll probably just focus on this little area for now. This bump-out is directly across from the breakfast room windows, in other words, we really want it to be full and beautiful and dramatic. Thus far, we have transplanted a couple of hydrangea from other areas in the yard. More ideas are peonies, lilac, knock out roses, grasses, lavender, catmint.

Very Patina Farm, you know.

As always, we're open to all ideas and would love to hear what any experienced Southern gardeners have to say…

Meanwhile, I'll be thumbing thru this book for more inspiration.

So, how was your weekend? 

until next time,