Front Garden Update

On Saturday my mom and I had a garden center day! We spent the morning visiting a few local garden centers and then had a lovely lunch. We had such a great time and both of us kept commenting on how nice it was. I love spending time with my mom and now that I have gardens of my own I actually enjoy going to garden centers, something that has long been one of her favorite activities. She managed to do a good job at passing down her love of gardening to both my brother and I because we both love to buy plants and see nice looking gardens!

I picked up five new plants on Saturday and a little garden friend! Since our front garden is in the sun 90% of the day I always try to pick plants that do well in full sun. The plants I picked up were; Russian sage, Iberis in pink ice, a pink azalea, a dwarf butterfly bush in pink micro chip, and a dwarf Alberta spruce. Tim and I had a gift card from his parents for a local nursery Clark Farms so I was able to pick up the azalea and butterfly bush there. I actually picked up the other three at the Walmart garden center and they were all on clearance! I have no problem buying clearance plants and trying to make them work in my garden.

Now for a quick look at the garden...

This was on Saturday evening and you can see the Russian sage and iberis on this side of the garden. I needed to fill that middle area and am hoping that since they are perennials they will come back each year and fill this area nicely. I can foresee adding other plants in here in the future because a garden is never full, but for now I am really loving have a couple of plants to fill the void.

On the left side of the garden you can see the dwarf alberta, the butterfly bush and the azalea lined up nicely here. My mom has the same spruce in her garden and it doesn't get very big at all but adds a bit of green in the wintertime which is exactly what I'm looking for. I love the colors of the butterfly bush and the azalea and know they will get larger in time and I am looking forward to seeing them take up more room in the garden. Also, you can see my little hedgehog friend who I picked up from HomeGoods for only $17! I was looking for a little garden friend and was thrilled when I found him because everything else was too large or too strange looking for me. 

Some closer looks at the new plants. That azalea has the most stunning pink color!

I also checked on our little garden near the road and am happy to report that everything I planted last year came back and the evergreens are still in good condition. I think we might need to limb up the tree though so it looks less like a bush. I am hesitant to do it though because it's been so healthy and I really don't know much about taking care of trees!

Yesterday Tim helped me bring the bird bath around the front and it's now living next to the spruce. It looks a little tall for the area currently, but once the spruce grows a bit and we fill in more areas I think it will look so nice out there.

Next weekend we plan to mulch (it got up in the 90s this weekend and we just couldn't bear to be outside long enough to get it done) and then hopefully the front gardens will be complete for the season. 

As for the backyard? Well, that's a work in process which we hopefully will complete soon too!

Have a great day everybody!

 

Garden Updates- 1st Round

 Hey everyone, happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend and took the time to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. It was a rainy weekend here in RI, but I still managed to get some things done around here. 

I wanted to share some garden updates I made back in April since I am planning on doing some more gardening next weekend and can then share the completed look with you guys soon! Tim and I bought some mulch and are hoping that we can get everything planted and the mulch down maybe next weekend? Pregnancy has made my ambition to do project go wayyyy down but I really want our outdoor areas to look complete this summer.

So, anyways! Back in April Tim and I headed to Home Depot and picked up some plants.

I picked up some annuals and a few perennials. I wanted mostly perennials because that makes it so easy year after year keep the garden looking nice. I do love the color of annuals however and was happy to grab a few that could withstand the direct sun they would receive in our front garden. The previous owners of our house cut down every last tree so we have a very open front yard. Whatever we plant out there needs to be resilient!

I planted the salvia in the center of the garden, hoping it will bring a beautiful purple and also grow pretty big as the years go on.  I then grouped three of the annuals together in the front of the garden to add some immediate color. I plan to get some more annuals to fill this in. 

The salvia closer up! I'm hoping this does well because I just love how pretty it is!

On the left side of the garden I put sedge because I think having some ornamental grass will be nice on the side of the garden.  I also love that it is basically impossible to kill and super low maintenance. I also put the same few annuals grouped together in the back to tie in with the ones I planted in the front. This will also add some color. 

I also wanted to share the free tree I got this spring. The RI DEM was giving away free trees and I selected  a London Planetree. We placed it in our front yard to add a little coverage. I love that this tree is expected to grow fairly quickly and even looking outside now it has added so many leaves since this picture. I can't wait to watch it grow and add some coverage in our front yard. 

