Outdoor Living

To celebrate the end of summer, I will finally post on our outdoor space that we have been working on since March =).

We feel so lucky to have so much outdoor space to call our own.  It is extremely hard to come by around these parts.  We have always tried to make the most of it by trying to keep it pretty and using our outdoor space as more of an extended living/dining/play/and even bath room, when papa is in town.  We do a vegetable garden in the backyard…some years more successful than others.  This year, in addition to our garden, we decided to upgrade our outdoor furniture situation, create a playspace for Breckin in the sideyard(under construction),  and add an herb garden.

Our lemon tree we planted 4 years ago when we moved in, finally started to produce lemons!  This was back in march, and it is way bigger now! 

While mom and dad were here for march madness (yes…that long ago), we built garden boxes and planted our garden. 

Breckin helped!  She is so small here!!

 The red mulch has lost it's luster, but it looked pretty good for awhile! 

 This delphinium is still going strong.  We had delphiniums in our wedding =)

Our honey crisp apple tree has bloomed a couple of times.  It is strong but no apples yet! 

I throw in mint from the herb garden when making sun tea =)

We got Ikea'd when we went for new patio furniture.  We poured the wine, ordered pizza, put B in her PJs and went to work on putting everything together! 

 Such a good little helper

Ta da!  This set up is especially nice for watching TV outside.  Royall Colliseum!  

The table used to be where the couch is.  We added a few cheap pavers to create an outdoor dining space.  love it!  We actually sit at the table a lot more now.  It is almost always in the shade b/c of the house.  We had these shelves sitting on the side of the house (used to be in our bathroom).  Now they house our succulent garden =)  The succulents are so much bigger now (maybe I should update some of these pics!).  

This wood pallet was left out in our neighborhood (our neighborhood is great for some free finds!).  Spray paint, burlap, staple gun, and stencils gave us this awesome herb garden.  I have gotten majorly addicted to fresh basil and cilantro especially...

back when it was fresh and pretty.  

This used to be a window bench seat.  Jess has a plan to turn it into a bench in the middle with storage underneath and leave the ends open as planters. 

Sitting in the strawberries

This is the front yard which have some pretty flowers that bloom on the fence and some joey paw flowers in the pots.  We do hang out in the front from time to time.  We open the front door a lot to let the ocean breeze come through on hot days.  Breckin usually ends up crawling up and down the front steps and trying to escape out the front gate =)

B ate every single tomato our garden has created so far.  She would even point to the yellow cherry tomatoes b/c she wanted to pick them and eat them.  She is eating her very first one in the pic above. 

I am a big fan of eating outside these days. 

I love putting flowers from the yard into a vase. 

 When we were at El Matador beach, I snagged some rocks to use as garden markers.  This is what we planted this year.  We have had a pest opossum this year that keeps eating our veggies (grrrrrr).  We plan to stay up all night one night with a BB gun and get him.  He even ate our zucchini LEAVES! I've never known any pest to eat spiky zucchini leaves.  The veggies still hanging on are:   tomatoes (opossum got them, but we built a big cage out of chicken wire around the box and they are making a comeback),  cubanelle peppers, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, jalopenos, and zucchini. 

We only got one spaghetti squash from this beauty before he who must not be named got to it. 

We have harvested ALOT of zucchini.  I've been making zucchini bread, fried zucchini and trying a ton of new zucchini recipes. 

Like this one:  You cut out heart shaped foil.  place chicken breasts coated with dijon mustard, onions, zucchini, thyme, cherry tomatoes, and cubanelle pepper inside. seal it up. Throw it in the oven  for 25 minutes and it is delicious!  I'm not big on cooking with chicken but this was a winner. 

We have done a lot of butterfly catching in the backyard.  We have so much "wild"life in addition to he who must not be named.  Butterflies galore, a family of hummingbirds and squirrels, all kinds of birds.  We have even witnessed an Owl swoop into a tree above our house and snag a rat!  National Geographic style! 

 This is our side yard.  It has been pretty much a storage area for us with lots of leaves and plywood since we moved in.  I decided we needed to use this space!  So it is slowly but surely becoming a play space for B. 

 We got a good deal on this artificial grass (otherwise it would be a big dirt/mud pile).  I am searching for a free outdoor rug to cover up the rest.  But already a HUGE difference!

 These chairs were here from the previous tenants.  I washed them, sanded them, and spray painted them.  

 I moved the mirror into this space, and this is what we have so far!  B already loves it.  She will walk back here on her own to play independently.  

I have lots of ideas swirling for this space.  Up next: creating a play kitchen from this old media center that was ditched in our neighborhood.  It is on wheels and jess wheeled it down the middle of Glyndon for about 7 blocks =)  FREE IS FREE!  

I also want to do a chalkboard/easel on the fence, a musical instrument wall, hang shade panels among other stuff...

 We also have a huge amount of bamboo.  We had a lot cut down awhile back so we could push our shed back to the fence and make our garden bigger.  So now we have loads of bamboo sticks.  Well, bamboo sticks are great for making Teepees we discovered! 

 And here is yet another neighborhood find that B and I encountered on a walk.  I wheeled this back with one hand and pushed the stroller with the other hand like a boss.  Does it look heavy?  B/c it was.  I thought it was just a bench, but turns out one side props up to be a lounge chair.  Awesome! 

 B loves it!  

We have had countless memories in the yard the past few months.  It is crazy just looking through these pics and seeing how much B has grown with the yard!  I am so happy we have this little space to call our own little oasis.