Trees, Trees, and More Trees, OH MY!!!!

So this is where we live.

In a very wooded area, just outside of Washington D.C., believe it or not.

This County we live in do not believe in cutting down trees unless you have a very good reason for doing so.

And in this community, not sure if it's a County Law, but in this community we live in, you cut a tree down on your property you have to replace it with another.

Because as you can see we're lacking in trees.

Now don't get me wrong, I love trees, I love how it keeps us cooler in the summer here.

We have lovely views from our deck and windows

 

Trees:

 

Trees:

 

And more trees:

 

And it's beautiful.

But when a storm comes through, and not just rain, a severe storm it scares me half to death because a lot of these trees are very tall and old.

They built this community in the middle of the woods here.

So when it storms and you see these large trees swaying side to side it makes you sick because you're just waiting to hear or see a tree going down.

And it has happened. We've been here two years and so far we've been OK

BUT NOT LAST NIGHT!!!

Storm suddenly came, winds picked up, rain coming down so hard you could hardly see out, the trees were bending way too much for me not to be frightened, then the lights went out!

Suddenly I see this black shadow go past our living room windows and I just braced myself to see what that was and where was it going

Then a loud crashing sound and this is what we saw

 

 

Believe it or not, it's not a tree, it's a tree limb, that's how large these trees are.

It shattered our table, crushed a chair and broke another chair.

Split our pine tree and it's hanging over the fence.

The fence seems to be OK.

Hmmm, will the Insurance cover a new table and chairs?

We'll see.

But all is OK, we're fine, the house is fine, it could of been a lot worse.

UGH, these storms are getting really scary and violent.

 

 

 

 



Spring Gardening

I drive past this garden center for work once a week and I've had to control myself from stopping in because the weather was still chilly, nights were still in the low 30's

BUT finally weather has been steady low 60's nights are in the upper 30's to low 40's and I could plant Spring flowers.

I LOVE LOVE Ranunculus flowers, they look like roses and the colors they come in are amazing.

They just put them out and I had to control how many to buy.

I have two wall hanging planters so I bought the same flowers for both but in different colors.

Here's the Pink planter:

A Ranunculus in the center, Prim Roses on either side

and Pansies front and center.

This one is at the side of our home, at the side deck.

 

Here's the Orange planter:

Same flowers in this planter, this one is at the front of our home.

 

And a box of pansies as well on our deck:

 

We have issues with lots and lots of squirrels here and they love to deconstruct my flower pots, last summer they dug them up and I'd find them on the ground,

needless to say I started to hate squirrels.

So this year I'm trying  this

I added shards of broken ceramic planter, so far it's worked, it sounds cruel though, hubby says to me "I can't believe you'd do that to those poor little furry cute animals what if it slices itself and gets hurt"

I said "well he shouldn't be in there digging in the first place"

So far it's worked, we'll see for how long though.

I've also planted some perennials we'll see how they do. Still have a lot of work to do and more space for more plants.

But it was nice to finally get out after a long, snowy winter and dig into the soil and do some yard clean up.

Thinking of Gardening

I am really irritated with how Blogger has changed things. I want to revert back to the Classic Templates and when I do they do not allow you to make changes, or add anything to the site. Either I'm doing something wrong or

they're being irritating. I really don't like how my blog looks and I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong

and I don't have time to sit here for a few hours trying to figure it out. UGH!!!

Anyway

So we did a lot of backyard clean up, removing English ivy that was taking over,

pulled up dead bushes

power washed the decks

and raked lots and lots of leaves and there are still lots more to rake up.

We have this old shed that came with the property

It has mold on the outside so it needs to be scrubbed down.

Some trim has become rotten so they need to be replaced,

the windows are in good shape, not broken.

The door needs to be fixed as well.

Because the property sits on a slope, when it rains it just runs down and so the soil gets caught in front of the shed so we have to do something to keep that from happening.

I want to paint the shed,

trying to figure out what colors, I found some inspiration online through Google

OK this is adorable!!!! I love the colors. Our little gingerbread shed is the exact style as this one, but certainly needs a lot of work to look this way, but isn't it the sweetest thing you've seen?