We have a garden up by the very front of our yard and in the fall I planted a bunch of tulip bulbs. I was shocked that every last one of them came up this year! I will be adding more bulbs this fall so we can really fill this garden in. The tulips are all dead now and I really need to get out there and clip them down. It was so nice to have that pop of color when spring had just begun and we needed to see some signs of life. I also am loving that we had some evergreens in this garden which stayed nice year round and the other perennials we planted last year came back this spring. 

Here's another view and you can see how this garden relates to the front garden.  I am thinking about adding some pink annuals in the very front of the garden now that the tulips have gone by. We have a drive by baby shower planned for July and I would love to have something pink up here but I also am worried about having to lug a watering can out there every day in the summer...pregnancy problems :)

I have been busy sketching out my gardens and what our plan is going to be for the new gardens we are making in the backyard. I need to replace one boxwood that isn't doing really great and I would like to add evergreens to the left side of the garden. I also am planning on moving my bird bath from the backyard to the front garden if I can make it look nice with evergreens around it. I also would like to get a few small items to add into the garden. Little animals or something like that? I plan on purchasing a bunch of plants for the back yard and a few more for the front. Our side garden is where I planted the hostas but I will share that when that garden is extended along the fence because right now it's just three hostas along the side of the house. 

I know that my gardens are super young and need time to develop but I have a hard time not filling everything in immediately. I don't want it to look like it's overflowing but I do want it to look more full than it does now. 

As I said, my plan is to head out to buy plants this week at some point and then get everything mulched over the weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to share a garden update with you next week, but if we don't get everything done, don't be too shocked- I am pregnant after all! :)

Have a great day everyone!

Garden Inspiration!

Last week I shared all the areas I can't wait to create gardens in next year and I promised a post full of inspiration. So, I'm here today with some pictures that I found through Pinterest (sources included) to get an idea of what I want the gardens to look like along the fence and along the side of our house. Let me know your thoughts, I love hearing gardening tips because I am very new at this!

First up, here's an idea of greenery along a white vinyl fence. I really like the way the green pops along the white fence. I definitely want to incorporate a lot of green, leafy plants in our landscaping.

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I definitely want to incorporate evergreens like this because they will stay green year round. Even if the garden looks fairly bare in the winter, I need to make sure there are elements that stay year round so it doesn't look completely empty. 

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I know this doesn't show a fence, but I do love the idea of having thriving hydrangeas along the fence. The only problem with hydrangeas is that you have only a few weeks a year where they look incredible. The rest of the year they don't look as beautiful so I definitely don't want to fill the garden with them. 

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I absolutely love hostas and think I want to plant something similar to this along the side of the house. I like the way the garden looks full and lush. I think this could look amazing near our Siberian elm tree.

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How gorgeous is this? Definitely too much to start off with, but this is definitely something to aspire to have one day!

Oh, I can't wait for spring!

Privacy Fence is Up and Future Garden Ideas!

Friends, the privacy fence is fully installed! No thanks to me, but lots of thanks to my wonderful hubby! Now we just need to figure out how to continue the fence around the backyard with the wire fencing we purchased. Hopefully it's fairly easy and the rest of the process can be completed pretty quickly (fingers crossed).

On Saturday Tim got to work finishing the final two panels for our privacy fence.

Sophie and I watched. We are the best helpers around! 

Sophie has no clue that her freedom is slowly being stripped away from her. She continues to run around the fence and thinks it's a fun game to disappear behind it. Soon she will be trapped in the backyard....poor Sophie! 

Now, you might be looking at this picture thinking the fence looks slanted. Well, it is.

Our lot is sloped on both sides. There is a hill on the side of our house that isn't technically our property and belongs to the people who live behind us (the former owners of this home too) and while that piece of property used to belong to our house, before they sold it to us they split the property in order to allow for a driveway to be put in there someday. It's only 50 feet, which isn't much and they say they have no "master plan" which we are choosing to believe but that explains the slope that we can't really do much about. 

Also, while we are on the subject I am cautiously planning out what we will do if we ever hear that they want to put in a driveway...or if/when we go to sell the house. I am thinking of planting trees/shrubs along our property line to make sure we would still have privacy if they did decide to clear the wooded area.

Nevertheless. I love our new privacy fence. I am so happy we went with the final fencing and love that we now have some privacy in our backyard. It makes it much nicer when I head out there in my pajamas with Sophie in the morning!

