Garden

And our progress continues...

This comparison keeps me particularly motivated.

Garden

Today, we're continuing to work to make the above look more like this.

Garden

Our next door neighbours generously gifted us their gardener for a consultation as a wedding present. This was a very practical gift as our home's previous owner had crafted a very wild garden complete with many overgrown beds. While I'm not exactly the keeper of an Italian garden, I do prefer something a little more manicured. In the past week, we've been making plans to put her ideas into action, and I'm excited to share the progress here!

Peonies

This evening I returned home from a bbq with family with a bunch of cut peonies from my mum's garden - love! The fragrant fluffy flowers are my favourite (for now!). This centrepiece (which is actually made from garden roses not peonies) seems the perfect way to display my favourite stems in a new way. Image via Project Wedding but found via Frolic.

Garlic

This post makes me want to turn a section of our yard into a garlic patch. The scrapes would work perfectly with the two varieties of pesto - balsamic and tomato - that we purchased at the grocery store last evening. Food inspiration and photo via Door Sixteen.

Birdfeeder

Though St. John's experienced a massive snowstorm on Friday, today the earth thawed, the streets ran wild with water, and the snow receded from our stoop. It's only February, but talk of the clocks moving ahead, crocuses peeking their heads from the muddy earth, and lighter jackets has me excited for spring and summer. This fantastic birdfeeder only intensifies the excitement I experience when thinking of sparrows, and blue jays, and robins flying from our lilac tree to our maple tree to our cherry tree. Birdfeeder available from DWR.

Patio

One day, we will have a patio like this in our yard. Image via Real Simple.

Boxes

I love window boxes and I've really enjoyed improving the back garden at our new home. Fifty seven paving stones, forty bags of weeds, fifteen plants purchased on the cheap from summer's end sales and more than ten full days of work later, the garden looks presentable. I'm saving my pennies for a bbq, table and chairs, and solar lanterns to make the site an entertaining destination next summer. Friends near and far, please pencil in our event on Regatta evening 2010; we're looking forward to hosting a cook up, complete with mojitos, smokies and a viewing of the championship race at the lake. Here's to planning ahead!

This fall's edition of Canadian Gardening arrived in our mail box late last week and has tempted me with the most festive, autumnal window box. Complete with tiger striped miniature pumpkins, small flowering cabbages (which I've also used in planters in our backyard), tasmin tiger spurge, sprayed black branches and black scallop bugleweed, these window dressings look spooky and are a perfect 'welcome mat' for fall breezes. These window boxes expand my thinking on fall planting beyond mustard and pink mums, orange cotoneaster berries and red burning bushes.

As our street is framed with towering maples and chestnuts, the falling red, yellow and orange leaves would be nicely accessorized with this window box. For more fall container planting inspiration, see here.

Baskets

One of the changes in our lives as a result of the move will be better access to green outdoor space. The only space to enjoy outside in our current living arrangement is a massive concrete balcony that is serenaded almost hourly by the helicopter landing pad on the next block. It isn't the most pleasant place to relax with a mojito. In fact, I don't think Greg's stepped on our concrete balcony in months (unless you count sticking his head out the screen door and making squawking noises to shoo away pigeons).

I attempted balcony gardening this summer with poor results due to our high altitude and its limited sun coverage. Hostas are our patio's best friend. Our efforts were not helped by the fact that we took two weeks vacation through British Columbia and a number of other mini holidays, which meant zero watering time on a couple of different occasions. Here's to being happy that it rained quite a bit in Edmonton during our summer holidays!

In St. John's we will not be living in a north facing apartment on the 22nd floor of a high rise (due in part to the fact that I don't think there are any 22 storey apartment buildings in the entire city). As a result, I've been preoccupied with thinking about window boxes and hanging baskets to dress up our new outdoor living space. Here are some of the flickr finds that I'm drawing inspiration from in making plans for our new adventure in St. John's.

I'm inclined to purchase ready potted baskets from a local farm and greenhouse, but would love to learn to make thick, hanging baskets in the future.

Images via Paul Indigo, Kelly Bielec, l1nda1 and mng32.

Windows

I have a serious soft spot for window boxes.

Here are some of the ones I'm lusting after on Flickr. I should also mention that I love coloured clapboard, which is an obvious influence from my hometown.

If you're curious to install your own window boxes, check out this compilation of options from Apartment Therapy.

Images via Jeff Wignall, Luvzdollz, ihrigmr, I Love Butter and Pikaluk.