I have not cared about my yard or how it looks for about 3 years. This year we knew we were having guests from out of town for the wedding so we spend a month of weekends cleaning up all sides of the yard, re-mulching and planting new flowers.
In addition, we wanted to spiff up the back patio since that is where we do most of our entertaining. We have a had a metal gazebo for over 10 years now and that needed a new top, we went to Target and that had exactly 1 canvas top for a 10×10 gazebo. Then we noticed that the patio furniture looked pretty shabby so the entire set got a new coat of paint in a new color. The set belonged to my grandma who bought it in the 1940’s I feel lucky that I inherited it. It had always been green but this time for a change I chose to paint it a beautiful shade of periwinkle blue.
We also moved a wicker loveseat that we had in Sam’s room out there so now it’s like an outdoor living room and is quite relaxing and comfortable to spend time in. The peach tree overhangs the area on one side and is covered with tiny peaches already but only on 1 side of the tree, the far side is peachless and I think the squirrels got all of those.
On the other side is what I call my “zen” garden. The centerpiece of this garden is a beautiful camellia that blooms from Christmas to February with blush colored blossoms. There are 3 rose bushes, a pink tiny rose, a large red rose and a brand new this year blue rose, looking forward to seeing those blooms! I also have several hostas, ferns,a night blooming jasmine and a gardenia to round out the zen garden. I use shells from Edisto beach as mulch and If I find any other beach treasures, they go in there too. There is an angel statue keeping watch over the garden as well.
In front of the space I created a garden under the huge pine tree that provides a canopy of shade to our backyard space. I had to make this a raised bed because the tree roots were too entwined to dig into. Along the way an oak tree started to grow in front of the pine and I never pulled it out so now it’s about 15 feet tall. If I didn’t pull out all the baby trees that try to grow in my yard every year, our yard would turn into a dense forest within 10 years! This year in the under-tree garden, I planted purple phlox which smell like perfume, pink impatiens, red salvia and it already had a purple hydrangea, orange lantana and assorted hybrid daylilies in residence.
Overall, I am very pleased with how it came out. All the delayed maintenance caused us to have to haul away 4 12ft trailer loads of yard debris as well as burning quite a bit of it in the fire pit plus all the hours on those weekend sweating and working. I am out there every day when I get home from work and lots of time on the weekends. The end result was well worth all the work! This is what I see when I am out there chillin’
Syrinx Asylum 