Now, let's talk about gardening...because that has been the topic on mind recently!

I picked up these tulip bulbs from the Christmas Tree Shop and decided to plant them in our front garden by the street.

You can see the disturbed mulch area where I've planted them and I hope that it will be a nice beginning to spring. Keep your fingers crossed for me that they take and we see them in March! You can see my tree that the previous owners planted is changing colors, and the evergreens I planted are still doing well. The lavender I planted has gone past, and the annuals are long gone. I'm anxious to see how all of this will do through the winter and am keeping my fingers crossed that the evergreens make it through!

Other than the tulips I don't have any plans for this small garden. I may purchase annuals again next Spring or maybe some new perennials, but I haven't decided yet!

Now, by having the new fence it means I am given the opportunity for new gardens! I am thinking of getting evergreens for this area so there is always something colorful in front of the fence. I might do an arborvitae on the corner where the vinyl fence meets the wire fencing, but I don't want to completely cover the rest of the fence by planting tall evergreens along it. 

I am thinking about mixing some conifers with possibly rose bushes. I can't wait to play around with this area. It is tucked behind a Siberian elm tree the old owners planted so it's a little secret garden area. We aren't having a gate or anything over here so I could really bring the garden out as far as I want it which is dangerous. I need to not go crazy or I will spend all my money on plants.

The picture I just showed you meets up with this one. Along the side of our house in front of fence is a skinny area we dug out and mulched in the summer. I planned originally to just fill this with hostas but Now I'm not sure, I definitely want to include hostas since they do well in our area but I am thinking I might bring in some other plants to enjoy. 

Also, don't judge us for still having our AC in....my husband runs it almost every night and it will certainly be in until November... I just pile on the blankets over here!

Now on the other side of our house we have the vinyl fence with our gate. There is only a tiny sliver of area between the driveway and the fence so I'm not quite sure what we will do here.

It definitely needs something, but it will have to be something that doesn't need a lot of space to spread out. 

However on the back side of the fence I have lots of room to play! You can see my bird bath here as well and my plan is to fill this area with a mix of evergreens and perennials to keep it looking amazing and colorful in the spring and summer but still have enough winter interest in the fall and winter. I also would love to add a bird feeder here and want to add bird feeders and house around the yard. I might be turning into my mom....

On the back side of this fence I am thinking along the same lines as the other side. Evergreens and perennials, maybe some grasses? I need to figure out how to get all these areas filled without spending a million dollars...

I'm not even going to show you the back of the house because although eventually I would also like that to be a garden, right now it's storing extra bricks, fencing, etc... and is a disaster. I couldn't resist sharing this little face though! She was watching me out the window and just looked so sweet!

Any ideas for my new gardens? I might do a post with some inspiration pictures I've found on pinterest...so keep an eye out for that!

 Also, can you believe that two years ago tomorrow was our wedding day?! It's flown by and I am still so in love with my sweet husband! Although two years ago I never imagined being in a global pandemic on our second wedding anniversary, I am happy that through it all I have someone reliable, kind, and amazing to wake up next to every morning! Happy anniversary Tim, I love you!!!

Birthday Weekend 2020

Well, it's happened. I am officially 32.  

Despite 2020 (and my age) I managed to have a great birthday weekend! We started off on Friday night with a birthday dinner at my parents house. My mom, dad, my brother, my brothers girlfriend, Tim, Sophie and I celebrated with takeout from one of my favorite restaurants, Pasquales. It was delicious, I absolutely love their penne alla vodka! 

I didn't take any pictures at dinner but I took this picture of my birthday gift from my parents.

My mom and papa both have similar birdbaths and I wanted one so much. I found this one at Walmart and requested it for my birthday. My sweet mom ordered it and my sweet husband lugged it into the car for me to take home. I have it set up on the side of our deck in the corner where it meets our new fence (post on that coming as soon as it's completed) and I plan to plant a ton of things in this area next spring! I want this to be a little secret garden area. 

I also got a special birthday package from Rachel with this cute t-shirt inside! I panicked when I saw the mailman coming with an Amazon package because I couldn't remember what I ordered and I have been known to order so much stuff that I can't remember what is coming!

Sophie was feeling awful sleepy on my birthday Saturday! She slept almost the whole day while I puttered around, cleaning the house and getting ready because we had some visitors coming over.

