Herbaceous

It was a pleasant surprise on Saturday when the predicted rain decided to clear long enough for Hubby and I to get started on this year's garden.  Since the weather was still threatening a downpour while we were at the garden store, we only bought about half of what will end up filling up the garden, but we're off to a good start!  Until we plant a bit more and put down some fresh mulch, the flower beds are nothing to write home about (mid-summer will be a different story- flower explosion and I love it!). My current quandary is the herb garden.  After planting 7 new herbs this weekend, I'm left wondering what I want this baby to look like this year.  Aside from some minor leaf cleanup, all we've done is place the new herbs in last year's set-up.

For the past 2 years, I've had the herb garden planted in pots, 'planted' in the ground (inspired by this) and I've liked the look.  With fresh mulch and flowering peonies on the left, it looked pretty sharp.  But this year I'm itching for something different.  I'm thinking of going vertical.

This vertical garden from Better Homes and Gardens would probably be the easiest.  Hubby loves the idea of smaller pots that can be brought inside in the winter.  I love the idea of making the herb garden into living art.  Win/win!

This lattice garden from Hammers and High Heels might be even simpler, but still clean, classy, and effective.

Naturally, I'm gravitating to the more complicated set-ups:

More complicated, yes, but Curbly spells out all the steps on their How-To.

This one from Ryan Benoit Designs is probably a little too industrial for my own yard, but it makes me swoon nonetheless.  Yes, those are ammunition canisters.

Back to simplicity

This indoor mason jar version is very simple and chic.  For years I couldn't find the original source for this image, even google image search leads me back to pinterest, but a friend was able to locate the designer.  This project, by Suzie Frazier is stunning, don't you think?  I'd need to scale this up for an outside application, but this would be a great idea for easy herb access in your kitchen.

My brain has all of these beautiful examples swirling around in it, and I have a feeling that the application that I decide to attack will be a conglomeration of them all.

Which one is your favorite?

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Patio Sanctuary

My garden is happy.  When my garden's happy, I'm happy.

I'm still on the hunt for the right bench to add some needed lounging space, but mulching, planting, pruning, and trimming is all done!!

It may be a tiny yard, but it meets and exceeds our current yard needs (and it was the first thing we fell in love with when we saw the house!)

After 3 summers of moving around plants, adding and subtracting plants, and generally making the landscape work for us, I couldn't be happier!

The 'planted' pots by the fence are our herb garden.  It's directly in line with our kitchen/back door (easy access for cooking) and the pots serve to chorale the more invasive herbs, plus they look cool in my opinion.

The yard has totally become my little sanctuary.  I wish you could hear the birds chirping- it's so peaceful.

Where's your happy place?

Patio Mission

I'll admit, I'm kind of at a loss about what to write today.  I have several project in progress, but no finished results to show yet.  The yard is being cleaned out and mulched, the porch will be getting paint in the very near future, chalkboard spray paint is being sprayed, and I've been spending a lot of time on Craiglist. I always pop onto Craigslist to look for cheap treasures, but currently, I'm on a mission.

Craigslist Mission- Find a bench for the pack patio.

Our back yard is all patio and gardens.  We have a table and chairs and a grill (which escaped the instagram shot below- its just outside the frame on the right).  We had old wicker chairs there previously, but they disintegrated this year after spending the winter outside.

Lately I've been thinking that with the English garden feel of the space, a nice bench in front of the giant hydrangea would look amazing.  So I've been scouring Craigslist and not quite finding what I want.

I love this one, but Hubby doesn't.  It also might be a bit too much.

I keep toying with the idea of buying a bench like this

or this

and painting it to protect it from the elements, but I just can't bring myself to put such a gorgeous piece of furniture outside.  Plus everything seems to be about an hour away.

What I really want is a teak(ish) bench made for outside that has some design interest too it.  How dare Craigslist not have exactly what I want when I want it! #firstwordproblems

It's been less than a week hunting on Craigslist, but I'm about to ragequit and drop just a little bit more money to get something new at HomeGoods.  I'm going to try and hold off on my impatience and give Craigslist another chance.

Have you had any Craigslist luck lately?