I even love the chimney, I'm sure it's just decorative but what a nice idea.

This ones a bit more rustic but cute.

So many ideas on the Internet.

But we first have to deal with the water run off before we do anything to our shed, otherwise it'll just continue to rot with the water going into it.

So I'll have the winter to come up with paint colors, landscaping and what shrubs and flowers I want to plant.
That's where Pinterest comes in for all kinds of fun ideas.

 



Herbs de Provence

I've been playing with paints and stamps and it was so much fun!

I got this idea from www.goodideasforyou.com saw it on Pinterest and loved the idea.

I've seen painted Terra cotta pots but I liked how hers turned out.

Now I didn't have the transfer image papers on hand so I thought I'd use stamps, which I have plenty of.

It wasn't easy to stamp them, so it's not perfect, plus perfect wouldn't be real right?

So I started with plain pots

And I had some sample paints that I purchased for our bedroom, although I won't be using those colors for the room, I thought they'd look nice on these pots

I painted the first coat in green, which I watered down a little

Then put one coat on, not too heavy since I like the Terra cotta color as well and wanted it to show through a little

Let them dry then added the cream color on top of that, I watered that paint down a bit more than the green and used a sponge brush then used a paper towel and rubbed off any excess

Loved how it turned out, then had to let that dry before stamping

Not perfect but that's OK with me.

But I learned a critical thing, the stamp ink takes quite awhile to dry and I thought they were dry enough and started to rub a brown paint that I watered down a bit, over the stamped areas and it smudged some of the ink after that was done, I then waited till they were completely dry to them spray seal them

It was so much fun that I think I'm addicted now.

I planted English Thyme and Rosemary and hope I can grow them indoors with no problem.

OK, so my window is pretty full I know, but I love it!

If you'd like the paint color's just post your message and I'll let you know, I forgot to look and it's downstairs and I don't feel like going back down there AGAIN....

 

 



Landscaping Before & After's

I thought when I put this blog together I'd be posting quite regularly but no, that hasn't happened since we put our last home on the market.

Life has become insane since all that happened.

Projects are never ending, you finish one and there is another waiting for you.

Plus, work & a life take over as well.

But I am now finally posting our Landscaping project.

When we bought this place it certainly wasn't for it's curb appeal

or

how beautiful it looked on the inside,

no way!

It was price, location and the possibilities.

Our front yard was awful,

whoever lived here look like they tried to do something

but because it being an end unit and on a slope

the yard was washing away.

You couldn't plant anything.

They had holly bushes in front but the roots were exposed since the soil was going down the hill,

So it required building a retaining wall and adding soil.

After the OK from the HOA committee,

the project began and Hubby was the one doing all the work since it would of cost us about $4,000 when it was said and done.

Yeah, sure we'll pull out $4,000 from........

 

Building the wall was stressing him out especially since he NEVER built a retaining wall before.

The internet is a great source of information!!!

After building this we didn't need to buy soil, thank goodness, we had enough after the wall went up and walkway went in, so $$$ saved here.

(Below- before adding mulch)

 

 

After:

We weeded and added mulch and planted a spreading plant, ordered it and came in a root bound ball so still waiting to see if it'll do anything, and we planted impatients as well.

So after moving the soil around, replanting the holly bushes which was a bit stressful because the rules on replanting those were specific and if you did one thing wrong they'd die. Happy to say they are healthy and happy.

Here he's now putting in a walkway to the gate. 

He even added steps, again the internet was a great help, this was a bit of a tough one but he figured it out and it turned out great. 

Here is the after, below, after putting in pea gravel

 

 

 

 

(before adding mulch) 

 

(after adding mulch) 

 

(Holly Bushes doing well)

 

This part is always been hard for me, PATIENCE, waiting on the plants to fill in, controlling myself by not buying so many plants since it does get expensive, but I do go to the nurseries and watch out for sales on perennials.

