Great Flower Choice

In planning the backyard, a great flower choice for a Perennial is the Evening Pink Primrose, genus name is Oenothera and some time referred to as "Twlight".  I believe at the time when my friend and I were shopping for her flower garden, we grabbed this flower because it was named TWLIGHT.  Of course all you Stephanie Meyer fans know why.  This flower looks stunning in a flower garden.  It comes back every year.  If your in the middle of planting flowers for your house then go out to your local Nursery or home improvement store and find this!

Backyard Renovoation has begun

The backyard renovation has begun. The hubby is super busy building the retaining wall, landing/stairs, etc. We are hoping to have the wall and everything built by the Summer. We are trying to beat the NC heat! Here are few inspirations pictures of what is expected. I will take actual photos of our project soon.   These were photos I snagged from digging around online.  He has done a great job building the landings that are tiered into the side of the hill.  This allows us to walk around our deck.  Before you had to literally hold onto the rails of the deck to keep from sliding down the hill of our backyard!

Any one else ready for Spring?

Spring seems so far away. I was looking back through some photos and thought I would share some "soon to be Spring is in the air". This was the first place my husband and I ever owned. It was a townhouse we built and lived in for two years prior to moving just shy of 10 minutes further down the road into our house that we live in now. Talk about an annoying move. The fact we had to pack everything up and barely go a few miles.

I am convinced it was the little touches we did outside and inside that made our townhouse sale. Can you believe there are still ones on the market in the same townhouse division that were for sale when we had ours for sale!? We added a silver kick plate to our door. We landscaped what little bit of front yard we had by edging out an L Shape design that hugged the sidewalk leading up to our door. We added some perennial purple flowers to the front, 2 different types of variegated bushes (which keep their color year around), threw in a few flowers, mulch, and landscape rocks here and there. On the other side of the garage we had a Hydrangea bush, however you cannot see it in this picture.

We worked with what little space we had (as you can see our neighbors driveway was right next door! Bit more curb appeal did the trick. I loved my little flower garden.

This was our back deck. We took two Shepherd hooks and buzzed them shorter and screwed them into each side of the deck. We hung grapevine flower baskets off the hooks. Purple petunias are excellent to plant in the hot South. We also took two deck baskets and hung those lower over the inside part of the deck with the same flower. We have planned well that both of our homes we have owned back up to deep woods. I love being able to look out and see tons of trees out of our windows.

Back Yard Planning Part 3

Loving this fire pit as part of the landscape plan we are going to begin in the Spring. This fire pit is under $200 and you can find it at Sam's Club. I love the Copper accents. We have a few Copper Accents already such as Bird Feeders and Hummingbird feeders. This will add to the theme.

Backyard Planning

We have a big job ahead of us in 2010. Our backyard. As mentioned before, last Spring we decided to build a screen porch as seen here. However, now we must tackle building up our backyard due to the extreme slope. We've been throwing around the idea of a retaining wall. It is quite a wide span of space around the back of the house which raises the red flag of $$$. Although we have a few ideas up our sleeve on possibly cutting the price tag in two. Here are some thought inspiring photos I have in mind for plants and flowers. Here is the line up of plants/bushes that will for sure be taking a place in the back. Gorgeous, I can see these in vases in the house already:)
Tree Peony

Sarah Bernhardt Peony

Lantana is very hardy. Especially in the South. It also attracts butterflies.

I love urns, so I plan on incorporating something like the above. The ornamental cabbage in the urn adds a fun, funky touch.

Endless Summer Hydrangea, what a show stopper!

Climbing rose

Butterfly bush

What type of flowers/bushes/or trees do you love? Do share.

Images: ratemyspace.com (gardens)

To the Path of Splendor

Here are outdoor inspirations for the day. Ok, if I won a landscaper challenge I would build this in my back yard.

fireplace Images from hgtv and design by Scott Cohen.

Here are few other inspiration photos that I would love to incorporate into our backyard project. However, Part I will be just to bring in the fill dirt. That way we can actually walk around our steep back yard. Part II- Build stairs to bottom lot of yard. Part III- Build patio and firepit. Part IV- Plantings, lightening, etc.
Wow, writing that out actually puts it in perspective, can we say "HUGE PROJECT!!!" I wish I would get a call saying, "You have one biggest impossible yard makeover ever by yourself, but never fear HGTV is here!!"







Images from hgtv