Flowers In The Woods and Planning Our Front Walkway

Good morning! How's it going? 

I hope you are all doing well and are able to get some projects done during this quarantine. I am still doing okay over here, but as the weeks go on I am missing my friends and family. It's getting harder to stay at home 24/7 but I know it's the right thing to do and we are definitely taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and are getting out for walks whenever possible and have also taken a couple of rides. 

Today I wanted to share a few things with you guys. I know we have talked about the yard a ton lately but it's because I'm so excited to actually have a yard after being in an apartment for so long! I am excited for all our plans and can't wait to complete all of our projects, I know I am driving my husband nuts with my impatience and I am trying really hard to work on that!

First off, we have daffodils blooming in the woods next to our house. I am wondering if once they are done blooming if I should dig them up and move them to our garden. What do you think? Would you leave them here as a little surprise pop of color or move them?

Also that falling down fence in the background, we are 99% sure that it belongs to us but are going to confirm with the neighbor and then take it down. We are planning to put up a fence that will be a little closer in to keep Sophie in the backyard. This fence in the picture is falling down everywhere and is such an eyesore, I can't wait to remove it!

We have some really nice forsythia bushes along the woods as well which is great because they are very full and bring some color to the landscape.

You can see in the above picture how the flowers are on the edge of the woods which makes me wonder if they were planted here originally to be a part of the woods or if there was a garden here. I'm not sure what are plan is here other than leaving it wooded for the most part.

We also have periwinkles directly behind our house and all through the woods. I think these are technically considered a weed but I have always loved them! We had them surrounding a big rock in our backyard when I was growing up and loved that area.

In our front garden, I initially thought this was a crocus when it popped up but it's white daffodils! I definitely need to get some other early bloomers in this garden because these look so lonely!

Now about our big project that we started planning out yesterday...

Sophie was zero help so she was sent inside. She was not a fan of this and barked at us the entire time.

We used rope to plan out our walkway!! Right now when it rains we basically have a big pile of mud at the bottom of our front steps. We are planning a gray brick walkway and Tim had the idea to rope it off so we could figure out the measurements and exactly how many bricks we would need for this project. 

Our plan is to extend the front garden on the left to wrap around with the walkway. This is going to be a huge project with a lot of planting but I'm so excited to pick out plants and make it look beautiful! We will also bring the right hand garden out slightly to meet the walkway and I think it will look great.

When we were planning this out I noticed a bit of pavement in our lawn...who knows why that is there! We plan on also getting grass installed to make our lawn a little less brown, so hopefully that will happen soon.

Here's a better view looking out at where the path will end in the driveway. I'm SO excited for this project! I'm not sure exactly when we will complete it but I will keep you updated.

We did order our pavers to complete this project because they are on sale at Lowes until 4/8! We are having them shipped to our house and are thrilled that we are saving 60% on the supplies for this project.

Share with me the projects that you are working on! Have you ever installed a walkway before?

Social Isolation = Yard Work

Hey everyone! How is everyone doing with the current situation? Here in RI we were told to isolate at home which I'm not going to lie is kind of nice. There is a ton to do around the house so it was nice to have an excuse to make no plans. As an introvert I totally love staying home, so I don't mind being told to not go out at all!

On Saturday morning one little girl was ready to wake up!

Hello mom, it's time to wake up!

I know last Wednesday we talked about the front gardens so here is what it looked like on Saturday...

I think that these might be true forget me nots. I used an app that identified all the plants in the fall and based on that I think that they a forget me nots. We shall see!

I think these are crocuses, so soon we will know for sure!

There are a few other things poking through. I can't wait for a month from now to see what it looks like out here.

Now up towards the street (we have a big front yard so this is kind of far from the house) we have our well cover which needs to be replaced. I'm not sure what is around is but I'm thinking about putting common ivy here so it will be more covered and look nicer. 

I'm not sure what this tree by the road is, my mom thinks it is something that will flower this spring. I can't wait to see what happens!

This is a tree on the other side of the yard. I'm also not sure what this one is, but we will see soon!

This is a Siberian elm which is Sophie's favorite tree! She loves to run underneath it when the leaves are all on it.  I'm honestly not a huge fan of it and think it's really strange looking, but I will keep it up for her!

You can see the buds on the trees which is super exciting!

I worked out in the garden quite a bit on Sunday. I finally bought a rake so I was able to rake the garden out and clean everything up!

