Saturday, August 10, 2013

Rhododendron for shade

Ever since my six holly bushes died in the drought, I have been trying to find something to take their place as a privacy hedge along the heavily shaded back fence. 

The plant manager at Lowes has solved my problem - shade tolerant, evergreen rhododendrom.  I had no idea that they were evergreen.

I like the Black Satin PJM and Catawbiense versions found here and here.

 

The house wanted pink

When we moved into our house, it looked like this:


It reminded me of a park - lush, green, and neat. 
And the art deco style house, frankly, reminded me a little bit of an apartment building - all vertical lines and geometric shapes.

So I was thinking of how to soften it up, and I started with flowers.  If we had a frame farmhouse, a sloping dutch colonial, or a Queen Anne style victorian I might have done wispy, wavey wildflowers in pastels - pale pinks, lavendars, and delicate white flowers to make it look wild and romantic. 

But our house was built very near to the 40's - tailored lines.  And the more I looked at it, the more I thought that it needed a touch of glamour - nothing wispy or shy, but something loud and confident, like the bright red lipstick of an old Hollywood starlet. 

This house needed pink.
 


A lot of pink!












And a little bit of white.  The six little vinca I planted went crazy at the bottom of the stairs. 
Shawn is so excited about our hot pink yard.  : )

Jess

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Progress and Blue Sky

Here is a a peek at the painfully slow progress I am making tearing up the carpeting in the last bedroom. 

 
 
And some random shots of the ride to and from my parent's house.  I have been thinking about the sky views out in the country, and how far you can see from horizon to horizon.  I think I need to become a farmer - I need more open space in my life!



And finally, a random shot of an earlier summer project - my stoop garden:



Jess

Monday, August 5, 2013

Just a little bit behind...

So I am a little behind on my projects...again.

I seem to have a continuing problem with starting projects and not finishing them. 

As a quick update, I have been busy for the past few weeks with lots of non-house and project related things - work, a vacation, and a cold.  And I have made some progress!  After pulling out of the drive each morning looking at the overgrown weeds in my ivy, I finally gave the entire area a much-needed haircut today.  It was only a fast chop - it really needs much more cutting and shaping - but at least it no longer looks like that part of the yard had been completely neglected this summer.  I also did some weeding in other places of the year. 

Last week I spent Sunday trimming the forsythia and the hostas away from the deck for the deck repair (at least mostly), and last Saturday I coerced Shawn into helping me move several boxes of junk out of the spare bedroom so we (I) could begin pulling up the carpet.  So there has been some progress, even if it has made the rest of the upstairs look like a refugee camp.

Jess