Southern Living

Get excited! The much anticipated, MUCH overdue blog is finally here. Although, much to my dismay, it appears I waited too long to get out there and take photos. Spring has officially been sprung, and many of my flowers were already dead, while the summer ones hadn't quite all cropped up yet. But here we go. And I know you may look at these pictures and go "meh" but I am so proud of myself and all I've done in the yard. This is my first place, after all!!

Welcome to Better Homes and Garden by yours truly.

This first photo is of the front of my house. Super duper cute, isn't it!? I wish I had taken the photo a few weeks ago, the dogwood was so gorgeous when it was blooming, and the grass was much greener and lush.

Here's the swing that I recently purchased with some monetary help from TMS. L helped me put it together, then we shared a bottle of wine on it's inaugural swing. Behind my house, you'll notice my scraggly neighbor's yards. ARGH, having renters on one side of you is SO annoying!

Here's a close up of the pansies that I planted last winter, "Guarantee to rebound" and rebound they did. I also bought a bleeding heart this year, and the second I planted it, all the hearts fell off. Today, I was pleased to notice one single pink heart came back up. Can you see it!? I love the bleeding hearts because when I was younger, every spring my dad would take me to the garden shop and said I could pick out one plant and we'd plant it, and it was just for me. Each year, I picked a bleeding heart. I had a lot of trouble finding them, but for nostalgic reasons, would look every year. This year, I finally spotted one!

Moving to the back yard now, which gets a lot of sun, so while the possibilities are much greater back here, it's disappointing that all the gorgeous flowers are in the back where no one can see them, while in the front, I have to make do with the "shade" flowers.

This photo really disappoints me too, these irises were GORGEOUS just last weekend!!

Here's the side garden that runs along my back porch. I have some daisies that haven't bloomed yet, and some colored flowers that I don't know their names. Looks like one's doing much better than the other. Anyways, this is the garden I am most proud of. A few weeks back, I spent hours of blood, sweat and tears weeding the jungle this garden had become. Aren't the little tiki torches cute? I've had them for years since I've moved in and just this spring, pleased by how nice my garden looked, put them up. And PS, don't pay any attention to the grass, or lack thereof, yikes!

These flowers smell AMAZING! The first year I moved in, nothing bloomed, but in the following years, as I pulled up weeds and cut down overgrown bushes, these flowers grew. I think they smell like gardenias (at least like what Gardenia smells like at Bath and Body Works). Any thoughts on the flower?

Here's my vegetable "garden", planted with love. This past weekend, L and I planted tomatoes, squash and cucumber. While we were deciding what to buy, L mentioned "well, we can start with these, and next summer we can branch out and try more." Next summer!? Made me smile from the inside out.

Well, there it is. Hope you enjoyed.

xo, S