Backyard Landscaping Part Two

Thanks for coming back for the second half of the back yard.  When you walk down the stone steps you enter the open space with the Palo Verde trees, cactus and grasses surrounding the big fountain.  When you look to the left you see the "working" half of the garden with the pergola and fireplace in the foreground. As I said in the last post, the pergola is made of recycled barn beams.  They have wonderful notches, holes and splatters of paint on them.

The fireplace is asymmetrical with a low seating wall extending from each side. There is a piece of metal inside to protect the stone from the flames.  It is a wood burning fireplace instead of gas. We have propane here, which is very volatile. It just didn't seem smart to go with a gas fireplace, at least with one this open. The asymmetry gives it a little modern feel along with the cables on the pergola. I've been trying to order chairs to put in front of the fireplace but they are out of stock. That is a bummer, although, it is not fireplace season for quite awhile.  

When you walk out of the house through the patio doors this is the view that you see.  I'm in love with my swing.  Its a scosh crooked, but the way our contractor made it, would have been virtually impossible to get it exactly straight.  It is, however, incredibly strong and built for two. 

This is a view of the shed from down on the slope a few months ago when the Gazania's were in full bloom.  It is kind of a fun perspective.  People on Instagram thought it looked like a Hobbit's house.

My raised beds are between the pergola and the shed.

 There are three sets of four with the fountain at the center point. 

We had this fountain at our last house.  I'm so happy to get it going again.

I just showed Joe a photo of a shed I liked and he copied it exactly. Isn't it darling? 

I already had the window from a garage sale. 

 My husband built this garden bench for me years ago, it is warped and weathered, but I like it.  Joe had an old sink that he had saved from another job and when I said I wanted a sink, he was all over that prospect.

It's perfect.

This is the view from the upper level on the left side of the house.  My planters are not doing so well at the moment.  The peas and herbs are really happy, but not much else is.  It doesn't really matter.  I can experiment and putter to my heart's content.  Thanks again for visiting.  I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this garden, so stay tuned. . . 

Backyard Landscaping Reveal

Around the first part of December we began what we thought would be a fairly quick landscaping project on the backyard.  When we moved into this house three years ago, the yard was a blank slate.  Nothing had been done other than it was graded and weeds were allowed to take over.  We had gone around and around for probably a year on what we wanted in the back.  We weren't in too much of a hurry since we were recuperating from the front yard project which is now two years ago.  Because we weren't doing too much hardscape we figured it wouldn't take too long.  Our landscaper even said maybe two months.

Well, here we are the end of May and it is finally finished and photo ready.  Keep in mind that all of the plants are babies.  This will look significantly different by the end of the summer.  If you follow me on Instagram, you have seen an occasional peek of my shed or fountain.

Here are a couple pictures of the first day.  The pile of rocks came from the other end of our property when we were working on the front yard.  We were trying to plan ahead.

Our ground is DG (decomposed granite) so a power shovel has to be used to dig.

 There were some crazy antics during the process.  

For example, these two were trying to lift these old barn beams up on their shoulders while standing on ladders!  I even got it on video. The rest of this post is going to be photo heavy.  There are also too many to post so, I may continue to post about this for a few days.

 As you walk down the stone steps from the front yard you enter the open part of the yard. We wanted it open and simple.  There are Palo Verde trees that have green bark and beautiful yellow flowers.  They are a little past their blooming prime at the moment.  They contrast beautiful with Red Bud trees which bloomed a month or so ago and the purple cactus.  Also in this section are grasses that will grow tall and sway in the breeze, which we have an abundance of.

My big fountain is in this area which is made from an old culvert.  The birds LOVE this fountain. This is the same area where you saw the big pile of boulders in the first picture.

When you look to the left you can see the pergola made from recycled barn beams from Vintage Timberworks.  We've strung cables across for the Lady Banks roses to climb upon.  There will also be strings of lights in the future.

Come back next week for the rest of the garden reveal.

Happy Succulent Spring!

Years ago, I might not have recognized the beauty of succulents. During our years of living in the Midwest and New England succulents were not in vogue.  Now, living in Southern California, they are a necessity. I visited a new-to-me nursery last week. They had some lovely containers and gardens to walk through. 

 You could plant in an old washing machine.

 Or an old bathtub.

 Just gorgeous all jammed packed together in this pot.

 Echeveria

 Aeonium

 These two different rose bushes looked beautiful together.

 I took this little beauty home with me.

Only to have it spill over twice in my car on the way home. 

I did salvage it, but couldn't get it all to fit back in.

Here's a view of our back slope with a little peek at our new garden shed. 

Happy Spring!!

"It Never Rains in California"

Well, not much anyway. But when it does rain, it POURS! I'm sure you've heard recently all the news reports of the bad drought we are having out here in California. It's all over the news and it is a very real problem. That is one main reason we've put in our drought tolerant landscape in the last couple of years.  Last week, however, we had a little reprieve and had several huge storms comes through.

It was beautiful and scary all at the same time. The winds were craziness! Many trees fell in the area. Of course, several in our neighborhood fell because they were already dead and LAZY people didn't cut them down. Now those same people have dead trees laying across broken fences. I am probably not one to talk, but it is definitely smart to stay on top of your maintenance.  It will save more problems down the road.  I know, I know, you've heard that before.   

That faux stream bed wasn't so faux at one point.  

Sorry the gale force winds prevented taking a picture at the appropriate moment.  

Can you see my new/old sink just a sinking away out there? The dirt was soft where they had put the drain in that I had to go out there and lay that heavy thing down on its side.

 I know this is a bad picture, but there was major flooding going on.

We  had to pull out those bushes because they were floating in those holes. They were just sitting in their nursery pots, but we didn't want them to drown before they were even planted.  So much excitement around here last Friday.

Don't you just feel the need for grilled cheese and tomato soup on days like this?  Maybe homemade Chicken Noodle Soup fills that comfort food craving.  In 2009 I posted a recipe for a good one here.  Well, I wanted a little bitty warm dessert on Saturday.  Not something that would hang around here for days.  Chocolate is always (especially lately) my go to for dessert.  I remembered seeing Cake in a Cup recipes on Pinterest.  Sounded perfect.  Most of the recipes call for cake mixes, etc.  This one from Nana Clare's Kitchen is purely from scratch and it was REALLY GOOD.  Really, really good.  Nana Clare has other Cake in A Cup recipes she's perfected. Here are some not-so-great pictures I took of our Cake in a Cup dessert. It's not really like a cake, maybe more like a lava cake which is nice and gooey.

Strawberry ice cream made it even better. Have you tried a Cake In A Cup recipe? Let me know of any other good ones you've tried.

Back Yard Landscape

During all the hustle and bustle of Christmas the work on our back yard began.  I thought about posting about it, but it wasn't terribly interesting yet.  When you compare it to sparkly decorating posts and delicious baking recipes it just didn't seem appropriate. So, here we are. After the holidays the excitement of the new backyard is what I'm sharing with you today.  This isn't nearly as big of a job as our front yard.  If you were around for that, you know what I mean.  

 The measurements begin.  

 Digging trenches out here takes a jackhammer.

 The new shed location!

 Tree arrival.

This is the state of the left side today.  The raised beds are filled with a good dirt mix and the shed has been started.  My fountain will be centered in the beds. 

The shed is going to hopefully look just like this one. I even had an old window that we can use. 

I can't find the source of the picture, so if you know please tell me so I can link to it.  

I took this picture of a fountain in Old Town Temecula.  We are getting one made like it. 

That's my update on our backyard.  If you'd like to see how the front came together, check it out here.