Now I just need to figure out what to plant in here! I would also love to get some window boxes but that is a long term project that I'm not sure will get done this year. As Tim reminded me on Sunday, "Everything costs money" so we need to prioritize what we want to get done this year. 

Here are my loves on Sunday morning. Sophie is so happy that Tim and I spent the entire weekend with her! She also got quite a bit of outdoor time too which she absolutely loved. 

I picked up a fiddle leaf fig plant which I absolutely love the look of! At the end of this post I'll show you where it ended up.

I also worked on raking some of the backyard and cleaning up the sticks that I found. We have a big backyard and are still figuring out exactly what we are going to do with it. The firepit is going to be disassembled and rebuilt on the side of the yard instead of the center. We also talked about where we would put a shed in the future. 

There is so much to do! Do the projects ever end??

We hooked Sophie up to the long leash so she could hang outside with us and we wouldn't have to worry about her.

We have forsythia bushes on the side of our yard and I can see the yellow flowers already! I can't wait till they fully come in.

Here is a glimpse of whats to come.

Another picture of the backyard after a bit of raking. 

These pictures are weird because of the way the sun was coming over the house, but the garden looked so good by the end of the day! Just raking everything out and getting all the dead stuff out made such a huge difference. Now I can see where things are growing and go buy some plants. 

Tim also started working on installing the lattice on the side of the deck. The whole deck will be stripped and restrained this spring.

The rest of the lattice needs to be cut in order to fit along the deck. Tim is going to get that done and then Sophie will no longer be able to get under the deck. Eventually we would love to put up a composite deck but right now since we aren't really ready to add onto the house, we are just making the deck we have look a little nicer. 

More pictures of the backyard.

Here are some of the plants I'm planning to plant. I think I'm going to put the hosta in around our mailbox.  I'm not sure where I'll be putting the sunflowers. I also picked up lupine because I thought it was pretty and I think I'll plant it in the front garden. 

I definitely have quite a bit more to buy though! I was looking for boxwoods but didn't find them yet and also definitely want some hydrangeas. 

Meanwhile, my fiddle leaf fig is hanging out in the corner of the living room and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays green! I really want to add more plants into our home, so any tips would be great!

I'm also watching Garden Answer on Youtube and after watching her garden tours I'm now obsessed with at least making my yard presentable!

Have a great day and stay healthy ya'll!

TipToe Through The Tulips

Last Thursday after work Tim and I headed up to Johnston, RI to visit a local tulip field called Wicked Tulips. Despite the rush hour traffic getting there it was a fairly quick trip and I finally was able to snap some pictures with my Canon Rebel! My mom had told me about this field last year so I had my heart set on going this year and Tim always aims to make me happy :)

One thing to know about Wicked Tulips is that they sell out VERY quickly! I signed up for their mailing list and received an email letting me know that tickets were on sale a day sooner then they were available to the public. Within that first day the entire first weekend was sold out and three of the four weekdays were sold out. They only open for a few weeks so if you are interested in going you better get your tickets online quickly!

I love the variety of flowers they have- there are so many different colors! They have two different sections of the tulip field. One is the show garden where you can see all the different types of tulips. They are marked with signs and it's a great place to take pictures! There are professional photographers who come here to take pictures too which would be a fantastic backdrop. 

Aren't these the most unique tulips?!

I personally love the pink tulips! I think they are gorgeous and photographer really nicely as well!

I was very excited to bring my Canon Rebel out for an adventure! This winter I didn't take my camera out very much so I'm ready to play with it a little more and learn how to shoot in manual. If anyone can give me any camera tips I would love to hear them!

Pretty Princess Tulips!

After taking pictures of tulips in the show garden we headed over to the next section where we were able to pick some to take home!

I decided to pick 10 to take home. Since they were $1 a stem that allowed me to have a nice bouquet but didn't involve me spending a fortune.

These tulips might be my absolute favorites from the entire field.

Since we went around 5:30 on a weeknight there were far less people then during the weekend. I would highly recommend going during the week if you can make it work with your schedule. We found there was plenty of room to take pictures and still plenty of flowers to choose from.

As I was setting up my camera to take self-timer picture a girl walking by offered to take a picture for us which was incredibly sweet. I love how this turned out with all the colorful tulips in the background! We returned the favor and took pictures of her and her family. 

Remember if you are in the area and interested in going to Wicked Tulips I would grab your tickets right away! You can check them out here. 

Have a great day everybody!