Brittni came over with her family! Sophie can't contain herself around these girls, she is a nut! It was so nice to have them over for a pizza party and just hang out together. They brought me some beautiful flowers, KitKats and paintings they had done. You can see on the tv what our entertainment was- the girls love Hamilton!

My awesome husband also made me feel so special with a sweet sappy card and some KitKats (can you tell they are my favorite??). We decided to not do big gifts for each other this year since we generally just buy ourselves whatever we want anyways. We also would like to work towards our savings goals AND I just bought a new car so I don't really need anything gift wise ;)

I'm writing this on Sunday and this sums up our plans for the day...

Lots of hanging out on the couch! 

I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to take on this new week!!

 

One Year

Guys. It's been ONE year that we've been in our house!!! Can you believe it?! 

One year ago yesterday we started moving in but we actually reached the one year mark of owning our home on September 12th. Let's recap some of the changes that have happened in the last year of home ownership, shall we?

I shared the news that we had officially bought our house and I shared when we moved. 

Our first project (before even moving in) was painting all of the kitchen cabinets.

We brought Sophie home.

We went to Ikea and did a few small projects with Ikea organizers. and purchased some Ikea furniture. We bought some new kitchen appliances from Home Depot.

We decorated for Christmas, bought some new decor, and figured out how to deal with having no pantry.

I made extensive to-do lists for our house interior and the exterior.

I straightened up our office.

We updated our wall decor and bought some cool wall art for our kitchen. 

We installed new blinds- finally some privacy!

I organized some kitchen drawers (check back on Wednesday to see inside all our kitchen drawers and cupboards!)

Some small house updates were made, did some yard work, learned all about gardening, and Tim built a walkway all by himself!

Once that was completed I created some new front gardens. I managed to keep everything alive that I planted! I have been loving having gardens this summer and can't wait to add on next year!

Can you believe we completed all that stuff in our first year here? Tim is currently working on a project right now and I will drop a little teaser picture right here....

Any guesses what we are up to?

Cheers to another year of projects in our first home!

New Solar Lights

 You guys, I finally ordered some solar lights to light up our front walkway! OneFrugalChick on Instagram posted a deal for Amazon for these solar lights and I was able to snag them for only $13 a 6-pack! I ended up needing 18 lights total so buying three packs worked out perfectly. Although I wish they were more of a white light instead of yellow I am thrilled with how they look for such a cheap price! I had been previously looking at Walmart for clearances out lights but they still weren't getting clearanced out. I was so happy to find these because I knew I wanted to get some in the garden before summer ends. 

The other night I noticed that the lights were starting to turn on one by one at twilight (ayo Twilight fans) so I headed outside to snap some pictures. You can see that some of the lights haven't turned on yet but I love the gentle glow they give off!

Also, the walkway is looking great! A round of applause for Tim on that one!

I think at this point I was just waiting for two or three lights to turn on. They are just enough to give off light if you are coming up our walkway. I'm picturing pumpkins lining the walkway this fall, leading kids up to the door for Halloween. If there is Halloween this year, who knows at this point!

One more light to go! If you head to my instagram (balancingonmytoes) in my home story I have a little video of walking down the walkway towards the house. You can hear the nighttime sounds that we get here in Rhode Island. I love the sound of summer nights here, it's so peaceful with all the wildlife sounds. I love where I live!

When all the lights were finally on I was so happy! It just looks so nice!

These lights are plastic, not glass. I know that may make them "cheaper" but I personally like that they can get bumped around and knocked over and aren't going to shatter. Mostly I prefer things that aren't too precious.  I worry less about Sophie running around like a bull in a china shop when things aren't breakable.

Look at that precious little face in the window! Also, this just reminds me of how far we've come. There were very few gardens, no walkway, no evergreens. We've come so far in such a short time!

Just ignore my heart eyes over here. I'm a little obsessed.

The design on these lights is so pretty too. Look at the glow it sends across the walkway. 

Okay, that's all for my new solar lights! What sort of outdoor lighting do you have at your house? I would love to add some solar lights in the backyard too, but we are still working on our plans for the backyard so we will see what we end up with back there. Tim recently finished part of a project he's been working on and it looks so good, I cannot wait to share it with you all.

Also, I am going to work on my plans for this front garden for next year....and what other plants and plans I have for the yard next spring. Oh, the projects just keep on coming to me!