i love this

i found this here, via pinterest. i've been eyeing antler walls for awhile. this merges that idea with ferns... another love of mine. two for the price of one.

from the floragrubb site...."Gosh we love Platycerium bifurcatum, the staghorn fern! Flora Grubb Gardens staff garden designer Daniel Nolan created this simple, beautiful, low-maintenance vertical garden at his own home in San Francisco."

of course this would have been perfect when we lived in seattle. not sure how wells ferns will do in texas.

don't forget to spring forward this weekend! ah, losing an hour... it'll throw me off schedule for a week. what are your plans for the weekend? it's going to be cold and rainy here in texas. and i'm ok with that. i think i'm going to watch this. i need to see what all the hoopla is about.

where's pixel

scroll to the bottom to play 'where's pixel'. but first you might as well look at some pretty flowers.

this is our backyard yesterday evening. (click on these to enlarge them and get the full effect. things are looking lush. as they usually do in the pacific northwest.
lavender background and some purpley feather-like flowers. steve knows. i forget. honey? honey? name this plant please. i know it start with an "l".
the tall red flowers are crocosmia. and boy do their bright tubular flowers attract the hummingbirds. they're here every evening. lavender in the foreground.
the tall stalk like plant on the right is a stargazer lily. they're just about ready to bloom.
peach astilbe.
agapanthus! he gets an exclamation point because he made me wait 3 years for his appearance.
crocosmia.
pretty, pretty pretty lavenders.
hydrangea.
cutest puppy in the world. aka pixel.and speaking of pixel. she's in the doghouse right now for causing me some panic this morning. i don't let her out in the backyard unsupervised. i'm either back there with her or at a nearby window. she can't escape from the backyard if she tried. totally fenced in. no holes. but i'm a worrier. so i always panic if i look back and see she's not around. which happened this morning. i gave one sweeping glance and didn't see her immediately. i panicked. i walked right into the adirondack chair, stubbed my toe and hit my ribs on the tall back. cursing ensued. here was my view. do you see her? (click to enlarge)




yep, there she is.
sneaky little sh*t. hiding behind a lavender. she knows she's not even supposed to be in that flower bed. wait til i tell her daddy.

the backyard

it's the first day of summer and for once seattle weather does not disappoint! after a drizzly, cold weekend, we finally have bright blue skies, lots of sunshine and a gentle breeze. i stepped out back with my trusty sidekick a little while ago to share it all with you.

let's start inside. the dining room. with a view of the beautiful french doors that steve put in last year. there was a window there first. (click on photos to enlarge.)
steve built this patio roof. post and beam style. i love it and will hate, hate, hate to leave it when we move.
one back corner of the yard.
lion's head maple.
the other back corner.
wildflowers at the tippy top.
and then there's this thing. you can't step out back without her and her obsessing over her tennis ball. that look says "i'm gonna stare at this thing until you put down that camera and toss it for me."
"see. i'm still staring."
"and still."
"thank you. now i'll rest over here in the shade with it for just a little while. but get yourself prepared to throw it again, cause i'll be back at your feet in a minute."
peonies! just about to bloom. i've waited 3 years for these to bloom. this year's the year.
honeysuckle.
"i'm getting ready to head your way."
succulents.
i love this pillow from pottery barn.
those french doors.
"thank you."

around the yard

the echinacea in the front bed is blooming. when i bought it 3 years ago, it had one bloom. this year there will be about a dozen blooms. (please pretend i had the camera set to the proper exposure value. this way i don't have to walk downstairs and take another photo. thanks.)
crocosmia in the back. i wasn't a fan of this last year, but it's become one of my favorites. and i love its color against the rocks. this bed extends about 30 feet. i think a row of these against the rock would look spectacular.
i planted this sun bed (click on it to enlarge) on saturday. the cedar tree was already there. and the bush with yellow blooms (sweet broom, i think). i filled in around the two, with ninebark, spearmint, barberry, fountain grass, rockrose and guara. and now i'm sore from all the stooping, bending, digging, and heaving of bags of compost.
this is one of my new favorites. never really noticed it before this year, now i'm seeing them everywhere. variegated rose barberry. it's a b*tch to plant. thorny. thorns hurt. especially in the face when you're stooped down patting him into place.
and, on a side note, how did this happen?? it's august.
i had hoped by this point that steve and i would be spending our weekends leisurely sitting on the new patio, reading, staring at our flowers, and petting pixel. nope. still finishing up details on all the house projects. hopefully we'll be done soon. very soon, cause i'm tired.

buzzzzz

our lavenders went crazy this year! even the bees loved them.

weekly recap

yes, i watched parts 2 and 3 of the real housewives of new york reunion. i'm on team left couch. (i can't take credit for coming up with 'team left couch'. i read it over here.) best line of the night... bethenny saying that talking to kelly was like talking to humpty dumpty. i agree. actually, i think she was being generous by calling her humpty dumpty.
our new backyard patio was poured. pixel left her monogram. isn't her penmanship good?
things are blooming in the garden. hostas and masterwort.
hydrangea. always a fave.
but my poor little strawberries are struggling to survive. first there was constant rain, then there was a critter that ate them. grow, little strawberries, grow.
and finally, new shop products! i'm jumping on the ikat bandwagon. here's a sneak peek at some things to be loaded soon. lots more to make.
enjoy your weekend!

my veggie garden

i planted my vegetable garden this past sunday. try not to concentrate on my plant markers. i'm sure martha would have a cow. they're sooo not crafty and so not creative.

there's romaine and spinach. zucchini and yellow squash. red onions.lots of cherry tomatoes.
rhubarb and strawberries. can not wait for the strawberries. they're my fave, fresh of the vine.