I hope you all had an amazing holiday weekend! I love that around here, we filled our time with pure summer activities and very little work/projects – fireworks and s’mores in our backyard, boating on the 4th, neighborhood firework shows, dinner and cards/playing pool with family, a drive with friends and smoking some BBQ. We seriously couldn’t have asked for a better weekend!
I’m off to Haven on Thursday {anyone else going?!} and I’m at that point of equal parts excitement and anxiety. It’s my first blog conference so I’m not 100% sure what to expect but I couldn’t be more excited to meet so many others in this blogging community!
After this weekend, we now officially have eight hydrangea bushes in our yard – and I couldn’t be happier! I’m totally one of those people that actually enjoys yard work. Even when it is insanely hot and humid out. There is something very therapeutic about it and I love being able to enjoy the results for years to come.
I added the white Annabelle Hydrangea yesterday {when the heat index was 105 degrees – because I’m super impatient like that}. The other three were planted last fall when we had some other landscaping work done. I thought they were all white. Turns out I have a blue, a purple and a pink. I think I’ll live with them this summer before researching soil acidity levels/pH balances as I know I may have the ability to alter the color.
I think I may actually pick up two more of these and add one to the right-side of the photo above next to the garage wall and one off to the left {off the edge of the photo}. The Annabelles are supposed to get about five feet tall which will be perfect with the shorter hydrangeas in front.
Yesterday I also added this additional Limelight Hydrangea on the side of our house behind the courtyard wall, near where I planted two others a few weeks back.
This bad boy should grow between eight and nine feet tall! We had one at our last house and it was insanely beautiful and I loved the unique conical shaped blooms.
In non-hydrangea related news, if you follow me on Instagram, you saw that one of our planters out front got pushed over by some punk kids and now we’re left with three. It actually doesn’t look bad with three, but they broke the stone the planters sit on. So frustrating. But the flowers have come a long ways since I showed them to you in May. Here they were last night:
The one on the front porch is doing well too. God bless Osmocote, I tell ya! I’ve used it twice this season already on all my plants and it is paying huge dividends!
I shared these pictures back in May when I shared our dreams for our backyard space. There’s currently a 95% chance we’ll be getting a wood fence in the coming month for our back lot line. We still cannot keep up with the weeds drifting over from the empty lots behind us. We thought by having the area filled with sod would help {which it has slightly}, but the grass is starting to get infested with weeds as well. By adding the fence, we also think we will gain a little wind and sun protection and will be able to add some smaller trees and some colorful plants. We don’t want to do anything that would interfere with the possible pool though.
I came across this image on Pinterest last night and I couldn’t love the look and feel of this space any more. Some day, I would love this vibe for our covered patio out back just off our dining room.
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| {via} |
And if we ever end up going the pool route, I love the look of this space:
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| {via – unable to find the original source on this one} |
Notice the common theme in the above photos. Lush, green spaces with white hydrangeas and tailored out door furniture. Swoon. Hopefully some day. At the rate I’m going, by the time we finish our backyard, we may have another 20+ hydrangea bushes 😉 Just imagine all the blooms I can clip and bring inside! Summer really is the best season!
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I get soo excited about landscaping! We meant to add a bunch of hydrangea to our front this spring, but then we were off to our wedding, and then before you knew it, we were in July and I was afraid my black thumb would kill them in the heat!
Your backyard is just amazing! So much room for activities 😉 We’re going to start builing our fence in October…it is SO MUCH MONEY for stinking wood!
xoxox
Kylie
Your hydrangeas are super beautiful! And what a huge lawn you have. I am sure the fence will help some with the weeds. 🙂
You have a beautiful huge back yard – I’m always amazed at the large lawns with no fences that I see in the midwest. I sprinkle coffee grounds around my hydrangeas to give them a deeper violet hue.
Very pretty! I love hydrangeas! I hope to plant some at my home! Stopping by Haven Mavens — hope to meet you at the Haven conference!
Your hydrangeas are so pretty, I love how you used a few different types! I have been having visions for our front garden of planting a variety of white hydrangeas and hostas, hopeully they will grow as nicely as your’s are, thanks for the inspiration! (jstdesign.ca)
I share your LOVE of hydrangeas! I shared you (and your landscaping) on my FB page yesterday! Hope you got some new LIKES! Life to the full! Melissa