Living Large...

...as in the great outdoors! I am so happy to finally have my yard back to myself! The patio is done on the contractor's end. Now it is up to me to add the finishing touches. Some things are moving, some things are being added and some things are leaving. I'm sure I will need to live with it for awhile before I have it just the way I want, but what fun I will have working on it!

I think I mentioned what a beautiful spring we had this year. Even though it is definitely hotter now and we have hardly had 10 drops of rain in the last month, the flowers are thriving and I am enjoying picking lots of bouquets.

I absolutely adore these plant holders that my daughter gave me. In fact, I now have 4 of them and love them so much that I use 2 of them as sconces in my living room. They're rusty and weathered - what could be better!

The gardenias this year were gorgeous. I picked a bouquet like this every day until they were gone. I had them in every room of the house and the scent was magnificent! I wonder if all women love the scent of gardenias or if they just bring back memories. I took a huge bouquet to my mom in the nursing home. When I got there that day, she was already down in the diningroom so I took the bouquet with me and placed it on the table. Almost every woman in that room came by to sniff or talk about the gardenias they used to grow or even wear in corsages. And the smiles from everyone were heart warming!

I also picked hydrangea bouquets like this. The hydrangeas are still going strong and I love them - not much effort at all for this huge display! Hopefully they will be around for another month because they make a wonderful "blue" in my 4th of July arrangements!








I usually try to keep my spring annuals in the pastel colors just because that is what I think of when I think of spring. Now I am beginning to introduce some of the "hotter" colors so I will be ready for summer bouquets. I think I will go with purples, oranges and yellows around the new patio to give it a bit of a Mediterranean feel. Of course, whatever will actually grow over there will be what ends up over there. We had to cap the main sprinkler head and haven't re-routed it yet, so the poor plants will have to depend on me watering them for their daily drinks - poor little guys will probably be thirsty a lot!

I love it when the garden gives me a surprise and this is the biggest one so far this year. Many, many years ago, I put in 2 blueberry bushes and tended them like they were my children. And, every year right before the berries were ready, the birds would pick the bushes clean! No matter what I did, I couldn't win. I used stuff they weren't supposed to like the taste of, netting and any other idea the nurseries gave me...to no avail. I finally had the sprinkler head removed and left them to die. And die one of them did. The other was just there but in a part of the yard that I just never passed by very often. Fast forward to me pressure cleaning the fence and as I passed by, I not only saw lots of berries but some were ripe for the picking. I popped them off and into my mouth and was quite surprised at how good they tasted. They're not as sweet as if I had fertilized, watered and actually given them ANY attention but I am not the biggest blueberry fan because they are usually too sweet for me so these are right to my liking! I have picked a "harvest" every day since and for whatever reason, the birds are letting me enjoy the crop this year! Plus, my tomatoes are the best they have ever been, so I am enjoying lots of caprese salads. Kind of sad that I only got down tomatoes and herbs this year but there is always next year! Stay tuned.