What a gorgeous beginning to a long Memorial Day weekend and the perfect opportunity to get some yard work done. So many people we know travel this weekend every year to their lake and beach homes. Not us. We have our own bit of paradise right here at home; but we did need to get some yard work done. So my husband, our three teenagers, and myself spent the day spreading mulch, laying sod, pulling weeds, power washing, and building planters along the back walk.
When we first built the house fifteen years ago, we installed mulch beds and flowers all along the pond which runs the length of our backyard. They were beautiful and picture-perfect.
Then we got a beagle.
Yup, that’s Piper. We love her dearly, but she destroyed our meticulous landscaping. Between the mud, our dirty pup, the tremendous amount of maintenance, and the high cost of mulch and flowers, we opted to go pure green. About ten years ago, we filled in the mulch beds along the pond with sod. Definitely a good move on our part as mowing grass is far easier!
We always missed having flowers and color along the back of the house though, so finally decided to add some. Last week I painted the exterior door a deep sea blue. It’s actually the color of the shutters on the front of the house and our front door. I’m loving the darker door. It feels so much more finished and much cleaner than the original white door.
Note: This is a metal door so I used Benjamin Moore DTM (direct-to-metal) Acrylic paint which is a highly durable interior/exterior enamel paint.
Along this same wall, was a strip of pea stone which was installed when we laid the blue stone walkway fifteen years ago. The blue stone was a back-breaking job – my husband’s and my own back to be precise!
It was time to add some colorful flowers to this area so I walked next door to my parent’s house and gathered some old bricks. My Dad had a small pile laying around from odd projects and gladly donated them to my project. Thank goodness.
A few wheelbarrows of bricks and mulch and an hour later we had new planters along the back of the house.
We opted to join the rest of the neighborhood and go with the black mulch. They all switched from the brown Hemlock to the black a few years ago. At first I hated it, but now really like the contrast and the fact that it’s vegetable-dyed rather than chemically dyed.
Oh! And I painted those adirondack chairs at the same time as the door and in the same sea blue color. They were a yard sale find for just $30 for the pair three years ago. When I bought them they were unfinished, completely dried out, and needed several screws added to hold them together. A few coats of the DTM paint later and their gorgeous!
I’m thinking I want to hang some shutters in the same sea blue color along those windows. That’s a project for another day though.
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