 

 

We were having issues with some neighbors walking through our front yard to cut across to the main entrance, after putting in the wall and landscaping it finally stopped, even after we landscaped one neighbor insisted on still walking through but I haven't seen him do it, maybe because heard me scolding a young boy who thought he was superman and tried to jump from our wall over our flowers and instead he landed on my flowers as he was running down the slope, I must of looked like a crazy person running out my front door, I'm sure others heard me but I didn't care.

Well, the boy never did that again, in fact I haven't seen him and his friend playing out there since then.

Oh well, we're happy with the results and can't wait to see the flowers fill in and can't wait to add more.

That Time of Year...

So

it's that time again,

that time to wish Spring were here.
Flipping through gardening books or magazines.
Looking at websites that sell seeds or plants.
Going to the nurseries that are starting to open to the public
and stroll around for ideas.
Anxious.

To want to dig in the dirt.

To enjoy being outside in the warm sun.

To watch those Spring Flowers push through.

Sadly, this will be my first Spring when I will not be

able to see my hard work pay off.

Will not see my Spring flowers push through the ground.

Someone else will be enjoying that, well, I hope they will.

(this is my favorite Spring flower that bloomed at our home, we have the seeds packed away for my next garden)

So,

we plan on buying another home,

in fact, we have one in mind, but are waiting, waiting,

waiting, and waiting to hear back.

In the meantime,

this house is a blank slate.

The last owners didn't bother to garden.

It will allow me to dream up some plans, to learn

from my mistakes.

I have all kinds of ideas, of course, assuming we may get this house.

(one of several rose bushes we had)

I was checking out some different Cottage Gardens online for inspiration and found some beautiful ones out there.

(Google search)

I'd like to make an entry to the garden like this, an arch with

Wisteria growing over it,

and when you enter, I'd like to have cutting flowers, a vegetable garden and some roses.

Lots of work, fertilizing, tilling, and planting to do, but I enjoy that.

So more Google searching I will be doing, and saving

pictures for inspiration.

Spring is around the corner, if we get this house, I won't get to do any of this until next year, but that's OK, I can be ready

when that time comes.

Herb Bouquet

We're having gorgeous

weather today!

I wish summer could be

in the low 70's

all summer long.

It seems for the first time in

YEARS

I am minding the heat.

I NEVER thought

I'd say that.

Well this morning I picked

herbs.

Greek Oregano and English Thyme.

Oh they smell so good.

I decided to hang them

from my light

fixture above my sink

so I can smell them as they dry.

I planted French Thyme, Rosemary

and Basil.

This season I didn't plant as much

as I would of liked.

With the house for sale I didn't want

to invest too much into

my garden.

So we planted two types of tomatoes

and a zucchini plant.

A few flowers and all my containers.

So I'm still enjoying some

gardening,

I've just done it simply this time.

I never thought how

time consuming

it is to have the house

for sale.

Hello my Darling!

Here she is!

She made her first debut yesterday!

Hello my darling rose,

welcome.

In her lovelines,

gorgeous pale pink color

and sweet smelling

way,

she has opened up.

But she's a little shy,

she was tucked

in between the leaves

and buds

who are still hiding.

I've waited for you all

winter long.

The meter reader person may

not like having to

move my rose bush in order

to read,

oh well, he just better

not hurt her!

Spring Brings a Smile

April was such a cold and rainy

month,

bone chilling some days with a

couple of

80 degree days.

But May has turned out to be a

GORGEOUS

month so far and everything is

either in bloom

or ready to explode

bleeding heart almost done

but so beautiful!

columbine in bloom now, love the colors

clematis in full bloom

you see my rose bush?

It's massive and loaded,

can't wait until they open

and smell the air

I can't believe how quicly this rose

bush has grown, it has

pale pink small roses,

it too is loaded with buds!

Tulips are just about done, but

right now I have tulips that are

about 3 feet tall and pink

in bloom,

they're from Holland,

my one brother-in-law

brought those back for me

they are my pride and joy!

I'll need to post those next time!

I take a walk almost

everyday around my yard

looking at the progress of

my flowers!

Love this time of year!

Hope you are too!

(although right now I'm dealing with

horrible allergies, the worst ever

and evidently I'm not the only one,

I guess you have to suffer to enjoy the

beauty that surrounds you)